In high school, she was quiet. She was kind, with flashes of dark wit, but boy was she quiet. Basically, she was a typical kid.
Today, “Jenny W.” is still pretty reserved, but has emerged as a powerful writer and thinker, a woman who senses the national moment and offers a document. Descended from “a handful of founding fathers,” including Declaration of Independence author Thomas Jefferson, she heard, she says, a call. Aware of her specific position as descendent of those enslaving, genocidal settlers, she took on the work of rewriting that declaration.
“I’m a researcher, a pattern spotter,” she says. Her concerns include chronic pain, trauma, the healthcare system; these have affected her own life. She especially focuses on government structures, and she perceives the U.S. to be controlled by a small number of corrupt, self-interested people—that is, an oligarchy.
“The intention in writing this is to create a focal point,” Jenny says, “to awaken the people to the fact that we are in control, not the ruling class.” That there are so many more of us than there are of them. That together, we can make change, as the people often have. As Ursula K. LeGuin said of capitalism, that oligarchy’s “power seems inescapable—but then, so did the divine right of kings.”
The two declarations are related, like their authors, but like the humans, they’re also philosophically opposed. Crucially, Jenny W. makes no call to arms. “This is a peace movement,” she says, aligned with ambitious nonviolent projects including the General Strike, generalstrikeus.com/strikecard, inspired by historical bloodless revolutions, the Indivisibles and the numberless, leaderless, acts of resistance of the majority—most recently the spontaneous good trouble in Minneapolis, where an ICE arrest was forcefully opposed by people who happened to be walking by when it happened.
On June 14, copies of the New Declaration of Independence will circulate on paper in original colonial cities including Boston, New York, Williamsburg, Jamestown and Philadelphia. With a “Send to Seven,” phone-tree, tell-a-friend approach instead of social media plus a simple web presence, the declaration is everyone’s to sign. Later, a Third Continental Congress.
As we head into yet another round of massive anti-fascist, pro-democracy street protests, we might find inspiration by screaming these lines aloud—even this typical kid can’t stay quiet any longer.
— Hiya Swanhusyer
When a government fails to represent its constituents and performs tyrannical acts affecting Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, it is the right and duty of the people to throw off that government and return equality to every person.
In the year 2025, in the United States alone, 801 billionaires possess a combined wealth of $6.22 trillion. The richest 1% of the global population now own more money than the bottom 95% combined.
The rapid accumulation of such wealth among the few negatively impacts a high percentage of the American people.
We address this Declaration to the ruling class of oligarchs that has created this inequality and challenge your authority to do so.
We see the despair you have created in millions of Americans due to your greed.
We see the distractions you create as you exploit the last resources of the earth.
We know hate is your favored tool of division, and you stir it up for your own benefit, by pitting your two factions, the right and the left, against each other.
We know there are harmful chemicals, metals and plastics in our food, cosmetics, air and water. Microplastics and other toxins are a cause of illness and anxiety.
We see you profiting from an exorbitant yet largely ineffective medical system, and we no longer believe it’s our fault we can’t thrive.
We see war as a battle among oligarchs. We have no hate for our fellow humans across the globe or across town, and we will not fight for you.
We see you culling the sick, disabled and the elderly by removing resources or applying endless layers of red tape until dispirited people are homeless or dead.
We see why you ban abortion: Oligarchs need workers and buyers, or capitalism dies. But women are not baby machines to prop up your tottering dynasties.
We see violence toward women and the LGBTQ+ community as a tactic to keep them feeling divided and unsafe. This came about with widespread conditioning.
We know the American people have been kept compliant with ill health, delivered through a chemical-laden and barely nutritious food supply and stress.
We see how you discredit doctors who don’t play big pharma’s game, and ostracize or jail those who use plant healing.
We see your showmanship, your denials and your bullying, carefully orchestrated for division and control.
We know you intentionally drive up the cost of housing by buying up affordable homes and raising the rents or leaving them empty.
We see employees with signs of mental illness are discarded to the streets. The pressure to cope with your constraints as well as untreated trauma is incredible.
We see how we are encouraged to soak in entertainment and alcohol to numb ourselves to the constant friction of this life.
We see how forcefully you discredit people wakeful enough to see you.
The American people are powerfully raising our consciousness levels, high enough to see your inexcusable constraints on our right to live in abundance on this earth. We demand the cessation of all hostile actions towards the American people so we can heal the divisions you put forth for us to stumble over.
The ruling class criminally exempted themselves from taxes while forming illegal monopolies and paying stagnant wages for many millions. We will levy back taxes and distribute that wealth to where it is needed.
We demand the end of immigrant persecution and enslavement now.
We demand an education system that prepares us for being fully human, not for subservience to an oppressive ruling class.
We demand alternate energies at a fair cost, phasing out earth-warming fossil fuels.
We forbid the use of nuclear arsenals and demand their dismantling.
We demand the end of harmful plastics, chemicals and coatings that poison us and make us anxious.
We demand a free press which delivers uncensored news.
We demand retribution for the victims of “Manifest Destiny,” the original peoples, and for the descendants of the enslaved.
We demand the dissolution of this “for-profit” puppet government.
We demand the redevelopment of democracy by a diverse group of people who want to lead, not get rich. We will trust those who have earned respect to lead deep reform of biased systems.
Prisoners will be rehabilitated meaningfully to help them recover from tragic lives and forced labor. The for-profit prison system will be dismantled.
If the oligarchy walks away from businesses that are vital services to humans, we will take them over and run them with heart and fairness.
The vast real estate held by the super-rich will be turned over to the people, and rents and property values will be controlled by the people.
Medicine will revert to a focus on healing the whole person, not on profits, and will be widely available and affordable.
Our energy and attention will no longer be on hate. Rather, community and connection will arise for all races, genders, cultures and creeds.
Industries damaging to the earth will cease, such as fracking, polluting, mining, damming rivers and burning fossil fuels. Green energies will fill the gaps.
We will reestablish the American Dream for our youth and teach them what freedom feels like.
Our species is not inherently warlike. It is the current ruling class that places the rest of us in peril. They profit from war and try to keep us hatefully divided. We won’t forget that united we stand, divided we fall.
We understand what follows may be a collapse of money systems that most benefit capitalists. We will build a better system, and we will develop it with the safety of millions of people in mind: the students, the artists, the elderly, the scientists, the sick.
Nothing in this document promotes exclusion, non-democratic control or a dominance by any one gender, race, group, religious affiliation or any other body that may attempt to conquer or take control.
BRAVO