Moments in history…… and recent Call Outs

Monthly moment in U.S. History...

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For those who have not read our country’s founding document, the Declaration of Independence (the Constitution came later and is designed to operationalize the principles of the Declaration), or have not read it in a while, here is a version of the famous document using plain language to make it easier to read.
As President Lincoln once said: “All honor to Jefferson--to the man who, in the concrete pressure of a struggle for national independence by a single people, had the coolness, forecast, and capacity to introduce into a merely revolutionary document, an abstract truth, applicable to all men and all times, and so to embalm it there, that to-day, and in all coming days, it shall be a rebuke and a stumbling-block to the very harbingers of re-appearing tyranny and oppression.”
  
IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America:
Sometimes it becomes necessary for a group of people to declare their independence from a government they used to be connected to. They have a right to do so under natural law, though they should respectfully lay out the reasons for the separation.
It is obvious that all people have the right to equal treatment, and that God gives people rights to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness that can be neither taken nor given away.
The only legitimate purpose of government is to make sure that these individual rights are protected, and the only legitimate way for such governments to exist is for the people to consent to their existence.
But, if a government ever fails in its task to protect individual rights, the people have the right to alter or abolish it, and create a new government based on whatever principles they think best.
But we need to be careful not to be too quick to change or abolish long standing governments, even though people will usually continue to suffer under unjust governments rather than take action to change an existing system that they are used to.
But when a government continually violates the rights of the people, clearly and with the purpose of exercising absolute power over them, the people have a right and duty to throw off that government.
That is exactly what has happened here in British America, and which compels us to throw off the government of Great Britain. The current King has continually violated our rights, obviously intending to exercise absolute power over us. These violations include:
• He has refused to approve useful laws.
• He has interfered with the rightful lawmaking of individual colonies.
• He has refused to allow new sovereign political 
​• He has called legislative meetings in strange and uncomfortable places.
• He has dissolved the legislatures that tried to oppose his violations.
• He has refused to allow those legislatures to be re-formed.
• He has refused to allow us to make immigrants citizens, or pass
laws to encourage them to immigrate here, including the use of
public lands.
• He has refused to allow us to pass laws to establish courts.
• He has created a conflict of interest where judges are more loyal to
him than the law.
• He has created a vast bureaucracy that harasses and harms our
people.
• He has kept armed agents of the state among us, even in times of
peace.
• He has made the military independent of and superior to civil power.
• He has subjected us to the laws of a foreign government without our
consent:
• He has forced us to house foreign troops in our homes.
• He has removed them from the operation of the criminal justice
system.
• For not allowing us to trade with the rest of the world.
• For imposing taxes on us without our consent.
• For taking away our right to have a jury trial.
• For transporting us across the ocean for fake crimes.
• For abolishing the laws and government in a neighboring colony,
establishing a false and unjust government, and enlarging its borders as an example of the same unjust measures that could be applied to any other colony.
• For not letting us control our own colonial governments and laws.
• For suspending our legislatures and asserting his power over us.
• He has declared us out of his protection and attacked us.
• He has attacked us on the sea, land, burnt our cities, and killed our
people.
• Even now he is transporting foreign armies to these shores to assert
power over us and attack us, rivaling even the most cruel acts in
history.
• He has forced our fellow citizens to fight against us.
• He has caused domestic unrest among our cities, and prompted
violence from indiscriminate savage native inhabitants (historical context being important here.)

​The entire time we have humbly asked for these actions to stop, but we have been repeatedly ignored. A King who acts this way is not fit to be the ruler of a free people.
We have also told our fellow citizens in Britain about what has been happening here. We have specifically warned them about what the government was up to, and all that has happened since we immigrated here. We have tried to remind them of our common bonds, but they too have ignored us. Thus, we have to treat them like we would any other people, enemies in war or friends in peace.
Therefore, we as the Representatives of the United States of America, appealing to the judgement of God for the purity of our intentions, do in the name of the people declare that we are independent states that shall have no further political connection with Great Britain.
As independent states we have the power to engage in war, make peace, make alliances, engage in trade, and every other power that independent states possess.
In support of this declaration, relying on the protection of God, we pledge to each other our lives, fortunes, and sacred honor.







Recent Honor Guard Call Outs

​The night before Bishop Pham was installed, there was a call out is for Vespers at St. Joseph Cathedral. Traditionally the Bishop, on the night before Installation will walk to the front door of the Cathedral, asking to be let in. Members of our Assembly participated in this ceremony. Next is our Honor Guard team after the installation of Bishop Pham last Thursday. Includes Supreme Director Rene Trevino, District Master Roark Galloway, District Marshalls Charlie and Jessie, three Color Corps Commanders, Chris, Ed, and our own Dan Plein and SK Luigi Zoni, and SK Chris Maurer

​Finally, this call out was for the Blessing of the Bells and the 256th Anniversary Mass at Mission Basilica San Diego de Alcala last Sunday.


​Finally, a a group of Sir Knights, including our Worthy District Master, attended and provided an honor guard at the funeral of SK John Agresti.

​​Special Occasions
If you are celebrating a birhtday or anniversary this month, please let our Worthy Faithful Captain Nick know and we will make sure you get a drink ticket for our next get together! Congratulations!
    
• Birthdays:
o SK Sabri Yako
o SK Daniel N. Yakob
o SK Andrew T. Hayes
o SK Carlos I. Cuellar
o SK Alan E. Collins
o SK Salvatore G. Filippone o SK Mark D. Frizzell
o SK Larry B. Vaught
o SK Christopher T. Warner o SK Kristopher K. Sheddy o SK Lou Crow
o SK Glenn A. Meyer
o Lady Patricia Dondero
o Lady Nancy Missey
o Lady Renee Barbat
• Anniversaries:
o The Kirkmans o The Lyons
o The Sgueglias o The Adzimas o The Alkatibs o The Wolperts o The Finos
o The Warners o The Isaccos
o The Hansons o The Wastlims o The Meyers
o The Zunigas





​Request for Prayer

  From SK Mike Lyons:
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“This past 3 weeks has been an emotional and intense journey for our family. We brought my mom to the hospital because she was suffering from severe, debilitating back pain. What began as a visit to the ER for what we thought was an isolated issue quickly turned into something much more unexpected.
During routine evaluations, the doctors performed an EKG and an MRI, not because of her back, but as part of their comprehensive workup. That’s when they discovered something we never anticipated: a serious blockage in her heart. In a moment that felt both surreal and urgent, the medical team acted quickly, and the very next day, she had a pacemaker implanted.While this was certainly a shock, we are so deeply grateful. Through the grace of God and the power of prayer, my mom’s heart is now stable. Her blood pressure is holding steady and her oxygen levels are in the high 90s, numbers we couldn’t have hoped for a few days ago.
However, she is still in a great deal of pain. That continues to weigh heavily on all of us. It’s hard to see someone you love suffer, especially after going through so much already. But we remain hopeful and prayerful for her full recovery. Every day we hold onto faith, trusting that healing is coming, body, mind, and spirit. Please include Nancy Ann Lyons in your prayers.

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