America’s “Pretti-Good” 250th Birthday

America’s “Pretti-Good” 250th Birthday

by Kary Love 

1137 words

America’s 250th Birthday year got off to a rotten start. 

The birth of America happened because colonial Americans were governed by a terrible government. Americans were ruled by a king who was above the law. A king who sent troops to kill Americans in the streets. A king who mocked due process of law. A king who behaved like a monster. 

America was born 250 years ago in a rebellion against such a brutish king. American patriots fought and died in a revolution promising their descendants that never again would similar abuse by government agents be tolerated. In America, they pledged, on their lives and sacred honor, “Law would be King.” 

Sadly, America today is witnessing the same abuse of power by its own government that the original patriots rose against. The videographed murders of Alex Pretti and Nicole Good at the hands of roving gangs of government brutes, without due process of law, without charge, without trial, is what the patriots of 1776 rebelled against. 

The King of England’s troops had shot down Americans in the streets because he and his minions were above the law. The king’s government was the sovereign and the people mere subjects, who must submit to whatever abuse the king decided to dish out, and the people left naked without recourse. “Never Again” in America was the response of the people. They began the world anew.

The Declaration of Independence established the test of when a government no longer deserved the support nor obedience of the people. It laid out the crimes the English king’s government had committed against the American people and proclaimed “Never Again” in America would such a government be allowed to survive. American government would be bound down by law.

The Patriots proclaimed to all the world that the inalienable rights of the people to life, liberty and property under law, belonged to the People, not government. Those inalienable rights existed in the people before government and the reason people formed government was to preserve and defend those rights. If a government failed to preserve and defend the inalienable rights of the people, then the people were empowered to rise up against that government and either “alter or abolish” it. This is what true Americans celebrate, honor and cherish on America’s July 4th birthday. The victory of the American Patriots for liberty under law resonated and spread around a world liberated from tyrants and Kings by the American example.

Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good were deprived of life without due process of law by a government pretending to be American. Murdering people in the streets is the signature act of an unAmerican government, a China, an Iran, a Russia. A government murdering people in the streets deserves no obedience, not in America. 

It may be that rather than a 250th Birthday, July 4, 2026, will be regarded by history as the day the American experiment failed. Like the fate of many other nations, perhaps America will fall before the “iron laws of the world,” that rule by power and violence and not law is inescapable, and that America never stood a chance. 

It cannot be denied that, unless the people of America renew their commitment to government bound down in the chains of the Constitution, the current gangs roaming the streets will continue to abuse their power, egged on by rulers claiming to be immune from law. Once unleashed from law power, like the dogs of war, a despotic rule burns until exhausted by its own cruelty. Like cancer it metastasizes unless treated and cut out by a people committed to liberty under law.

To deserve the birthright of America requires the people to stand up, act out, demonstrate, boycott, strike, and otherwise refuse to allow their own government to decay into thuggery. To be American is a duty, not a gift. To be an American must be earned by defense of the rule of law. 

When the original American patriots encountered a violent government killing the people in the streets, they did not go home, they did not quiet. They organized, they united, they became the “Unruly Americans,” refusing to surrender until government became their servant under law.

The genius of America was established when Tom Paine proclaimed rule by King was dead, rule by murder was over. In America, Paine declared, “Law is King.” And any who violated the inalienable rights of the people was unfit in American government from the lowliest office to the highest.

Do not be surprised when the loudest, most rude bellowing of fraudulent celebration of America’s 250th Birthday comes from a Bully Pulpit that is complicit in the destruction of the real genius of America. Covering the decay and rot with gold leaf and parades is often the way of the most depraved of tyrants. Dictators steal a nation’s soul and leave an empty Potemkin husk. Be not deceived by expressions of regret, nor false claims of patriotism, they are fake news. By their actions shall you know them, not their lies.

It remains to be seen. Will America be renewed and reborn so that July 4, 2026, shines out a beacon to all the world that, “government of the people, by the people and for the people” has not perished from the earth? Surely a government of murderers is repugnant to all. None can face the eyes of their children having acquiesced to such depravity.

Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good are dead. Their blood and brains splashed on the sidewalks and the streets. Their killers are at large. So-called Departments of Justice and law, are mute, if not actively blocking investigation. Government appears naught but a gang of thugs headed by a brute, above the law, threatening the right to vote and elections. At best, America’s 250th birthday year appears “Pretti-Good,” stained by the death of those immortal martyrs.

Pretti and Good died demonstrating peaceably for the “inalienable rights” all human beings possess as a result of the American experiment. They are martyrs to the American Dream of liberty and justice for all. From their deaths either a nation of law will be reborn or it dies with them.

For America to deserve a 250th Birthday Pretti and Good must not have died in vain. The original American Patriots taught how to use “good trouble” to depose a rotten king. The people of Minnesota and others under attack are rallying, building community, supporting each other in peace and decency. Now, it is up to you.

Save the elections, save the vote. Volunteer to be a poll worker, a poll watcher, a right to vote defender. Ask what you can do for your neighbor, your country despite its government. Volunteer to help America live up to its genius and its promise. 

We the People are “Pretti-Good,” and we say No Kings but Law.

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Kary Love, syndicated by PeaceVoice, is a Michigan attorney who has defended nuclear resisters and many others in court for decades.