LukefromDC, 3 months ago

Today, the Washington DC climate action group Declare Emergency slipped into the National Archives and dusted the display case over the (presumably original) US Constitution document with red powder. They were there to demand that Biden declare a climate emergency.

That document describes what is essentially an operating system for a government. While this was one of the first governments in European culture not to rely on a king, it was and is also an invasive, settler colonial regime.

One the one hand, this document does not contain any passages that relate to fighting climate change other than perhaps checks and balances that raise the threshold for doing anything on any issue, good or bad.

On the other, it contains passages such as the "3 fifths of a man compromise" on slavery that may as well have been written with a pen dipped in piss and shit.

The later additions to it as well as the portions concerning elections and Presidential succession have fared a lot worse than having red powder dumped on their display case. They are subject daily to attempts especially but not exclusively by the GOP to burn them. With every new Cop City conspiracy charge or raid, more of the First Amendment is burned away from the parchment upon which it was writte., The Forth Amendment too is in flames in Atlanta.

First Amendment guarantees of religious freedom are also smouldering under the relentless torches of Christian Nationalism in US politics.

For Declare Emergency to treat the US Constitution the way the GOP and Christian Nationalists have been treating it, they would have needed to bring lit Tiki torches into the National Archives, chop the document out of its case with a hatchet, and feed it to the hungry flames of the torches of hate.