We can evolve our outdated institutions to fit today’s reality. The Counting Class takes advantage of any of our failures to update and adapt. The institutions we’ve inherited from the past are not built to defend against the corruption of extreme money today. And all Americans feel the disconnect when old ways don’t keep up with how our lives change and advance.
Americans can say, “Enough!” to the out-of-control, extreme Money Counts of elite, entitled Counts. Contributing Americans can renew the promise of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, free from the corruption of extreme money, as we:
Keep America growing and adapting. Americans know that we’ve got to keep reconstructing and improving what we inherit from the past. It’s real work to figure out what to alter, update, or abolish. And it’s work to adjust to new ways of doing things. That’s work we do to renew the promise of America.
Get the right fit for today’s America. It doesn’t help America to go to extremes, whether old or new. We can achieve the right balance of changes and updates for 21st-century America. Counts will keep wielding extreme money to push extreme plans on Americans. We don’t have to let them throw America off balance.
Fix the weaknesses exploited by Counts. The Counting Class has used weaknesses in our laws, our courts, and our elections to keep increasing their extreme Money Counts. Counts easily take advantage of outdated systems. Is our US Supreme Court or US Congress or system of elections corrupted by Counts? Update them.
On the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the Big Woods Declaration (BWD) renews the call for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, free from the corruption of extreme money.
The BWD is a First Amendment petition to the American people and our government. It is not limited to any political party or group.
The BWD is a total of 60 pages: the Core Declaration (4 pages), the 13 Notes, the 27 Dangers to America, and the 16 Solutions for America.
The BWD may be shared and reused under the terms of the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. View a copy of this license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
The BWD was created without the use of any AI, opinion polling, or focus groups. The BWD draws on many core American ideas as well as the work of Thorstein Veblen, America’s visionary from the Big Woods of Minnesota.
All photos in the BWD were taken in the Big Woods. The BWD was framed by Erik Christopher Sahlin with Alyssa Beth Wulf.