We can expand Public Knowledge. We can develop our inheritance of know-how, and pass it along as our legacy to future generations. Our Public Knowledge is the essential ingredient of all American innovation. It makes an abundant and easy livelihood possible for all Americans. We can defend our Public Knowledge from Counts who control access for their own self gain.
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:
Boost public research of all kinds. Basic research, applied research. Exploratory research, descriptive research. Research in fields from medicine to earth sciences, from agriculture to history, from linguistics to physics. We can secure America’s future by building up the homes for wonder and curiosity, like universities and labs.
Deliver Public Knowledge to Americans. Counts can try to control access to our Public Knowledge and decide for Americans how it gets used. We can deliver the current state of Public Knowledge in our schools. And we can deliver the fruits of Public Knowledge to all Americans in public options at current American standards.
Share Public Knowledge openly. The power of our Public Knowledge grows through open sharing. Any new tools for using and advancing Public Knowledge—like AI—need public options. Businesses may temporarily keep small portions of knowledge in patents, but we can make sure to re-public new know-how into Public Knowledge.
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.