S.P.A.R.K.

S.P.A.R.K

Solidarity. Power. Action. Resistance. Kinship

Local Community Group Meeting

The New Common Sense: What a Government Is Meant To Be

Inspired by Thomas Paine, reimagined for our time.

"Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one: for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a Government, which we might expect in a country without Government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer."

— Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776

“I’m not saying I’m going to rule the world, or I’m going to change the world, but I guarantee that I will spark the brain that will change the world. That’s our job, is to spark somebody else watching us. We might not be the one, but let’s not be selfish & because we’re not going to change the world, let’s not talk about how we could change it. I don’t know how to change it. But if I keep talking about how dirty it is out here, somebody’s gonna clean it up.”

-Tupac Shakur

I. The Purpose of Government

We, as human beings, create government for one reason alone: to care for one another.

We form societies not just to coexist, but to protect, uplift, and organize ourselves around shared well-being.

Government is the vessel through which we agree to uphold the social contract; To ensure that if one of us falls, we are caught by the net of collective care.

We allow governments to collect taxes, enforce laws, and wield authority because, in theory, they are supposed to:

• Create order and fairness

• Provide basic services

• Ensure access to education, healthcare, housing, food, and safety

• Defend human rights and protect the vulnerable

A just government exists to serve its people. Period. If it doesn’t, it’s not doing its job, instead, it’s actively causing harm.

II. What We Have Now

Our government no longer serves us.

It serves corporations, wealthy elites, & foreign interests, especially when those interests pay better than its own people.

This betrayal is not accidental this is legalized corruption. The moment our lawmakers allowed themselves to receive donations from billionaires, oil companies, weapons manufacturers, and private prison lobbyists, they stopped working for the people.

They work for profit & power now.

And in doing so, they have violated the sacred trust of governance.

III. Profit Over People

We are told we are the greatest country in the world.

How can that be true when:

• We are the only wealthy nation without universal healthcare?

• Our students are drowning in debt while billionaires pay less in taxes than their lowest paid workers?

• Our public transit is neglected & collapsing, while the ultra-wealthy fly private jets that accelerate climate change.

• Our leaders invest in war instead of water, in police instead of peace?

We aren’t competing with China anymore. We aren’t competing at all. We are being sold out by a government that refuses to invest in its own people.

A poor child in America could be the mind that cures cancer or designs a high-speed train system that reimagines how we live and move. But that child may never get the chance. Not because of their ability, but because of their ZIP code, ethnicity, or background.

The wealthy don’t want competition. They want control.

IV. What We Deserve

If we want to be the best country in the world, we must care for our people.

We must:

• Guarantee free education from preschool through college

• Provide universal healthcare as a human right

• Build accessible public transportation and housing

• Fund science, art, and technology with public wealth

• Protect the Earth for future generations

This is not a fantasy. These are basic functions of a moral government.

If other nations can do it, so can we.

We just need to stop pretending the current system works.

V. A New Common Sense

It is not radical to demand that a government serve its people.

It is not radical to say that those in power should be held accountable.

What is radical is continuing to accept suffering in silence.

It is time for a new declaration.

A new contract.

A new common sense.

As Hamilton warned in Federalist No. 33, “If the federal government should overpass the just bounds of its authority and make a tyrannical use of its powers… the people… must appeal to the standard they have formed, and take such measures to redress the injury done to the Constitution”

The Founding Fathers made clear what our action must be when tyranny rises: we are to resist, to redress, to rebuild.

We are that people. When they betray us, it is our duty to act.

With everyone in mind.