I’m a lawyer, a poet, a historian, and a free thinker. I was born and have lived in the Philadelphia area all my life. You do the math :-). Here’s the text…

We Hold These Truths - essesq - August 3, 2010

We hold these truths to be self-evident
That all art is created equal.
That it is endowed by its creators
With certain unalienable rights
That among these are
The right to be protected,
The right to be shared, and
The unfettered right to inspire others.

We the people,
Creators all
Demand absolute determination
And dominion
Over works of our own creation.
We will not be restricted
By the tyranny of copyright lobbyists
Nor will we be denied
The protection of the laws of our land.

We seek not destruction of the artistic landscape
But its development
In the fertile ground
Of the digital age.

Orthodoxy is the enemy of freedoms,
Change their natural child.
In this land
Of refuge from oppression,
Freedom of expression can and should
Mean freedom to share.
One, without the other, is useless.

Freedom to contract,
To bargain and exchange
Whatever currency we choose
Money, hugs, laughter, tears, music, poetry, images
At soul’s length, not at arms length.

We the artists place our trust
In one another, not just in God.
We are not afraid
That the pie slice will be too small
To line our pockets.

(Whispered…we already know that it is….)