NEW YORK, July 3, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Nasser Kazeminy, Chairman of the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations (NECO) says those who wrote the Declaration of Independence 235 years ago are finding an audience among those using smartphones and social networks like Twitter to create democracies in the 21st Century.
Mr. Kazeminy notes, "How would the Declaration of Independence read if the Founding Fathers had to write it using the shorthand of today's fast paced social media? We need only look at the events taking place around the globe to gain a measure of insight. How we get our news and how we process that information have been dramatically transformed through 21st Century creations including Facebook and Twitter.
"Entire regimes have fallen or are now teetering, having become road kill alongside these information super highways. Despots are discovering that, despite their best efforts using tanks and troops, citizens are using the Internet to communicate directly among themselves, creating grass roots movements that demand the benefits of democracy. We have only just begun to see the results of this transformative political process propelled by simple tweets and texts that demand freedom," observed the NECO Chairman.
Twitter limited or not, the words written by Thomas Jefferson 235 years ago this summer still speak to us. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
Mr. Kazeminy writes, "Many of today's immigrants who arrive on American shores can recite by heart the words and principles that sparked the American Revolution. For them, born under a foreign flag, these are not distant and remote principles recited by rote during an elementary school play. Rather, the Declaration has served as a genuine beacon of hope for many, a living reminder that democracy not only strengthens, improves and celebrates the human condition, but is an 'unalienable Right...'"
In an effort to insert the Declaration of Independence into the Twitter conversation, NECO has challenged social media participants around the world to distill through their own words what this proclamation of freedom means to them. Can they define the Declaration's essential concepts in just 140 characters or less and share their results on Twitter using the hashtag #tweetfrom1776? Far from a tongue in cheek experiment, it is an acknowledgment that the medium helps keep the message alive, relevant and part of an American political debate that has been continuing for 235 years.
NECO's Chairman concludes, "It is equally important to remember that those who signed the Declaration of Independence were well established men of society, with property, wealth and a future that would have only been enhanced by maintaining the status quo. Instead, without the means of Skype, Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr, these men met for weeks in a city drenched by heat to sign a document that reminded the signatories that...for the support of this Declaration, with firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor."
About NECO www.neco.org
The creation of NECO, The National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations, was based on the belief that the diversity of the American people is what makes this nation great. Its mission is to honor and preserve this diversity and to foster tolerance, respect and understanding among religious and ethnic groups.
Additionally, NECO continues the commitment to the restoration and maintenance of Ellis Island, a living tribute to the courage and hope all immigrants who have built America.
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SOURCE National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations (NECO)
