LETTER TO THE EDITOR
To the Editor of the San Marcos Record:
For the first time in many years I felt compelled to participate in a public airing of grievances against my government on Saturday, June 14. I was joined by as many as 2,000 others at the Hays County Courthouse for a peaceful demonstration against a president who is behaving like King George behaved toward the colonists in the 1700s. If you doubt this, I urge you to look up the Declaration of Independence on the internet and read beyond the first two paragraphs, down to the list of grievances against the king who precipitated a revolution by his tyranny, including–
• King George refused to enforce laws necessary for the public good
• he obstructed the administration of justice
• he made judges dependent on his will
• he erected a multitude of new offices and sent swarms of officers to harass our people
• he combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws
• he cut off trade with other parts of the world
• he deprived us in many cases of the benefits of a trial by jury (and what we now call “due process”)
• he transported us beyond the seas to be tried for pretended “offences”
• he altered fundamentally the forms of our government • he suspended our own legislature’s functions declaring himself invested with the power to legislate for us As a learned friend of mine wrote recently, “the tyranny from which we fought to free ourselves in 1776 is in 2025 the tyranny to which we are expected to subject ourselves.”
Yes, President Donald Trump has been behaving much like King George, and many of your fellow citizens have decided that he has gone too far. Thus, we met together at the historic seat of county government on June 14 to air our grievances, as is our right under the First Amendment, declaring that we want “NO KINGS” now or ever.
The United States Constitution, whatever its flaws in favoring the wealthy, established the framework for a self-governing people, not one ruled by a king. The separation of powers found in our constitution guarantees, if we uphold it, that we will never again be subject to the whims of another king.
Lamar W. Hankins San Marcos, Texas 512-396-0317
