Kindly Re-draft Your Declaration

"Kindly Re-draft Your Declaration"

From: The Court of King George III London,
England

July 10, 1776

Mr. Thomas Jefferson c/o The Continental
Congress Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Dear Mr. Jefferson:

We have read your "Declaration of Independence"
with great interest. Certainly, it represents a
considerable undertaking, and many of your statements
do merit serious consideration. Unfortunately, the
Declaration as a whole fails to meet recently
adopted specifications for proposals to the Crown,
so we must return the document to you for further
refinement.

The questions which follow might assist you in
your process of revision:

1. In your opening paragraph you use the phrase
"the Laws of Nature and Nature's G~d." What are
these laws? In what way are they the criteria on
which you base your central arguments? Please
document with citations from the recent literature.

2. In the same paragraph you refer to the "opinions
of mankind." Whose polling data are you using?
Without specific evidence, it seems to us the
"opinions of mankind" are a matter of opinion.

3. You hold certain truths to be "self-evident." Could
you please elaborate. If they are as evident as you
claim then it should not be difficult for you to locate
the appropriate supporting statistics.

4. "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" seem
to be the goals of your proposal. These are not
measurable goals. If you were to say that "among
these is the ability to sustain an average life
 expectancy in six of the 13 colonies of at least 55
years, and to enable newspapers in the colonies
to print news without outside interference, and to
raise the average income of the colonists by 10
percent in the next 10 years," these could be
measurable goals. Please clarify.

5. You state that "Whenever any Form of Government
becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of
the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a
new Government...." Have you weighed this
assertion against all the alternatives? What are
the trade-off considerations?

6. Your description of the existing situation is quite
extensive. Such a long list of grievances should
precede the statement of goals, not follow it. Your
problem statement needs improvement.

7. Your strategy for achieving your goal is not
developed at all. You state that the colonies "ought
to be Free and Independent States," and that they
are "Absolved from All Allegiance to the British
Crown." Who or what must change to achieve this
objective? In what way must they change? What
specific steps will you take to overcome the
resistance? How long will it take? We have found
that a little foresight in these areas helps to
prevent careless errors later on. How cost-effective
are your strategies?

8. Who among the list of signatories will be
responsible for implementing your strategy? Who
conceived it? Who provided the theoretical research?
Who will constitute the advisory committee? Please
submit an organization chart of the principal
investigators.

9. You must include an evaluation design. We have
been requiring this since Queen Anne's War.

10. What impact will your problem have? Your
failure to include any assessment of this inspires
little confidence in the long-range prospects of
your undertaking.

11. Please submit a PERT diagram, an activity
chart, itemized budget, and manpower utilization
matrix.

We hope that these comments prove useful in
revising your "Declaration of Independence." We
welcome the submission of your revised proposal.
Our due date for unsolicited proposals is July 31,
1776. Ten copies with original signatures will be
required.

Sincerely,

Management Analyst to the British Crown
Received on Thu Jul 6 00:45:08 2006