Bunjamin Franklin sat with his friends John Bunsocks and Thomas Windowpane sipping cilantro tea in Bunjamin’s home in the city of Bunnylove. “You know,” said Bunjamin, “we have a pretty great life here. I’m so proud of what we’ve built in Carrotica. We have everything we could possibly need right here in this great country.”

              “Yes,” agreed John Bunsocks, “and now, thanks to you, we even have our own post office. Christopher Cilantro couldn’t have imagined this when he discovered Carrotica all those years ago.”

               “There is something that’s bothering me,” said Thomas. “Now that the countries of Spinach and Quince have stopped fighting with Bunland over who should run Carrotica, we’re stuck with King George Giant Rex telling us all what to do when we’re perfectly capable of running things ourselves.” Thomas was a writer. He had recently moved from Bunland and was pretty mad at King George Giant Rex.

“You’re right,” said John. “It was nice at first to have help from a big strong country like Bunland, but I’m getting kind of tired of King George taking all our carrots all the time. He’s got plenty of his own. He should really let us keep ours.”

“We’ve complained many times,” said Bunjamin, “but nothing ever changes.”

“Maybe it’s time to make a statement to King George and really tell him how mad we are at him,” said Thomas.

“You know, we haven’t had a meeting of the Carrot Congress in a while,” said John Bunsocks. “Why don’t we arrange for a meeting so we can discuss this with everybunny?” John was President of the Carrot Congress, so he could ask for a meeting any time he wanted to.

“Good plan,” said Bunjamin, “let’s go to the post office. We can write to all our friends and see how soon they can come back to the city of Bunnylove for another meeting.”

They hopped off to the post office and wrote to the head bunnies in each part of Carrotica.

A couple of months later, the bunnies all gathered for a meeting. The Carrots Congress had met several times before, mostly to complain about King George Giant Rex. They weren’t very organized at first. There was a lot of shouting about what a big meanie King George was and how they all wanted to steal his carrots and tip over his litterbox.

This meeting was going to be different. Bunjamin, Thomas and John had spoken to their other friend, Thomas Jumperson. Thomas Jumperson was a very smart bunny and told them he could help get things started. He asked John Bunsocks for permission to take charge of the meeting.

“Bunnies,” he said, “It’s no good just complaining about King George. I think we need to write a mission statement so everybunny knows what we want to do about it.”

“Fine,” said one of the bunnies, “since you’re so smart, why don’t you write it.”

“Okay,” said Thomas Jumperson. “I will.” And he proceeded to write the Declaration of Carrotican Independence. It took him about ten minutes…

Declaration of Carrotican Independence

When in the Course of bunny events, it becomes necessary for some bunnies to separate themselves from some other bunnies, it’s important to explain why.

We think it’s obvious that all bunnies are created equal. We believe they have the right to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Carrots. To make sure bunnies get these things, we have governments. But whenever a government becomes mean and nasty, Bunnies have the right to change it and start a new Government. We shouldn’t just change Governments whenever we feel like it, but when things get really bad we have to make changes to make sure things get better.

We’ve been patient for a long time, but we think we’ve waited long enough.  King George Giant Rex is a big jerk and he keeps taking our carrots and telling us what to do. He thinks he is the boss of us. This is a list of the bad things he has done:

1.      He hasn’t let us make any new laws of our own;

2.      He keeps making us go all the way back to Bunland for meetings just hoping we won’t show up to give our opinions so then he can do anything he wants in Carrotica;

3.      He fires the whole government for not agreeing with him, then doesn’t get new bunnies to do the jobs of the ones he fired;

4.      He makes it hard for new bunnies to come live in Carrotica;

5.      He’s hired a whole bunch of rabbits to spy on us. They tell us what to do and eat our carrots and that’s not fair;

6.      He keeps his army here even though there’s nothing for them to do but live in our houses and eat our carrots. He lets them do whatever they want, even hurt other bunnies without being punished;

7.      He doesn’t let us trade with other parts of the world;

8.      He takes our carrots;

9.      He takes bunnies back to Bunland and puts them in jail without a trial and without even telling them what he says they did wrong;

10.  He has taken our carrots and ruined our lives;

11.  He has been a big jerk in general.

We’ve sent our complaints to the proper authorities but they’ve been ignored. We’ve been patient long enough and nothing’s changed.

So we, the united bunnies of Carrotica, declare that we should be free and independent. We don’t want to be bossed around by King George Giant Rex any more. We want to be a separate country by ourselves so we can have our own government, our own laws, and do what we want to do.

Thomas read his Declaration in the meeting. “Wow, he is smart,” another bunny said, “and quick too.”

“Well,” said Thomas, “I am a lawyer after all.”

This was before lawyers were paid by the hour.

“Okay,” said Thomas, “now we all have to sign it to show we agree. Who wants to go first?”

“I will,” said John Bunsocks, who was a very good leader indeed. “I’m not afraid of nasty mean King George Giant Rex!” He got out a pen and signed his name right in the middle of the page.

Thomas looked at the space that was left on the paper. “Okay, everyone else has to write really really small now.”

All the bunnies signed their names.

Thomas was very pleased with his document. “Okay,” he said, “now we need a flag. Every new country needs its own flag. Does anybunny have any ideas?”

A paw shot up from the back of the room. It was Betsy Rabbit, the famous seamstress. She’d been bored with the meeting until now. She stood and held up a big white quilt square. She had sewn a carrot in the center. “How about this?”

The bunnies thought the quilt square was great but they wanted one for each State to show that every State had a say in the way Carrotica would be run. Betsy set to work on it right away.

Another paw shot up. Francis Scott Peas, a local poet, had been busy too. I’ve written a song we could use as our national anthem.” He stood up and sang:
 

The Carrotican National Anthem

Oh say can you see

If there are carrots for me

What so proudly we ate

In our salad last evening?

Whose broad leaves and bright stalks

Through the main salad course

O’er the lettuce we mixed

With a nice cilantro dressing.

And the parsley’s green glare,

Tomatoes cut into squares,

Gave proof through the night

That our carrots were still there.

Oh say does that bright orange carrot yet wave

O’er our fresh salad greens

And the ears of the brave?

Everybunny stood and cheered when Francis finished his song. He blushed to the tips of his ears and shuffled his feet. “Gosh, thanks.” Francis wasn’t used to having bunnies enjoy his poems. Usually they threw tomatoes at him. Tonight he’d been inspired by Thomas…and by the fact that he hadn’t yet eaten dinner.

“Thank you, everybunny,” said Thomas gratefully. “It’s been a big night but we have a lot of work left to do. When King George Giant Rex hears about our Declaration, he’s not going to be very happy with us. Is everyone prepared to fight to protect Carrotica?”

All the bunnies shouted, “Yes!”

The next day, they printed a copy of their Declaration in the newspaper and sent a copy to King George Giant Rex. On that day, a new country was born.

Beaker's Bedtime Stories