As a child growing up in the United States, I learned to recite the Pledge of Allegiance to our flag, which concludes with “one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” I actually believed what I was saying, but now I realize that we are not indivisible and we have never lived up to the dream of liberty and justice for ALL. This past week in America we celebrated Juneteenth National Independence Day and on July 4 we will celebrate our independence again. We are very proud of our freedom in America and many have fought and died for our freedom.
What does freedom mean to you? Is it the freedom to believe the way you want to believe? Is it the freedom to own property and do what you want on that property? The freedom to be yourself and love who you love? The freedom to own and carry firearms? The freedom to speak without censorship? The freedom to make choices about your own healthcare? The freedom to live without abuse or threats of violence? The freedom to vote and have a part in the democratic process? We need to be careful that when we are protecting our freedom, we are protecting the freedom of all people.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” This equality needs to be a more inclusive reality for literally ALL people, which is not what Thomas Jefferson intended when he wrote this in our Declaration of Independence. "This nation was founded on the principle that all men are created equal," said John F. Kennedy. "And that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened." Those who are currently limiting the rights of certain people to vote, to choose what happens to their own bodies, to read and talk about certain parts of our history or current realities, will one day wake up and realize that they have given up their own rights and freedom.
I have never been able to understand how some humans today and throughout history can have so little value and love for other humans. And so many of the perpetrators of evil acts against fellow humans are religious people. I grew up in a conservative Christian home and church and was taught that Jesus loved me and everyone. He created all of us and he died for all of us. There is a significant amount of cognitive dissonance or mental gymnastics that must take place in order to believe that AND believe that certain other humans are worth-less, detestable, and/or deserving of slavery, torture, and violent death. It sounds exhausting and miserable. Believing that ALL humans are worthy of love is a much freer and happier way to live life. You can free your “tormented conscience” and “meet the future with a clear conscience.” (Martin Luther King Jr., see full quote below). Let freedom ring true, starting in our own minds and hearts, and rippling out to all corners of the world.
"What the people want is simple. They want an America as good as its promise." --Barbara C. Jordan, U.S. congresswoman, 1977.
In 1968 Martin Luther King Jr. wrote: “The American people are infected with racism - that is the peril. Paradoxically they are also infected with democratic ideals - that is the hope. While doing wrong they have the potential to do right... the future they are asked to inaugurate is not so unpalatable that it justifies the evils that beset the nation. To end poverty, to extirpate prejudice, to free a tormented conscience, to make a tomorrow of justice, fair play and creativity - all these are worthy of the American ideal. We have through massive nonviolent action an opportunity to avoid a national disaster and create a new spirit of class and racial harmony. We can write another luminous moral chapter in American history. All of us are on trial in this troubled hour, but time still permits us to meet the future with a clear conscience.”
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