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Happy meaningful 4th of July

(03 Jul 2008 23:51)

The 4th of July. Philosophical and moral consistency and the Declaration of Independence.

What do you stand for, really? And why? Is it because you �ain�t changin� because that�s how we allus do it�? Is it because someone told you some god in the sky decreed it? Whose god? Why does that person�s god have any more validity than another�s? Is it because �It�s the law�? Does some action done years ago justify permanent allegiance thereafter to a person or government? Who decided that just because something was a law that it was moral and just? Did you skip class every day or were you asleep while these things were being discussed? Are you that brainwashed by conventional �wisdom� or is it just more convenient for you to mouth pretty words while completely missing their point? Will another 4th of July go by without any concept of what a monumentally important concept our founding fathers tried to give us? A true commitment to this ideal demands more from us. But the very existence of justice and freedom for everyone, both individually and as a nation, perhaps as a world, demands that we pay attention and try to live up to that challenge.

Why do we have laws and ceremonies? Why do we have procedures and countries? Who determines rightful authority and by what rights does anyone retain any expectation of loyalty or obedience to another human being or political entity? Our solutions to such questions have varied over the ages. Those more committed to the greater good of all have tried to take the best of all that has come before. Those more selfishly inclined, have grabbed onto whatever slogans and rules that favor their control over others, frequently while being the most vociferous about how virtuous and deserving they are. Yet they have no qualms about hypocritically ruling by force, while polishing their halos in public or attempting to silence dissent. The philosophical and moral foundation of the Declaration of Independence, the concept which has opened humanity�s eyes bit by bit, that has allowed nations and international organizations to work for universal human rights has been the realization that the human rights are a part of natural law. They are inalienable. They deliberately made the wording, �endowed by their creator� because many of them were Deists or didn�t believe in any organized religion at all. These rights were not given by one particular God of one particular religion. They were not conditional upon the approval of any human being or beings. They were absolute laws of nature, as completely unchangeable as the law of gravity or the speed of light. Human being�s ability to treat each other in a way that honors those inalienable rights has varied, but the reality of those rights has always existed.

Human governments, human laws and traditions do not create rights or realities, they are merely human attempts to put them into writing and create official structure or procedures. The realities are already there. Things do not move and change because someone put the laws of physics into a book. They already exist. A wedding does not make a couple. It is merely a social ceremony acknowledging what, in the absence of coercion and dysfunction, is already a reality. A couple can live together for decades without ceremonies and be inseparably loving. Another couple can be married in the eyes of the law for years and have never achieved true love. A divorce does not end a relationship. It is only human paperwork acknowledging another truth. The closer human structures come to the true spirit , the closer we come to real justice, which has its foundation in true love. Trying to force humans to conform to arbitrary human rules is backwards and wrong. Some church or society or government saying that certain things are right or wrong does not make them so. Coercive unfair governments throughout history have used the �divine right of kings� or the rule of law to force people to bend to their will. Religions everywhere have used the threat of hell or the fear of social rejection to control people�s behavior and thoughts.

The founding fathers understood that right government is a partnership between those governing and those governed and that the government only retained the right to govern as long as it governed justly. Its actions had to continue to be in the best interests of the people and respect the people. As human understanding of justice evolves, the laws must evolve with it. As people began to understand that all people, not just rich, landowning, white men had rights, just governments had to evolve with them. As a country and as a world, we have come a long way but have a lot farther to go still in giving all people equal rights. You don�t have to like or agree with all of the people. This doesn�t give you a right to give them any fewer rights than you have. And nations cannot rest on their laurels. The Magna Carta and the development of English common law was a great advance. The original settlers of the colonies benefitted from the opportunities England allowed them to have and the freedoms they had to better their lives. By the time of the American Revolution, the Americans felt that the government no longer served the needs of the people it had been created to serve. They believed they not only had a right to change things but an obligation to explain to the world why they were doing so:

�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, � 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 new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.�

They went on to say that they understood that one shouldn�t throw out the baby with the bathwater, that you shouldn�t just change governments for minor reasons, because the harm to society caused by too many upheavals for small reasons tends to be worse than just putting up with or trying to change them from within. Every relationship has its ups and downs. Every team, workplace, partnership has its occasional disagreements. We all need to understand the importance of compromise and long term commitment. But no person or group of persons should ever feel permanently enslaved to another person or persons. As human beings, we have the right and the responsibility, to ourselves and to each other to do whatever it takes when such relationships or laws consistently oppress, and no longer serve the greater good, to separate ourselves from them and commit ourselves fully to ones that can work better.

Loyalty to a country, to an organization, or another human being has to be continually earned. Everywhere in human history when people have been treated justly and respected, it has always been human nature to return good for good. It has only been the dictators, the abusers and those who hold themselves superior to others who must demand loyalty oaths and hold themselves up to the world as supposed paragons deserving of tribute. The government that treats its people fairly is respected and its denizens do not need to be exhorted to flock to its defense in time of need. Nazis, Communists, the Inquisition, Mc Carthyites and the like have forced people to declare loyalty under threats. Churches demand that people marry each other �till death do us part� as if marriage ceremonies sprinkled magic dust on people ensuring that they would forever continue to earn the right to each other�s continued love and commitment or bestowed a kind of ownership of each other that negated the need to follow any such reciprocal responsibility anymore. Individuals who treat each other as the precious treasures they are do not need to demand loyalty and love; it is a natural response to being truly loved. The couple that treats each other right wakes up each day delighted to find their true love still beside them and looks forward to every reunion with eager anticipation. Should they choose to publicly honor their couplehood with a ceremony, they understand that it is a joyous public celebration of something that they have worked hard to build and that can only continue to exist if they make a daily choice to be equally committed to it and that they can never take it or each other for granted or abuse the gift of each other. It is only societies and religions that encourage men and women to see each other as adversaries to be controlled and owned, that need to enforce taboos against not staying together. True love is romantic and physical and idealistic and practical, all important elements, and all have to be used not for one�s own benefit but for the generously given benefit of the other and of the couple. True love of one�s country and one�s world must guide our commitments in these realms as well.

If we truly believe and understand the principles behind our existence as Americans, we cannot stand by and mouth platitudes while living lies. Every human being on this earth is endowed by natural law with the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The more we give, the more we will receive. This is why we had the 4th of July, 1776. This is why we had the Civil War. This is why we had Civil Rights marches and why acts of civil disobedience are morally just and necessary and why human beings who stand in the way of human beings� need to live free cause so much pain and heartache to themselves and to those they harm. And this is why it matters.

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July 2008

16,000! This site rocks! Thank you.

I feel so honored!

Happy meaningful 4th of July


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