Patriot’s Dream: Freedom Isn’t Free

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves

Hear that glut of foot-tapping martial music and happy little piccolo riffs? See exploding lights in the night sky and smell meat on the bar-b? It’s the 238th birthday of this nation, the one Ben Franklin declared “a Republic, if we can keep it.” Some would say that 238 years is a pretty good run for an evolutionary experiment like representative democracy.

Political Blog, News, Information, Astrological Perspective.If you’re one of them, you can thank the Constitution of the United States of America — an amazing document that puts the rights of the average citizen at the center of governance — and the generations of patriots that have defended it. And, although we’ve fallen down on the job lately, it should be ingrained in each of us fortunate enough to participate in this level of liberty and prosperity that the price of admission is an ongoing exercise in citizenship and community activism.

Over the decades, there have been a number of moments when that national contract surely seemed to be shaking apart, but so far — knock on wood — the center has held. It held in the dire circumstance of civil war that pitted brother against brother, it navigated the social strife, inequality and corruption of transition to industrialization that birthed the Gilded Age. It held fifty years ago when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 divided the nation and so outraged already disenfranchised, Federalist-leaning Dixiecrats, unwilling to embrace changing social and racial standards, that they permanently aligned with Republicans.

The center held through the riots of the Democratic National Convention in ’68, and wobbled but held during the scandals of Watergate, Iran-Contra and Monicagate. It held on by its fingertips when Bush lied the nation into unprovoked war, approving torture and draining American coffers, then ran without looking back when the economy tumbled. And here we are again, celebrating an Independence Day holiday while testing the viability of that ethical center, hoping to weather yet another storm of constitutional crisis.

It should be obvious, then, that the turmoil of our moment is nothing new. Neither is the challenge to the notion that “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” is blind to the color, gender, sexual activity, religious persuasion or financial viability of any American citizen in question. When those words were written, let’s remember, that promise was not extended to women, children or people of color.

For instance, the Virginia version of the Constitution defined the pursuit of happiness as having “the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.” It should be noted that the aforementioned group of people WERE considered property, and this all-American caste system is still at the heart of our challenges today: who is entitled to full citizenship and, inversely, what is their social and societal value. Quite likely, many of you reading this would have qualified as second-class citizens in our early years of rebellion. Perhaps today, as well.

The Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby ruling has shaken that tree by making exception to the availability of previously mandated female birth control methods, while not addressing male birth control or sexual enhancement medications or techniques. That employers are favored above employees, and corporations above people, is another wrinkle, as tracked in this recent Political Waves post. America’s pursuit of happiness seems almost exclusively to rest itself on the arms of capitalism, gone rogue these last years along with the conservative party. And you may be surprised to learn that the happiness guaranteed by our system of unfettered markets and unsustainable growth is dependent upon the traditional values of Christianity, as declared by no less than Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in a recent appearance at the Lanier Theological Library in Texas.

Practicing what he preaches, this devoutly Catholic father of nine is at odds with the establishment clause in the Constitution, which he considers the “most disreputable area of our law.” Scalia insists that “the greatest miscarriage of constitutional justice” comes at the behest of the passage, which reads “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”  This is further attack on an already limping and beleaguered concept of separation of church and state. Indeed, having all but rewritten the definition of the Second Amendment regarding gun rights, the conservatives — Scalia principal among them — are doing their best to tweak the meaning of the First Amendment to suit their personal fancy.

Reacting to the Hobby Lobby ruling almost immediately, bloggers seemed sensitive to how much chaos this skewed decision will produce in days ahead. Wrote one gent, “When a business owner says ‘Serving black people is against my beliefs,’ people will see how tenuous these objections are. I’m not religious and I don’t get to decide which federal statutes I don’t have to follow simply because I don’t like them.”

He won’t have to wait long. Those who want exemptions from having to treat everyone equally are a lot like fleas in summer: they’re everywhere. For instance, Rick Warren — evangelical author and politicized pastor of a California mega-church — along with a number of Catholic Bishops and various other fundamentalist groups — signed on to a letter in early June asking Obama to include an exception for religious non-profit groups in his (pending) executive order protecting LGBT employees of federal contractors from discrimination. They now have legal precedent to demand it.

Still, it would be an error — a narrow-minded one — to paint all people of faith with a broad and biased brush. Whether or not the Christian community, et al, contributes to the innate Calvinism of this nation, promoting sexual prohibitions and authoritarianism, it should still be remembered that not all versions of Christianity are cut from the hard, knobby cloth of Old Testament fundamentalism.

I was raised in a progressive Christian church that harkened to the early 20th century highly-socialist principles of equality, charity and inclusion, and that movement is still alive today, its 21st century version growing in voice if not, as yet, in political power. One such activist group, Faithful America — whose motto is “Love thy neighbor. No exceptions.” —  has already gathered a significant number of signatures on a petition intended for Obama, reading, “There’s nothing Christian about firing someone just because they’re gay or lesbian. Taxpayer dollars shouldn’t fund discrimination.”

Writes Think Progress:

“In addition, Serene Jones, president of Union Theological Seminary in New York City, published an Op-Ed over at Time.com this afternoon saying that she was “devastated” by the letter, and argued that the proposed exemption should be left out of the executive order.

“I was saddened, I was embarrassed, I was appalled [by the letter],” Jones wrote. “The faith that fought for justice for so many is now being used to justify injustice. The faith community that taught me to never throw stones was asking that Christians have a special permission to throw stones if they wanted. It’s simply theologically indefensible … I do not support a religious exemption that permits Christians to behave worse than their fellow citizens, and the president should not include it.”

We can only hope that during this fertile and consciousness-raising period in history, these voices of reason will impact the broader religious community more than those of, say, ex-presidential candidate and homophobe, Rick Santorum, who has quickly brought together a nasty little  propaganda movie concerning Hobby Lobby’s “push for religious freedom” that will likely ignite radical-Christians even more. In it, another ex-presidential candidate, also ex-governor and pastor, Mike Huckabee, advises that “what we need to do is amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards rather than trying to change God’s standards so it lines up with some contemporary view…” Mr. Huckabee has every confidence that he knows exactly what God-His-Own-Self wants. Mike is a potent reminder that we have created God in our own image rather than taking seriously the maxim that we have been created in Its.

Clearly, we find ourselves in constitutional crisis, not just in matters of class warfare, but with national and international challenges that will be making themselves more apparent over the next months and years. Some define the overwhelming surveillance capabilities as outlined by Mr. Snowden. Many are currently under-reported like the use of drones and CIA operatives around the world, while other offenses are buried deep in the vaults of the moneychangers and banksters, the movers and the shakers. Indeed, the damage seems almost impossible to reverse, but I believe in the law of unintended consequences.

This anomaly on women’s health issues could transform itself into single payer insurance in coming years, if only to simplify an increasingly unwieldy system. Such constant reminders of women’s and children’s inequality under the law can ignite awareness with a long-awaited determination to remedy. Growing dissatisfaction with drug laws and an increasingly privatized prison-industrial complex must necessarily lead to reforms. Shameful immigration incidents like the terrorizing of refugee children on a bus in Murrieta, California, this week — many younger than ten, fleeing violence in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador and frightened that they would be killed by American protesters — can boomerang to isolate the haters, and illustrate how quickly we can lose our humanity.  All of this social dysfunction can, and must, ultimately lead to change.

On a personal note, this is the weekend when the Democratic Club, here in the Pea Patch, joins a handful of venders and organizations in the town square surrounding the County Courthouse for a weekend fair known as Market Days. Homemade items, jams and jellies, Amish produce and crafts are featured by locals, and community groups pass out organizational information. I traditionally work this day, in charge of making and distributing political buttons for coming elections, November results of which will either continue to moderate the political paralysis that still infects this congressional year, or allow an explosion of radical conservative posturing like the proposed end to Affordable Care and impeachment of the President. We can count on those two actions at minimum, should the Democrats fail to bring enough people to the polls to keep the Senate blue. We can also count on nothing done in the public interest until at least 2016.

The liberal side of the political spectrum is vastly outnumbered here. Rural matters are overseen by old-timey churches and an old boy conservative business class, so it’s a bit of a slog standing up in the town square every year, smiling and waving, something of a moving target. This year, having seen signs around town congratulating Hobby Lobby for its win, I have dug out my collection of Christian crosses and today I will be passing out progressive information wearing the biggest one I can find. I have no intention of allowing these good citizens to presume that their “religious liberty” has won over mine, or that they have the high ground in this war on women. I will also be wearing, among others, a pin that reads, “When women vote, Democrats win.”

Although my equality has not been ratified into the Constitution nor approved by the patriarchy, my voice, my civil liberties and my vagina are all mine to claim, to use and to promote, with a nod of gratitude to the founders. If the locals give me any lip, I will happily tell them that they are entitled, under the First Amendment of the Constitution, to their own opinion but they are not entitled to speak for Gawd Almighty, who I have no doubt loves them (while I, myself — an incomplete vessel — am sincerely attempting to).

Speaking of loving the unlovely, I watched “12 Years a Slave” last night. I had the DVD for a few days and had to work myself up to it. Still, as that old philosopher, Johnny Depp, advises, “You can close your eyes to things you don’t want to see, but you can’t close your heart to things you don’t want to feel.” Best to pony up, as we can, and face the dark visage of truth, the unhappy business of (wo)man’s inhumanity to (wo)man.

As I watched, I was reminded, once again, of all the egregious things the Judeo-Christian Bible has been used to sanctify, like the kidnap and holding of fellow human beings against their will; of whipping and rape and murder. It’s no surprise then, that on the day after Independence Day in 1852, fugitive slave and orator Frederick Douglass delivered a scathing speech that included:

“Had I the ability, and could I reach the nation’s ear, I would today pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.”

It was well over a hundred years later that LBJ strong-armed Congress into passing the law proposed by Jack Kennedy before his death, banning discrimination on the basis of race, sex, or national origin, yet while less overt, incidents of institutionalized discrimination continue to pull us down, tearing at the fabric of our civil rights.

Watching “12 Years A Slave,” it was impossible not to think about Obama and his family. I note that yesterday was Malia Obama’s 16th birthday. She’s a lovely child, of whom her parents are justifiably proud. And it’s no stretch, after watching the tragic and true story of freeman Solomon Northup, to imagine her as the heartbreakingly victimized and violated character Patsey, as portrayed by Lupita Nyong’o. It is only the protections within the Constitution of the United States of America that prevent that from happening again.

In the end, either the constitutional center will hold for ALL of us, or it won’t hold for any, and the whole tenor of this nation will devolve. In too many ways to enumerate, we’re already there. A recent article in AlterNet makes clear that about a fifth of American citizens are not in a celebratory mood this holiday due to unemployment, incarceration, poverty and/or documentation problems. It is not the nation, I think, but rather we ourselves who have let one another down in this regard. Rule of law comes and goes, but the dictates of an open and loving heart cannot be swayed. If we are to win this fight against those who would oppress and punish and victimize, we must meet every challenge to harmless and loving behavior, whenever and wherever we find it.

Freedom isn’t free, they say (especially when they want us to approve a military intervention that supposedly makes us “safer”). But freedom does exact a price from us, it’s called participation. It’s called the responsibility of citizenship. It’s called respect for, and defense of, the United States Constitution that protects us all.

If all this distressing news has made you sober and saddened this Fourth of July weekend — and it should — then read this piece by octogenarian, activist and Baptist minister, Bill Moyers, advising us to celebrate, if not the state of our union, then the revolution that created it. Hopefully, we will catch a spark of his continuing enthusiasm for positive change and ethical behavior that won’t quickly burn to embers like the impressive but temporary fireworks of this Independence Day, 2014.

Perhaps we will even be encouraged to find our feet and embrace this respected elder’s challenge when he advises, “We haven’t come this far by crawling on our knees. Stand up — and reclaim the patriot’s dream.”

7 thoughts on “Patriot’s Dream: Freedom Isn’t Free”

  1. Thank you, Carlos. That brilliant voice was the one that my generation thought of as OUR president. Once again, we get a sense of not just how long we’ve been at this effort to break free of the “special interests” that seek to control humanity, but how imperative it is to continue that fight for independence.

    Came at just the right time, too — I’d just read this piece of surrealistic non-sense and my heart was aching at our level of ignorance and belligerence. If we’re gonna wake up sheeple, we’d better start here!

    http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/07/07/rolling-coal-conservatives-screw-obama-by-modifying-trucks-to-spew-toxic-black-smoke/

  2. Extraordinary cast of characters in that production, be — and speaks to GaryB’s commentary on events coming at us like a freight train. I can’t ever remember when the astrology was this specific, kicking stuff off right and left, but on the other hand, humankind doesn’t start up an entire new Earth Era every day, so it’s not unexpected to have the Universe stir the shit and give us opportunity to review, discard and re-create.

    Jim Hightower gives Texan’s a good name, and I enlarge and further his vision for a community uprising. The grassroots thing is alive and well, everywhere you look — slowly enlarging to Jupiter-sized — but you gotta LOOK for it. The whole of the lefty movement is picking up but it’s still hidden behind the smoke and mirrors of plutocracy and idiocracy [pffft!]

    Speaking of that, GaryB, I had to chuckle at the Alamo comment. We had at least TWICE the thumpers [Bible] that we usually have, this time around — and I dearly wished I’d made a “Jesus was a Liberal” button to jolt their wee brains as they walked by, pigeon-holing me as a pagan and a pinko [well, in the mix, for sure, but not true for the other Dems that pitched in to help out, all good churchgoers at the local Methodist (about as liberal as it gets within 60 miles or so.)]

    We had lots of folks stop by to chat and share — they always seem RELIEVED to see us still standing each year — but they’re mostly from out of town [‘cuz we’re a summer place, tripling population on these holidays.] One was a biology teacher from St. Louis who said each year he has to tediously explain to his kids that he’s not an atheist. The Pub’s have really done a number on the young one’s, many of whom simply think the climate change issues have already been disproven and aren’t ‘a real thing.’

    I took myself home to do some chores for awhile and missed the real July fireworks, as my dear Fishin’ Jim took on the glad-handing Pub Representative. As a retired union president facing down a bona fide shit-kickin’, aw-shucks, Jesus-is-Lord Tea Party darling, it didn’t take long for Jim’s Irish to fully manifest, whereupon he called the guy a liar — on several issues the old boy had advanced hoping to turn some Blue’s to Zombie Red — and told him the clock was ticking on his bullshit, said once the smoke cleared, he and his kind wouldn’t even be allowed to assist the dog-catcher. I was TRULY sorry to have missed that moment. It’s rare to have opportunity to let these guys know you’re on to them. They are, IMO, WAAAAAY too confident, here in the Pea Patch! Truth to power — what a high!

    And by the way, GB — I will happily affirm fine rewards, even if that seems a looooong way away!

    Be dear, I DID feel the love, even though my 5th house (kids) Uranus at 15 Gem got something of a jolt from the ‘family files’ today. On that front, I’m suspending judgment entirely, since trans. Uranus recently moved in to sextile my n. Uranus (in wide square to n. Merc.) Seems like everything is turning on its head for further examination, but that’s for the next 16 months so, until I get comfy with this one, my mantra in the highly personalized 5th is, “What the hell do I know!”

    Another thing I felt was — amped even more by the commentary on crafting and ethical purchase in E’s weekly — a strong desire to stop using my head and focus on my hands (Gem) for awhile. For me, losing myself in making glass is a deep form of meditation and my heart wants it — the garden, household, animals, social calendar, yadda yadda isn’t enough at the moment, I guess, so I’m thinking my To Do List will have to be re-prioritized.

    Re: topic, updates to this weeks piece include Michelle Obama’s genealogy/DNA revealing a slave-owner ancestor which brings “12 Years …” even a tad closer to home. Having just a moments GLIMPSE of the fact that many if not most of our African-American brothers and sisters are grandchildren and great-grands of rape should make us re-think the entirety of our (unhealed, unexamined) history.

    I read a really good article today about that larger historical picture (that needs frequent visits in order to validate who we have been and wish to become.) The more we, as a society, retreat into sound bites and one-liners, the more obsessed we seem to be about ‘now’ rather than ‘then,’ the future and what we can squeeze out of it, rather than the past and what we can learn from it. Be warned: we risk losing our gains if we proceed without knowledge of them (as witnessed in the feminism issues we face today.) The article specifically speaks to “moving on” without imposing accountability, which is so obviously at the heart of our problems. It’s worth reading just for the final paragraph.
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lawrence-b-wilkerson/dick-cheney-wealth-and-power_b_5545433.html

    The Murrieta affair has turned into a real blemish on that well-heeled little spot. TV pundits were all a’buzz about it and what it meant: real racism or immigration frustration. Me, I agree with those who said, “All of the above.” The Pubs will never NEVER get back into Executive power unless they mend fences [no pun] with the immigration issues, but it won’t matter, ultimately, unless we deal with the gerrymander that creates full blockage of progress in House races, and threatens … you nailed it, GaryB … an unthinkable mess in November. We have more budget issues ahead, as well — think the Pubs and Ann Rand’ian Libertarians are too bright to shut everything down, twice? Think again!

    Thanks for the comments, dearhearts. Hope there was bar-b and watermelon for you, too, or whatever floats your Independence Day boat! Happy Fourth to all who are still lighting fireworks in the yard, cleaning up the mess in the kitchen or snacking on what’s left of the poo-poo platter! Be well, be blessed, all.

  3. P.S. Transiting Venus was at 15+ Gemini today, the degree where she occulted the Sun in 2012. Did you feel the love?
    be

  4. Jim Hightower, speaking on the Bill Moyers show, sees all these protesting groups coming together; unifying. Then it dawned on me. Transiting Jupiter not only squares the transiting moon’s nodes, it opposes the U.S. Sibly chart Pluto at 27+ Capricorn. Of course!

    This coinciding with the June 27th New Moon, only 1 week before the U.S Birthday, conjunct the Sibly Jupiter (5+ Cancer) and the Solar Return chart’s Isis (uniting) conjunct the Sibly Jupiter, is one avenue for interpreting the solar return 1st house Jupiter, ruler of the solar return 6th house of service people, who are the backbone of the protest groups. The North Node (opportunity) is in Libra sign of partnership and the South Node (the past) in Aries the sign of the individual, and the NN is accompanied by Mars (anger), Ceres (fast food workers) and Vesta (focus).

    Transiting Jupiter is in the Sibly chart’s 8th house of shared resources.
    be

  5. Happy 4th Judith!

    What a delight it would be to see you working the booth in numbers that must equate to the Alamo. Best wishes for -some awakening -for all that you do.

    What would this blog look like if things went South-literally- the Congress turned red, the Prez was impeached, ACA overturned and all else they could garner before total disintegration? Do the stars portend a total Plutocratic upheaval/stomping until Pluto and Uranus oppose? Thanks to your dutiful reporting we have been awakened to the awakenings but these big struggles, as you have mentioned, play out over decades, if not centuries. Maybe the Right makes right will implode. Everything is moving much faster-who could of even conceived of the issues, we are facing today, since January. Guess we will see if moderation indeed stands up strong.

    “but I believe in the law of unintended consequences.” Hopefully! This and a lot of handwringing ’til November.

    On a personal note-tribe mate. This weeks full moon to your Saturn and my 24 Cap Moon along with Mars,NN, Vesta and Ceres is what I believe to be a door knock for the July 16,2019 Lunar eclipse with a gaggle of power planets in Cap, for us. I am hoping for intended consequences and some fine rewards!

    Hope a shady tree,good grilling and a sweet cold watermelon find you this weekend!

  6. You said it Sister Jude, “an ongoing exercise in citizenship and community activism” is required if we are to keep the American experiment viable. Thank you for your inspiring words today. It seems that just a few generations beyond our forefathers and foremothers victories can blind us to the creeping crud that would gladly suffocate it right out of existence.

    The all-American cast(e) in this year’s presentation of The U.S. Solar Return Show has awakened my Joan-of-Arc totem (my Moon conjuncts her Uranus in Aquarius!), or maybe it is my Bill Moyers totem, and it will gladden the hearts of you and all who are wise enough to value their hard earned freedoms. What is stage front of course is the t-square between Sun in Cancer, Moon in Libra and Pluto in Capricorn, but the supporting cast will garner the most applause and steal the hearts of the audience. I’d like to introduce a couple of them, starting with Mars.

    Mars is in Libra and is part of an ensemble made up of sisters Vesta and Ceres (who are perfectly conjunct – to the minute!) and the north node of the Moon. This is a very rare alignment and in this presentation the ensemble appears
    (1) in a trine with Mercury’s solo in Gemini (potent after stationing direct) who opposes retrograde Pholus the Centaur in Sagittarius, and Mercury also sextiles the SOUTH node in Aries;
    (2) a T-square with Jupiter in Cancer and the SOUTH node;
    (3) and a sextile with Pholus in Sagittarius (who trines the SOUTH node).

    The Solar Return SOUTH node at 24+ Aries is a disguise for the PROGRESSED U.S. Sibly Venus at 24+ Aries, but I won’t spoil that reveal now. The Mars ensemble appears in the 4th house of “family”. Here is some juicy info regarding Mars, Ceres and Vesta in Libra you might enjoy reading before the show gets started. . . . .
    http://www.inspiralnexus.com/2014/04/wavelengths-of-mars-in-libra/

    This year’s SR for the US Sibly also features Saturn in the creative 5th house in 4 acts, and bear in mind he is also in a mutual reception with Pluto. (1) He has the pivotal (point) role in a yod with Uranus in Aries and Venus in Gemini; and (2) another one with Uranus and Hermes the Trickster in Gemini, who is only 2 degrees from Venus so sometimes Hermes and Venus will be in duet; (3) a grand water trine with the Sun in Cancer (star of the show and on the Ascendant) and Chiron in Pisces who opposes asteroid Pallas the Planner in Virgo, who (4) sextiles Saturn in yet another yod with Uranus now playing the Point Man. Uranus in the 10th house will be featured “primarily” in government scenes. 🙂

    One last note about Mars is that in this presentation he conjuncts the U.S. Sibly birth chart’s Juno at 20+ Libra and she, in the SOLAR RETURN chart (at 10+ Gemini) backs up Venus, along with a fabulous group between them including Dionysus, Sisyphus and Apollo, while Hermes will be accompanied by Osirus (who got put back together by Isis who – in this production – stays backstage and is conjunct the U.S. Sibly Jupiter at 5+ Cancer, where the recent New Moon took place). You will be referring to your program often.

    It’s an overall story of love and suffering and sacrifice and charity and overcoming, and you won’t want to miss a moment of it, I promise.
    be

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