{"id":77815,"date":"2014-07-05T05:57:11","date_gmt":"2014-07-05T09:57:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=77815"},"modified":"2014-07-05T08:46:15","modified_gmt":"2014-07-05T12:46:15","slug":"patriots-dream-freedom-isnt-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/by-judith-gayle-2\/patriots-dream-freedom-isnt-free\/","title":{"rendered":"Patriot’s Dream: Freedom Isn’t Free"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"PoliticalIf 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.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>, unwilling to embrace changing social and racial standards, that they permanently aligned with Republicans.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The center held through the riots of the\u00a0Democratic National Convention<\/a>\u00a0in ’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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court’s\u00a0Hobby Lobby<\/em>\u00a0ruling has\u00a0shaken 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\u00a0Political Waves post<\/a>. 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\u00a0a recent appearance<\/a>\u00a0at the Lanier Theological Library in Texas.<\/p>\n

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.”\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

Reacting to the\u00a0Hobby Lobby<\/em>\u00a0ruling 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.”<\/p>\n

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<\/a>\u00a0in 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.<\/p>\n

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,\u00a0et al<\/em>, 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.<\/p>\n

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,\u00a0Faithful America<\/a>\u00a0— whose motto is “Love thy neighbor. No exceptions.” —\u00a0 has already gathered a significant number of signatures on a petition intended for Obama, reading, \u201cThere\u2019s nothing Christian about firing someone just because they\u2019re gay or lesbian. Taxpayer dollars shouldn\u2019t fund discrimination.\u201d<\/p>\n

Writes Think Progress:<\/p>\n

“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 \u201cdevastated\u201d by the letter, and argued that the proposed exemption should be left out of the executive order.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was saddened, I was embarrassed, I was appalled [by the letter],\u201d Jones wrote. \u201cThe 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\u2019s simply theologically indefensible \u2026 I do not support a religious exemption that permits Christians to behave worse than their fellow citizens, and the president should not include it.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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\u00a0 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 \u201cwhat we need to do is amend the Constitution so it\u2019s in God\u2019s standards rather than trying to change God\u2019s standards so it lines up with some contemporary view\u2026\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

Clearly, we\u00a0find ourselves\u00a0in constitutional crisis, not just\u00a0in 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.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0determination to remedy. Growing dissatisfaction with drug laws and\u00a0an increasingly privatized\u00a0prison-industrial complex must necessarily lead to reforms. Shameful immigration incidents like the terrorizing of\u00a0refugee\u00a0children on a bus<\/a>\u00a0in 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\u00a0how quickly we can lose our humanity.\u00a0 All of this social dysfunction can, and must, ultimately lead to change.<\/p>\n

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,\u00a0jams 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\u00a0will either continue to moderate the political paralysis that\u00a0still infects\u00a0this congressional year, or allow an explosion of radical\u00a0conservative 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.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0liberal 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\u00a0I will be passing out\u00a0progressive 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\u00a0also be wearing, among others, a pin that reads, “When women vote, Democrats win.”<\/p>\n

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).<\/p>\n

Speaking of loving the unlovely, I watched “12 Years a Slave<\/a>” 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.<\/p>\n

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:<\/p>\n

\u201cHad I the ability, and could I reach the nation\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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\u00a0less overt,\u00a0incidents of institutionalized discrimination continue to pull us down, tearing at the fabric of our civil rights.<\/p>\n

Watching\u00a0“12 Years A Slave,” it was impossible not to think\u00a0about 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.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0find it.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

If all this distressing news has made you sober and saddened this Fourth of July weekend — and it should — then\u00a0read this piece<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0by 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.<\/p>\n

Perhaps we will even be encouraged to\u00a0find our feet\u00a0and embrace\u00a0this 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.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1744],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77815"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77815\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}