Tag Archives: Freedom

The Fourth – What Independence Really Meant!

John Hancock signature as shown on the engrossed copy of the US Declaration of IndependenceThe Fourth of July is a pageant celebrating our independence from an Imperial nation that denied us self-rule, dignity and freedom.

It’s a time of marching bands, waving flags, capped with cloud-brushing, soaring multicolored flashes of fireworks, lighting the night sky, to the sound of oohs and aahs from crowds across the nation.

It evokes the language of the declaration hammered out in a hot Philadelphia Hall, striking and revising the words of Thomas Jefferson, setting forth who we believed we were as a nation aborning.

We must reflect upon the sentiments of that grand occasion, and how we may fulfill those worthy sentiments today when our independence is at risk from within and from without, including, according to intelligence sources and a Senate Committee, a foreign nation state, Russia, that interfered in our elections.

When we declared our independence, we said we believed that we are all “created equal.” We have struggled since to perfect that sentiment, but of late, persons of color, Muslims and women are treated as suspect by some.

We should respect the notion that “prudence” does dictate that “governments long established,” as ours, “should not be changed for light and transient causes,” but we watch critical functions in the Executive Department compromised or destroyed by Cabinet Officers and the Chief Executive.

Our declaration of independence declared, “Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” Continue reading

Another way of thinking

Einstein_blackboardThe nation is suffering in soul and spirit from the colliding dark forces of hate, elitism, lawless and treasonous conduct, and the growing sentiment that we need no discipline, no standards, no law or regulations, to keep us safe; the mantra is – “it will work itself out somehow.”

At the eye of this storm, ravaging America is an unmoored man who makes a fair imitation of Emperor Nero in his chaotic latter days when his gifts as a younger man left him.

Mr. Donald Trump defies the promise of our nation to greet the future with open arms, to treat all as equals, to fulfill our promise of liberty and freedom, and to join the family of man spread across this wide earth.

We’ve seen more than once how Mr. Trump withdraws from us all, wraps his arms tightly around himself, purses his lips, lifts his chin in defiance, and pronounces, in his unique syntax  some offensive comment, about policy or personality, that some fear is becoming a “malignant normalcy.” Continue reading

The escape from freedom

Mr. Donald Trump and Mr. Steve Bannon, the despotic duo.

Mr. Donald Trump and Mr. Steve Bannon, the despotic duo.

Psychoanalyst Erich Fromm wrote in 1941 how individual freedom may invite feelings of isolation, powerlessness, and hopelessness, so strongly that one sacrifices individual freedom for authority and submission, to avoid the uncertainty of freedom, at the cost of independent thought.

Virginia Senator James Webb charged that there exists a compensation chasm between what largesse the billionaire “job creators” harvest and how much the “workers” earn.

This greed has created isolation and hopelessness among many working Americans.

Ironically, a Billionaire, realtor Donald Trump, gave “workers” hope though Mr. Trump has  appointed no one since his inauguration to represent the workers.

Mr. Trump’s program “guarantees” that America will be first, will reconsider our nation’s relationship with its long-time NATO allies, will build a wall along the Mexican border, encourage nation states to join the exclusive nuclear club, and will favor Russian President Vladimir Putin, who overran and occupied Crimea with military force.

Mr. Trump is indisputably authoritarian, surrounded by radical right wing acolytes, all in a rush to rule, and to overrun any one critical of his chaotic impulses.

By way of example, Mr. Trump late one Friday night executed a Muslim ban against documented immigrants from seven mostly Muslim states who had already been “extremely vetted.”

Mr. Trump broke his sworn oath of office to uphold the constitution as confirmed by several federal courts, finding his executive order was unconstitutional; Mr. Trump bragged he’d appeal; he has not. Continue reading

Freiheit – Freedom

Woodgrove German teacher, Effie Hall (center), with students “protesting” the Berlin Wall

Woodgrove German teacher, Effie Hall (center), with students “protesting” the Berlin Wall

Twenty Five years ago, on November 9, 1989, the 12-foot high Berlin Wall, with its mounted razor wire, manned guard towers, and the adjoining forbidding “strip of death,” all of a sudden, was no longer the brutal towering barrier that prevented East Germans from escaping West to freedom; the wall was coming down.

Woodgrove High School students from Lovettsville, an historic German settlement, and students from Western Loudoun County, commemorated the 25th anniversary of the fall of the wall by “protesting” what the German Chancellor, Willy Brandt, once described as the “wall of shame.”

Students spoke of the offending wall in German and said: “Nie wieder” – Never again!; they said, “Genug!”- Enough!, just as you’d push back against a bully; and they said, as if they were standing before the original wall themselves, “Wir sind frei” – We are free. Continue reading