Liberty
Today is the Fourth of July, an American holiday commemorating our forebears' declaration of independence from tyranny and, by proxy, the birth of our democracy. You will spend it grilling, and watching fireworks.
Right now in Alabama, Georgia, and a number of other states, poor people are in jail for being unable to pay non-criminal municipal fines, and being charged debt collection fees for every day these fines go unpaid. Once upon a time, this was known as "debtor's prison," and it was abolished by the Federal government in 1833. You know, because it's draconian and stupid. Courts are being used as revenue generators, instead of for dispensing actual justice.
Right now in, well, all over the United States, homosexual people are unable to marry the ones they love. This is because a very large number of homophobes prescribe to conveniently selected portions of archaic religious doctrine in order to deny both Human and Constitutional rights and privileges to people who make them uncomfortable for no good reason. They will cite their religious freedom as a defense.
Right now, executives at large financial institutions who have stolen and continue to steal from municipalities and taxpayers remain miraculously un-incarcerated and free to continue pilfering, until they are maybe fined billions of dollars someday. The people from whom they stole will receive no remuneration.
The Supreme Court ruled not long ago that large corporations with multi-billion-dollar revenue streams can contribute unlimited sums of money to political campaigns, arguing that corporations are persons and entitled therefore to the same Constitutional rights as, say, a lower middle class American citizen. This was based, in essence, on a typo in a California Supreme Court ruling from 1886 (Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad). These same corporations, should they commit a crime, also enjoy limited liability (and in some cases impunity), which you do not. They also do not have to pay what would be a person's fair share of taxes, which you do. Many argue that we (the People) must allow this to continue, or else these large corporations will move jobs overseas and stop generating revenue. This is confusing, because I was led to believe that the United States government didn't negotiate with terrorists. Silly me.
The list goes on, as you can imagine. We haven't even touched on recent atrocities such as warrantless wire-tapping, the kidnapping and torture of American citizens by agents of the government, the suspension of due process*, the illegal eviction of families from their homes, denial of Constitutionally endowed firearms licenses, New York police arresting people at random in order to make quotas, ad infinitum.
In his Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln spoke of how precarious was this great experiment of American democracy, standing upon a site of mass casualty and the incalculable horror of a war that would determine whether or not such a democracy could survive. He knew the world was watching, and that the cause of global human liberty may well hinge on the outcome of that war. Google Abraham Lincoln right now, and the first thing you will see is "Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter."
Most believe that we should take this day to celebrate liberty, and I agree. But liberty itself has no inherent goodness. It is what we choose to do with that liberty that gives it meaning. Unfortunately, we are largely at liberty to be greedy, hateful, ignorant, lazy, unscrupulous, and unjust. We must not. We must hold to reason, and to fairness, and halt the march of our own liberty when it treads on that of another. We must at times choose not to exercise such liberties as will hurt others, weakening and eventually destroying ACTUAL liberty. What good is freedom in the hands of a few who care nothing for the rest? We must ask ourselves that question in earnest. And whatever answer we choose, we must own it, and its consequences.
"To the songs that sing of glory and the brave,
Are we dreaming there are better days to come?
When will the banners and the victory parades
Celebrate the day a better world was won?
On the day the storm has just begun,
I will still hope there are better days to come." -VNV Nation, "Sentinel"
*I am aware that Abraham Lincoln suspended Habeas Corpus in a time of war. Kindly blow it our your ass; I don't like it any more than you do. At least nobody was kidnapped and tortured, that we know of.
Right now in Alabama, Georgia, and a number of other states, poor people are in jail for being unable to pay non-criminal municipal fines, and being charged debt collection fees for every day these fines go unpaid. Once upon a time, this was known as "debtor's prison," and it was abolished by the Federal government in 1833. You know, because it's draconian and stupid. Courts are being used as revenue generators, instead of for dispensing actual justice.
Right now in, well, all over the United States, homosexual people are unable to marry the ones they love. This is because a very large number of homophobes prescribe to conveniently selected portions of archaic religious doctrine in order to deny both Human and Constitutional rights and privileges to people who make them uncomfortable for no good reason. They will cite their religious freedom as a defense.
Right now, executives at large financial institutions who have stolen and continue to steal from municipalities and taxpayers remain miraculously un-incarcerated and free to continue pilfering, until they are maybe fined billions of dollars someday. The people from whom they stole will receive no remuneration.
The Supreme Court ruled not long ago that large corporations with multi-billion-dollar revenue streams can contribute unlimited sums of money to political campaigns, arguing that corporations are persons and entitled therefore to the same Constitutional rights as, say, a lower middle class American citizen. This was based, in essence, on a typo in a California Supreme Court ruling from 1886 (Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad). These same corporations, should they commit a crime, also enjoy limited liability (and in some cases impunity), which you do not. They also do not have to pay what would be a person's fair share of taxes, which you do. Many argue that we (the People) must allow this to continue, or else these large corporations will move jobs overseas and stop generating revenue. This is confusing, because I was led to believe that the United States government didn't negotiate with terrorists. Silly me.
The list goes on, as you can imagine. We haven't even touched on recent atrocities such as warrantless wire-tapping, the kidnapping and torture of American citizens by agents of the government, the suspension of due process*, the illegal eviction of families from their homes, denial of Constitutionally endowed firearms licenses, New York police arresting people at random in order to make quotas, ad infinitum.
In his Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln spoke of how precarious was this great experiment of American democracy, standing upon a site of mass casualty and the incalculable horror of a war that would determine whether or not such a democracy could survive. He knew the world was watching, and that the cause of global human liberty may well hinge on the outcome of that war. Google Abraham Lincoln right now, and the first thing you will see is "Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter."
Most believe that we should take this day to celebrate liberty, and I agree. But liberty itself has no inherent goodness. It is what we choose to do with that liberty that gives it meaning. Unfortunately, we are largely at liberty to be greedy, hateful, ignorant, lazy, unscrupulous, and unjust. We must not. We must hold to reason, and to fairness, and halt the march of our own liberty when it treads on that of another. We must at times choose not to exercise such liberties as will hurt others, weakening and eventually destroying ACTUAL liberty. What good is freedom in the hands of a few who care nothing for the rest? We must ask ourselves that question in earnest. And whatever answer we choose, we must own it, and its consequences.
"To the songs that sing of glory and the brave,
Are we dreaming there are better days to come?
When will the banners and the victory parades
Celebrate the day a better world was won?
On the day the storm has just begun,
I will still hope there are better days to come." -VNV Nation, "Sentinel"
*I am aware that Abraham Lincoln suspended Habeas Corpus in a time of war. Kindly blow it our your ass; I don't like it any more than you do. At least nobody was kidnapped and tortured, that we know of.