Opinion/Editorial

DUTY, HONOR, COUNTRY

When in the course of human events”….when did you last read those words? They are the lead words of America’s Declaration of Independence. The words were written at the time (June 11, 1776) in an attempt to give the people of America the inalienable right to throw off the yoke of outside rule and become independent of such rule, taxes, and punishments.

Here are some more words extracted from the document, and these words I did not write, but they are fast becoming applicable to the entire culture of a nation that will commit cruelty to children in secret and without mercy or care. How many of the citizens of America, those upstanding citizens who have come to believe over their lifetimes that America was, and continues to be, a haven for those who’ve been brutally oppressed, tortured and even murdered, need to read and come to understand these words? Here are the words that the current policies of the United States Government are demanding that you read again, or maybe read for the first time.

These are words written by names you might recognize, like Thomas Jefferson and John and Samuel Adams: “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 affect their Safety and Happiness.

The trickery and foolishness of the current interpretations of the U.S. Constitution are fast relegating that wonderfully brilliant document (the Constitution) into some sort of sadly tattered piece of literary jargon, as it is now serving at the feet of harsh task masters sitting on the Supreme Court. These cold-hearted and mean-spirited men and women, enjoying lifetime jobs at high pay and with grand reputations and social standing, are dedicated toward supporting those who gave them those jobs and those who seek to make sure that the many rewards of life in the United States remain firmly divided between those citizens who own the country and those who are here as “renters” or on sufferance.

Owning property was once how those lines were drawn, but no more. Now those lines are drawn using sharp knives of a financial division. The two thousand billionaires serve as an excellent determinant tool in figuring out who owns and who is simply passing time on U.S. soil, serving those wealthy in one manner or another while “the renters” are waiting to die, and hopefully getting by in marginal comfort while doing so. The grand financial divide has always been there, going back to 1776 when the country was founded, because that is a part of how the capitalistic economic system works, but there has been nothing on earth to match just how sharp and how huge this divide has grown to become. The tools of the “owners” are many and subtle. Police officer salaries’ and benefits are skyrocketing into six-figure jobs when all the hidden payments and goodies are revealed. Incarceration of citizens is surpassing two million. The U.S. has the largest military on earth and is the greatest repository for those in prison, on parole, probation or suffering for life under the branding-like “Fleur de Lis” death sentence of being labeled a felon. At what point does the Declaration of Independence have to be invoked on the home front, and whom would ever have conceived of a time and justification for such hard, demanding words of freedom needing to be dusted off and applied to forces governing the United States of America? But, at what point, as this nation has so boldly aligned itself with dictatorships and even imagined imperial governments like those of the movies and the mythological past, is it incumbent upon the citizenry of this country to once again redefine and reinforce the words that expressed the meaning of who and what this nation is and stands for?

There is another over-riding, and also very subtle force, at work across the states of the American nation. There exists no real method, way or ability for the people to get together and consider what must be done in order to ensure survival with any kind of dignity and justice. The Internet seemed to be a way for everyone to communicate, and when websites were sprouting up all over the place, it looked like chat rooms and individual websites would provide that open forum. But then social media, closed Internets set up within the Internet itself, were invented, and public discourse quite openly became subject to censorship and limitations on how many people could be reached for discussion at any one time. Facebook is the major social media site, followed by Twitter. Both sites substantially limit the number of people who can be reached at any one time. That is done by deliberation, not by accident. A person with thousands of “friends,” followers or those who “like” them is “filtered” from being able to be exposed to too many of them. The messages from the owners are to be delivered to the renters, not the other way around, and not with each other either.

The question becomes not one of why, or when or even where…but how. How can this nation come together again to restate and reinforce what it was meant to be, which presupposes that it wants to be that way, again?  

~ James Strauss

 

 

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