liberty – Page 2 – Engaging Peace

A week for celebrations

Posted on July 2, 2012June 26, 2012 by kathiemm

Fireworks — Photo by Ikluft, used under CC Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

In two days Americans will celebrate their Declaration of Independence. If we want to pursue its values, how should we define patriotism?

No one is more eloquent on this topic than Howard Zinn, one of the dedicatees of this blog:

“If patriotism were defined, not as blind obedience to government, nor as submissive worship to flags and anthems, but rather as love of one’s country, one’s fellow citizens (all over the world), as loyalty to the principles of justice and democracy, then patriotism would require us to disobey our government, when it violated those principles.” From: Declarations of Independence: Cross-Examining American Ideology (1991).

Also relevant are the words of the other dedicatee of this blog, Freda Rebelsky. In a note to students, she wrote:

“In a democracy, each individual must share in deciding the direction society shall move. It is up to you to decide when to conform and when to defy authority, when to trust and when to be skeptical. I believe you will make better choices when you remember your humanity.”

Please celebrate July 4 by recommitting yourself to the ideals of liberty and social justice.

Also join your minds and hearts with us today as we celebrate the 200^th post on Engaging Peace, a blog dedicated to peace, peace education, and the promotion of social justice.

We are grateful for your readership and support of both the blog and e-newsletter. As a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, Engaging Peace relies on donations from individuals such as yourself. If you feel moved to support our work financially, please click on the Donate button in the sidebar.

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Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology

Who are the real patriots?

Posted on June 25, 2012June 26, 2012 by kathiemm

How about Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock, Samuel Adams, and John Penn, who were among the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence?

Liberty Bell. Photo by Serguey, used under CC Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

What did these patriots say about the ethical principles and human rights that underlay the formation of a new nation?

“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.“

For a true patriot, a true conservative, these words provide a mantra or creed to live by. They are an ethical commitment echoed in the final phrase of the Pledge of Allegiance that all Americans are expected to know and honor: “with liberty and justice for all.”

Our early patriots would be ashamed of the hypocrisy of generations of Americans who call themselves conservatives and/or patriots but who have trampled on the rights of others while promoting their own agendas.

Why do I raise these issues now? Because it is almost July 4, the day we celebrate the endorsement by those early patriots of the Declaration of Independence.

We the people of the United States have a great deal of work to do if we are going to honor the task that our forefathers and foremothers set forth: liberty and justice for all.

Our armed forces fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other parts of the world were not sent there by our leaders for patriotic reasons.

Killing and maiming men, women, and children may appear to those leaders to strengthen the position of the U.S. government in the Middle East and elsewhere; however, such acts of war are more likely to endanger than to ensure the life, liberty, and happiness not only of victims of American aggression but also of Americans themselves.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology

Independence and freedom movements

Posted on July 4, 2011July 2, 2011 by kathiemm

Declaration of Independence by John Trumbull. Image in public domain.

In the American Declaration of Independence, dated July 4, 1776, one can find the famous words: “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.”

To pursue their unalienable rights, the revolutionaries among the American colonists successfully took up arms against what they saw as unjust authority and ultimately won independence for the colonies.

Historically, the Greed Elite in this country, the Robber Barons and their successors, have scoffed at the idea that all men are created equal, and have helped dictators around the world resist freedom movements. Greed has trumped human rights for much of history, but that does not mean that progressive change is impossible.

Based on our belief in the values within the Declaration of Independence, and the responsibilities that come with liberty and leadership, we have three recommendations:

Seek ways to insure that people in other nations gain the rights enjoyed by Americans, who were born into a country where freedom was won centuries ago
Remember that many successful freedom movements were won through non-violent resistance and negotiation
Strive to reverse the failures of many of our leaders at all levels of society to live up to the principles in the Declaration of Independence.

Efforts to support principles of equality and human rights can be taken in the home, the community, the state, the nation, and internationally.

What have you done to support these principles—for example, through signing petitions, writing letters, marching peacefully? Please send us your stories.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology

“Disastrous rise of misplaced power”

Posted on April 14, 2011April 17, 2011 by kathiemm

[Note from Kathie Malley-Morrison: Today, just before Tax Day in the U.S., we again welcome guest contributor John Hess, who writes about the financial consequences of war.]

In the mid-1960s, I saw the initiation of social programs that promised to transform and improve America, making it truly the land of opportunity and giving it the rough equality that we like to think it should have.

Those social programs were far from perfect, but they were a promising start. Yet that promise was never achieved because of Vietnam, a war that sapped the country’s resources and took them away from social programs and into destruction.

The same is true today. The U.S. has already spent some 1.1 trillion dollars on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, with no end in sight. Indeed, we are spending roughly $8 billion a month in Afghanistan alone, and it is estimated that we will spend at minimum another $125 billion if we do not withdraw until 2014 (if then).

You all know what that money could do if even half of it was spent here: public higher and k-12 education, infrastructure, Medicare and Medicaid, and on and on.

I am no great fan of President Eisenhower, for I know of his reluctance to honestly deal with segregation and integrating schools. Nonetheless, Eisenhower was a warrior, one greatly sobered and humbled by the savagery and slaughter of WWII. Though he did little to nothing to stop its growth during his tenure in office, he gave us a famous warning in his “Farewell Address”:

“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

“We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.”

That military-industrial complex weighs so heavily upon us today. The Tea Party movement has shown how effective grass-roots efforts can be at cutting budgets, but has chosen to attack vitally important social programs, not the overbearing military-industrial complex.

What will it take to get tax-payers to preserve needed social programs while stopping the engines of destruction?

John Hess, Senior Lecturer in English and American Studies, University of Massachusetts, Boston