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April 30, 2003
We hold these truths...
“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.” Powerful words. Our nation was founded upon these truths. But they are not really truths. What is most certain is that all men (and women) are not created equal in the eyes of our government, corporations, communities or religious organizations. The promises of the Declaration of Independence can only come alive when we, the people, really do have equal access to the benefits of democracy. Truth is found only in our ability and commitment to the stand behind the words.
In America however, what we have and what we’ve always had is democracy based on the access to and retention of property and wealth. The democracy of wealth. All wealth is created equal. The more you have, the more equal you are. And we the people, went along with this arrangement. We, the people, got just enough out of the arrangement that we quelled our outcries against the inequality. We shut up, even as we watched injustice after injustice perpetuated on the weakest members of our society and on societies around the world that had something we coveted. We acquiesced by voting for candidates who had sold themselves to the highest bidder. We acquiesced by becoming apathetic and not voting. We acquiesced by not discerning the spin of the latest lie. We acquiesced by forgetting that we must understand the historic context of issues, and be knowledgeable on the choices for resolution. And we acquiesced by not making our voices heard. We have become a nation that is identifiable by its ignorance, its arrogance and its willingness to be led docily to the slaughter. Especially the slaughter of others, as we have seen in Iraq.
So how did we reach this state" Well, let’s back up a bit. Let’s revisit that word “truth.” Most of what we call truths are really agreements. There are not a lot of things that we can actually say are immutable truths. Truth is very difficult to perceive without a context. It’s not the truth that we have certain inalienable rights. The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights were not conferred by God. They were agreed to by the founders of our nation. And how we define those agreements and the degree to which we defend them determines what our nation’s governance looks like. If we want what the “truths” of The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights promise, and not just for those people who are privileged , then we must make them real by our commitment to uphold them for all the people. These are truths only so long as we stand up for them, and only so long as we interpret them inclusively. Truth is not written on paper. Truth is written in our promises and our commitments. They are truths because we say they are.
Johnny Peaceseed