Do You Say Happy Veterans Day

Or, we appreciate your service. Or, put our money, time and effort where our mouths are and truly support the needs of our troops and veterans.

Stranger in a strange land

I can't exactly put my finger on it, but it seems that certain Americans are becoming strangers in their homeland. Those who seem to hold the microphone insist they are the true Americans or patriots. They speak of liberty as if they own the word and no one else understands freedom more than them. They worship the service of the military almost as a fetish. They create songs, hold rallies and empty their pockets, they do everything, but serve themselves. It is also odd to hear their lack of understanding of what it takes to be citizens. The meaning is inconsequential, until they describe the stranger, the other, the alien.

Patriotism has become a notion, similar to becoming consumed with the spirit at a revival. When I hear someone greeted as a good American, because they both agree on the same ideology, I think then what must I be.

I don't think I am a bad American. I think I understand why and how this country came to be. I fulfill what I consider my civic duty, and I understand the way government works and how it officials are elected. I even understand the concepts in the Constitution and Bill of Rights. I also think that in our system of government a diversity of opinion is necessary.


I wonder if this alienation will continue, every day there seems to be a new stereotype created; not just for the other, but for themselves.
Today, when the Declaration of Independence is read, will the words be listened to and fully understood without personal prejudices; prejudices of the author, the times or the circumstances? Will they see it as an idea, greater than that moment?

 www.archives.gov July 3, 2010 

The Declaration of Independence: A Transcription

---

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
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 effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

---

The Harvest Feast

The first Thanksgiving a creation myth of America, reinvented in many ways. One to suit each century. The myths change and Thanksgiving is looked upon as the bountiful feast celebrating the appreciation of life, love and family. Thank goodness for that.

Happy Thanksgiving

Post Racial?

Recently much has been made of the progress from Martin Luther King Jr. 's time and Barack Hussein Obama's inauguration tomorrow.

Last year reading, seeing and hearing these kinds of comments, I wonder.

Hatred at Palin Rally in Johnstown, PA

This reminded me of the kind of anger and taunts experienced when desegregating lunch counter, schools, and during peaceful protest marches.

The last words of M. L. King's, March on Washington speech are not yet self evident.

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

I Have a Dream - Address at March on Washington

2009

Happy New Year,Y'all

No resolutions. No predictions. Only one wish for the world. Quite and Peace!

Happy Thanksgiving

The 11th Anniversity of Independance: More work to be done

Courtesy of www.aviewoncities.com

This picture might represent how Independence Hall looked as the Convention adjourned to July 5, 1787 .

Monday, July 2, 1787
Debate of how the 2nd branch of government should consist and as ever, a committee was formed.

On the question for committing ¹⁵ "to a member from each State."

Massts. ay. Cont. ay. N. Y. ay. N. J. ay. Pa. no. Del. ay. Md. ay. Va. ay. N. C. ay. S. C. ay. Geo. ay. ¹⁶

The Committee elected by ballot, were Mr. Gerry, Mr. Elseworth, Mr. Yates, Mr. Patterson, Dr. Franklin, Mr. Bedford, Mr. Martin, Mr. Mason, Mr. Davy, Mr. Rutlidge, Mr. Baldwin.

That time might be given to the Committee, and to such as chose to attend to the celebrations on the anniversary of Independence, the Convention adjourned till Thursday.

From the Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787 by James Madison

M. L. King Jr. Day

We have moved into an era where we are called upon to raise certain basic questions about the whole society. We are still called upon to give aid to the beggar who finds himself in misery and agony on life's highway. But one day, we must ask the question of whether an edifice which produces beggars must not be restructured and refurbished.

Martin Luther King, Jr., 1968

The Martin Luther King Jr,. Research and Educational Institute

Wishing All
a
Happy New Year!

~ Merry Christmas ~

"comfort ye my people" messiah (el mesias)

Happy Thanksgiving

Autumn Leaves
Jill Peate Hall
Creative Commons Some Rights Reserved

Burned leaves, sage, thyme, spice
Light music, conversation
Family and friends

Independence Day

I like the fireworks and the parades. I look forward to hearing The Declaration of Independence read. I am an American and feel I am nothing else. There is ambivalence in this feeling, an unease; that I am a not yet a full citizen and regarded as such. I listened to the words when I was younger and knew someday I would be a full citizen.

We have served in the military in every war, believing in the promise of America and to show our fidelity. Serving at times with hopes that would bring us toward equality. Today

Yesterday

We want to be part of this new country, to experience freedom and to exercise a right to determine our destiny and representation; yet there are still many who see us as apart. They see us as not capable of having values to understand liberty and to be an American.

Sometimes I feel like this child.

Whose flag is it?

An enraged law enforcement officer wrestles an American flag out of the hands of a 5 year-old boy. Jackson, MS.

Memorial Day

Vietnam Memorial at Sunset

phil.thuma

This is the memorial of my generation, decorated with the sun.
The last wars have not granite memorials, but remembrance in the heart.

I Hate Today

Martin Luther King Jr.

Selma to Montgomery March, March 7, 1965, Bloody Sunday

Two years later after that letter below, our response was still the same to this kind of violence. Martin Luther King’s words endured. Our path determined!

His Words

From the “Letter From a Birmingham Jail,” April 16, 1963

There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience.

You express a great deal of anxiety over our willingness to break laws. This is certainly a legitimate concern. Since we so diligently urge people to obey the Supreme Court's decision of 1954 outlawing segregation in the public schools, at first glance it may seem rather paradoxical for us consciously to break laws. One may ask: "How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?" The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that "an unjust law is no law at all"

Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distort the soul and damages the personality. It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority. Segregation, to use the terminology of the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, substitutes an "I-it" relationship for an "I-thou" relationship and ends up relegating persons to the status of things. Hence segregation is not only politically, economically and sociologically unsound, it is morally wrong and sinful. Paul Tillich said that sin is separation. Is not segregation an existential expression of man's tragic separation, his awful estrangement, his terrible sinfulness? Thus it is that I can urge men to obey the 1954 decision of the Supreme Court, for it is morally right; and I can urge them to disobey segregation ordinances, for they are morally wrong.

Let us consider a more concrete example of just and unjust laws. An unjust law is a code that a numerical or power majority group compels a minority group to obey but does not make binding on itself. This is difference made legal. By the same token, a just law is a code that a majority compels a minority to follow and that it is willing to follow itself. This is sameness made legal.

Let me give another explanation. A law is unjust if it is inflicted on a minority that, as a result of being denied the right to vote, had no part in enacting or devising the law. Who can say that the legislature of Alabama which set up that state's segregation laws was democratically elected? Throughout Alabama all sorts of devious methods are used to prevent Negroes from becoming registered voters, and there are some counties in which, even though Negroes constitute a majority of the population, not a single Negro is registered. Can any law enacted under such circumstances be considered democratically structured?

Sometimes a law is just on its face and unjust in its application. For instance, I have been arrested on a charge of parading without a permit. Now, there is nothing wrong in having an ordinance which requires a permit for a parade. But such an ordinance becomes unjust when it is used to maintain segregation and to deny citizens the First-Amendment privilege of peaceful assembly and protest.

I hope you are able to see the distinction I am trying to point out. In no sense do I advocate evading or defying the law, as would the rabid segregationist. That would lead to anarchy. One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty. I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.

Read in its entirety

2007

Happy New Year!

2006

Fireworks at Penn's Landing in Philadelphia PA.

Peace

Peace

Silence

Tranquility

Absence of War

My wish for all

Massive Stars in Open Cluster Pismis 24
Credit: NASA, ESA and J. M. Apellániz (IAA, Spain).

Veterans Day

In appreciation and remembrance of veterans, I would like to share this poem. I found this at soldierworks.com, this site publishes veterans’ stories, poetry and videos.

We Buried Another Veteran Today

We buried another veteran today.

He went to his God, from us, he went away.

This one was young, in the prime of his life.

He left twin children and a very courageous wife.

It wasn't a bullet, a plane crash or a bomb.

It was cancer, and he just finally, could not hold on.

He fought "it" like a military campaign.

But the time came to surrender, to end his earthly pain.

He knew he would be fine in the presence of his Lord.

But what about his twins, those children he adored?

Will they grow strong and at "life" win.

Please God, let them always remember him.

We buried another veteran today.

It seems, all my life, it has happened this way.

From my uncles of the WW II-time frame.

To the military friends, Vietnam would claim.

For me the number of dead, is always on the rise.

When I get a call another veteran is gone, it is never really a surprise.

From lost sub-mariners, in early days of my life.

To the forever gone, military-medical friends of my veteran wife.

I lost a Korean War veteran friend this year, to a crashed airplane.

I lost a Gulf War friend to cancer, a difference in their age, but still that pain.

I lost an Uncle to cancer who did Korea with the Navy, steaming off shores.

I lost my father-in-law who fought in Korea, from a "fox-hole" in the frozen outdoors.

We buried another Veteran today.

It seems in all my family's generations, it happens this way.

From my Revolutionary War Grandfathers who started this sad, but needed trend.

To the family members on both sides in 1861, who just would not bend.

Some of my family lived a long and happy life, after "their" war.

They died of old age in their bed, safe-behind a locked door.

They died in battle, buried where they fell.

They died years later, carrying emotional scars, in their own personal hell.

My family is no different than thousands who met our Nation's call.

They rose to the demands of this country and some gave their "all".

We have to continue doing this, to make America free.

But, it's that Veteran's twin-little children that keeps worrying me.

We buried another Veteran today.

It seems all my life it continues this way.

Now my only child is nine and we reside on a military installation.

My wife and I truly want her to live safe, in a free nation.

But what happens, when it is her-generation's turn to make a stand.

Do we lose our only child in some forsaken-foreign land?

Does she play it safe, stay home and say "that's boy's stuff".

Or does she join like her mother and go right into the ruff.

She has to be that one Veteran I don't see, make that final "call".

Let me go before her, let me first give this country my fighting "all".

Maybe if I go "out-there" and make my final stand.

She can stay safe-at-home, in this wonderful free land.

We buried another Veteran today

Copyright, Major Van Harl, USAF Ret.Columbus Air Force Base, Mississippi, 28 November 2001

http://www.soldierworks.com/vh2.htm