INDEPENDENCE:
- the quality or state of being independent
- not dependent: as not subject to control by others
- SELF-GOVERNINGl not affiliated with a larger controlling unit
- not requiring or relying on something else : not contingent
INDEPENDENCE, upon reflection, may be even more precious to all us and our neighbors than we ever imagined. It points out that it isn't party ideology we long for, but for the basic human right to be free of one another's control and command.
Celebrating Independence Day this year with wars and violence so very present is difficult. Somehow bands, potato salad, flag waving and hamburgers on the BBQ seem disrespectful to those who are suffering, died and fighting for reasons that can't be explained in truth. Don't get me wrong, I am grateful today for living where I am safe...and for all those who have sacrificed to make it so, but I find it hard to party.
There is a deep sadness on this day for me, having to acknowledge that violence has become so much a part of the daily consciousness in our lives, in our neighborhoods, in our country, in our leader's "visions," in the wars we start, in how we treat one another and in places throughout the world --- it may have always been this way. History would suggest it. Perhaps, it is my eyes opening to pay attention enough to see it --- and in my lifetime, I don't remember it being so in-our-faces as it is now. DO YOU? What has happened to us? Mankind seems lost and leaders scarce and helpless.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. eloquently described the weakness of violence. providing a backdrop for reflection on Independence Day this year:
"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction.... The chain reaction of evil — hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars — must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation."
--- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Strength of Love, 1963
On Independence Day, I am thinking about what Dr. King told us --- "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." It is hard to escape it. Look around.
Debbe
Debbe Kennedy
Founder, Global Dialogue Center
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