Let Freedom Ring July 4, 2018

July 4, 2018

My main source of connection these days is via social media: email and Facebook.  The tenor of the times on FB is lapsing into rants and sadness that permeates not only the liberal community, but probably the whole world.  

Complaints about the issues of the day.. DACA, border issues to the south, insults to our neighbors to the north and weigh ins by intelligent observers around the world are raising red flags. There's a call for reason, but there's a lot of angst and anger out there.

The reason that I wanted to write something on this day, the anniversary of our celebration of declaring independence has been spurred by the negativity that is rampant in the state of the world today.  I've just sent a note to a long lost relative with the phrase, "Let there be Peace on Earth and let it begin with me." It was written in 1955 by Jill Jackson-Miller and her husband, Sy Miller. (Thanks, Google) It's a hymn.   Church music has always been a source of inspiration and though my crossing the threshold to a church is not an activity that I've done much of in my life, the music has been memorable.   

That said.. If 'peace' is to begin with me.. I hope to encourage all of us to find a way to resist the negativity that is rampant in society now: to stop angry epithets and personal attacks on folks who seem to relish a fight.   Gandhi and MLK taught us something that is difficult for most folks to consider. We in the west, especially, are reactionary at the drop of an insult. Name calling seems to be a national past time!

I don't have specific answers, but I do know that if we allow others to goad us into an argument, that there will be arguing.   By exposing situations we know are wrong and discussing them with reason and working as individuals to create Peace, there may be hope.  We are on a slippery slope, however.. and having felt myself goaded recently by people who seem to have little regard for values that I hold dear, it's a challenge! 

A quote from a comic strip from days gone by just came to me.  "Pogo" by Walt Kelly says, "We have met the enemy and he is us..." We must not be our own enemy.  I just hope we can turn it around.

Be kind to someone today.. Pass it on.