States of the Union

I have been going back over old blog posts for July 4; it's interesting to me how my mood has shifted through the years.  After the election in November, I might have thought I would be writing a 4th of July blog post about how democratic processes and procedures worked as they should.  But I continue to be worried about how these tests may have weakened democratic processes and procedures.

I do hope that now that more of us are paying attention, maybe there will be more protections.  But as with the recent condo collapse, I know that just because we pay attention, we can't always do what's needed.

I think about people across the globe who struggle to achieve the kinds of freedoms that so many of us in industrialized nations take for granted. It's a cliché, to be sure, but it's important to remember.

History reminds us that those liberties can fairly easily be taken away, and most of us will never blink an eye--at least until it's too late. We live in precarious times--perhaps we always live in precarious times, but I'm more aware of it in recent years.  Perhaps I feel even more the precarious times, in light of the January 6 insurrection.

But let me not get bogged down in fears. Instead, let me be inspired by those men who signed the Declaration of Independence on this day in 1776. They pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor, so great was their belief in what they were doing.

I realize that those men were committed to freedom for a much more narrow section of society than many of us would want to believe.   It's good to remember how slowly those freedoms came for the majority of us, a good day to remember how much effort (and money and blood) it took.  It's a good day to think about our commitments, our values, what we hold most true.  

Of course, it's always a good day to do that--let me always be trying to live a life that's in sync with my truest values. Let me always be ready to stake my sacred honor on principles that are that important.