The concept of social justice has been a major force in my life since childhood. I have three principles that guide my life. Is it fair? Is it kind? Is it true?
We all know there's more to the Fourth of July than parades, barbecues, flags and fireworks. It's a day when we can reflect on and honor the courage of the people who took the first steps to right an unacceptable wrong. They fought and many of them died to leave as their legacy the independence that makes America so very different from any other country on Earth. These stirring words of our declaration tell everyone, without equivocation, that these are the foundation stones of our democracy.
"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."
I've done a lot of thinking about those concepts lately. Even as I think about the early struggles for independence I can't escape the very real fact that the concepts of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness still aren't a part of the reality of many Americans.
It seems to me that one effective way to combat the growing trend toward an acceptance of hatred and racism is to call them out when they show their ugly faces.
Do we, as a supposedly civilized society, have a responsibility to those among us who are, and have been, the object of racial and ethnic injustice?
Do we, as supposedly moral human beings, have a justification for laughing at racially insensitive comments or jokes?
Do we as people of honor have a right to look away when our brothers and sisters are made the objects of unrestrained discrimination?
We have to ask these questions of ourselves and those who would presume to lead our country.
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