Find Liberty Under the Sun

Abraham Lincoln wrote “…If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it. …”  His first priority was not my great-grandaunt, a newly freed slave forced to pull a cart until she died.  How many more women in my family would have experienced the unspeakable horror of not having dominion over their bodies if this supposedly great American leader could have unified the states without ending slavery?

People in power still seem intent upon ensuring it is business as usual even if others must be sacrificed.  People of color pay that price in blood (ongoing genocide), sweat (never knowing who dies next), and tears (burying too many boys).  Walk a painful mile in my shoes before suggesting I forget the past and just enjoy the conditional freedoms offered to me by this nation.  The struggle continues until my niece never has to walk in the shoes of Eric Garner’s daughter, mourning her father, or Trayvon Martin, slaughtered because he was walking while black, or Kaepernick, harassed because he took a knee, protesting America’s habitual failure to offer liberty and justice to all.

What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.  (Ecclesiastes 1:9 NIV)

The nothing new under the sun can be good or bad.  The time to choose is now.  It cannot be business as usual. 

America should not forget it was slow to address how the Nazis were murdering Jewish people during WWII or that it put Japanese-Americans in interment camps during the same war.  We run the risk of again being silent bystanders to religious persecution when we tolerate a presidential candidate who speaks of stopping all Muslims from entering our country.  The very same man stated "(t)he Mexican Government is forcing their most unwanted people into the United States. They are, in many cases, criminals, drug dealers, rapists, etc.”  It dishonors what this nation stands for when we embrace paranoia about everyone from a certain place being enemies of the state.  Being "innocent until proven guilty" must not apply to only certain people.  

So, stand up against religious oppression while making America the land of the free and the home of the brave, but learn from the mistakes made on July 4, 1776.  Choose leaders who truly believe God created all women and men equal, advocate for laws that protect every American citizen, and let the invitation on the Statue of Liberty "(g)ive me your...huddled masses yearning to breathe free..." be extended to everyone within and without our borders.