These Are My JOTtings...

Happy Independence Day, USA!

Even though today's post is very specific in celebration of the United States of America, I would like to offer that all humans care about the freedom to be significant in their lifetimes.

My dear friends in Great Britain have probably at one time or another quipped that the War for American Colonial Independence was nothing more than a bit of a "Temper Tantrum" instigated when we served His Majesty's tea in Boston Harbor. Cheerio! Point well taken!

However, if I may be so bold, the entire issue surrounding The Declaration of Independence and the ensuing war was a demand to be considered significant among the peoples of the world., a demand to be allowed to worship God as we so chose (or not at all,) and a demand to be treated as equals, not as children with no say-so in the running of our lives.

Even the quip of "Temper Tantrum" shows a lingering attitude that the American colonists were (and maybe still are) nothing but "upstarts," who are not really worthy of respect in the world.

That being said, I know of few in the world who would declare that the United States of America has had no effect on world history during these past 241 years. We have earned a great deal of respect in world history, even correcting the hideous injustice of slavery, which was still in force at the time of our war with England over Independence and self-determination.

"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." Sadly, even while we were telling King George to "take a hike," we ourselves were enslaving an entire class of people, even as we did not want to be enslaved ourselves. So much for the Golden Rule.

"...all men are created equal,..." Thanks to William Wilberforce in Great Britain and President Abraham Lincoln in the United States, people of color were finally declared free by the 1860s in a large portion of the English-speaking world.

Yet, even today in the American South many of us, myself included sad to say, have quipped from time to time about the American Civil War as being "The War of Northern Aggression."

What do the barbs, "Temper Tantrum" and "War of Northern Aggression" have in common? Those, who were declared the defeated ones in these wars, have wanted to maintain the status quo in our hearts if not in reality. In short the attitude has not changed.

The bottom line is this. Even though we Americans are not always right, we have a heart that seeks justice as best we can understand it from our perspective. All humans seek to be good and right from their unique perspectives. Even humans, who are thought to be unjust by a majority of humans, appear to see themselves as in the right from their own perspectives.

May we humans consider our actions and the effects of our actions on others in the pursuit of true liberty. The Golden Rule states in essence "Let your actions toward other people be equal to the actions you wish to have done toward your own self."

If King George had treated the American colonists with respect and proper deference all those years ago, then I might still be a British citizen today, but alas His Majesty violated the Golden Rule and the Cuppa Tea in Boston Harbor was labeled, "Respect."

How many battles for independence in world history have been the fight for Respect?

How many battles could we avoid if we simply GIVE RESPECT? We may always wonder.