The Shalom Center - Fourth of July

Declaring Interdependence:Renewing the 4th of July

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 11:15:34 -0400

Rabbi Arthur Waskow, 7/28/2004

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for the peoples of the earth —
to declare our interdependence with each other and with all the life-forms of the planet,
and our independence from efforts by the most powerful and most reckless among the national governments to create a new and global Empire;

Then a decent respect to the opinions of Humanity requires that we declare the causes that impel us to rise beyond the present Powers of the earth and to embody our planetary community in new social, political, and economic forms.

We hold these truths to be self-evident:

A New Declaration of Independence (1909)

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 11:10:39 -0400

by Emma Goldman

(Published in Mother Earth, Vol. IV, no. 5, July 1909.)

When, in the course of human development, existing institutions prove inadequate to the needs of man, when they serve merely to enslave, rob, and oppress mankind, the people have the eternal right to rebel against, and overthrow, these institutions.

The mere fact that these forces — inimical to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness — are legalized by statute laws, sanctified by divine rights, and enforced by political power, in no way justifies their continued existence.

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all human beings, irrespective of race, color, or sex, are born with the equal right to share at the table of life; that to secure this right, there must be established among men economic, social, and political freedom; we hold further that government exists but to maintain special privilege and property rights; that it coerces man into submission and therefore robs him of dignity, self-respect, and life.

"What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?"

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 11:05:49 -0400

Frederick Douglass, 5 July 1852

Occasion: Meeting sponsored by the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society, Rochester Hall, Rochester, N.Y. To illustrate the full shame of slavery, Douglass delivered a speech that took aim at the pieties of the nation -- the cherished memories of its revolution, its principles of liberty, and its moral and religious foundation. The Fourth of July, a day celebrating freedom, was used by Douglass to remind his audience of liberty's unfinished business. See especially the passages in bold, in the middle and at the very end of the speech.

What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?

Limiting the powers of a king: The Bible

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 10:00:15 -0400

The Passage on a King:
Deuteronomy 17: 14-20

If, when you have entered the land
that YHWH [the Breath of Life] your God is giving you,
and you possess it and settle in it,
should you say:
I will set over me a king
like all the nations that are around me--
you may set, yes, set over you a king
that YHWH your God chooses;
from among your kinfolk you may set over you a king,
you may not place over you a foreigner
who is not kin to you.

Only: he is not to multiply horses [cavalry] for himself,
and he is not to return the people
to Mitzrayyim/ Tight and Narrow Place/ Egypt
in order to multiply horses,

WOMEN'S DECLARATION AT SENECA FALLS, JULY 4, 1848

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 09:57:10 -0400

The Declaration of Sentiments,
Seneca Falls Conference, 1848

Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, two American activists in the movement to abolish slavery called together the first conference to address Women's rights and issues in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848. Part of the reason for doing so had been that Mott had been refused permission to speak at the world anti-slavery convention in London, even though she had been an official delegate. Applying the analysis of human freedom developed in the Abolitionist movement, Stanton and others began the public career of modern feminist analysis