VOICES THAT MATTER
…the beginning of the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States: “We, the people.” It’s a very eloquent beginning. But when that document was completed on the seventeenth of September in 1787, I was not included in that “We, the people.” I felt somehow for many years that George Washington and Alexander Hamilton just left me out by mistake. But through the process of amendment, interpretation, and court decision, I have finally been included in “We, the people.”
Today I am an inquisitor. An hyperbole would not be fictional and would not overstate the solemnness that I feel right now. My faith in the Constitution is whole; it is complete; it is total. And I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction, of the Constitution.
“Who can so properly be the inquisitors for the nation as the representatives of the nation themselves?” “The subjects of its jurisdiction are those offenses which proceed from the misconduct of public men.” And that’s what we’re talking about. In other words, the jurisdiction comes from the abuse or violation of some public trust.
-Barbara Charline Jordan Statement on the Articles of Impeachment 1974
“Recently, climate change has been dominating headlines and conversations as the existential threat to human survival; yet nuclear weapons continue to pose the other great existential threat — and that threat is accelerating. Climate change promises to rework the world violently yet gradually. Nuclear war could spell instantaneous global destruction, with little or no advance warning.”
“The greatest tragedy of the 21st century may be that we have learned so little from the greatest tragedies of the 20th century. Apparently, catastrophe lessons need to be experienced firsthand by each generation. So, here are some refreshers: Nuclear conflict may mean the end of life on this planet. Mass dehumanization can lead to genocide. The death of an independent press can lead to tyranny and render a population helpless to protect itself against a government that disdains law and conscience.”
From: Lesley Blume – Author of the book “Fallout”
Common ground. That’s the challenge of our party tonight — left wing, right wing.
Progress will not come through boundless liberalism nor static conservatism, but at the critical mass of mutual survival — not at boundless liberalism nor static conservatism, but at the critical mass of mutual survival. It takes two wings to fly. Whether you’re a hawk or a dove, you’re just a bird living in the same environment, in the same world.
The Bible teaches that when lions and lambs lie down together, none will be afraid, and there will be peace in the valley. It sounds impossible. Lions eat lambs. Lambs sensibly flee from lions. Yet even lions and lambs find common ground. Why? Because neither lions nor lambs want the forest to catch on fire. Neither lions nor lambs want acid rain to fall. Neither lions nor lambs can survive nuclear war.
If lions and lambs can find common ground, surely we can as well — as civilized people.
-Jesse Jackson 1988 Democratic National Convention Address
Common ground.
America is not a blanket woven from one thread, one color, one cloth. When I was a child growing up in Greenville, South Carolina and grandmamma could not afford a blanket, she didn’t complain and we did not freeze. Instead she took pieces of old cloth — patches, wool, silk, gabardine, crockersack — only patches, barely good enough to wipe off your shoes with. But they didn’t stay that way very long. With sturdy hands and a strong cord, she sewed them together into a quilt, a thing of beauty and power and culture. …we must build such a quilt.
But don’t despair. Be as wise as my grandmamma. Pull the patches and the pieces together, bound by a common thread. When we form a great quilt of unity and common ground, we’ll have the power to bring about health care and housing and jobs and education and hope to our Nation.
We, the people, can win.
-Jesse Jackson 1988 Democratic National Convention Address 
“A Grandmamma’s Quilt”
The 1930’s taught us a clear lesson: aggressive conduct, if allowed to go unchecked and unchallenged, ultimately leads to war. This nation is opposed to war. We are also true to our word. Our unswerving objective, therefore, must be to prevent the use of these missiles against this or any other country, and to secure their withdrawal or elimination from the Western Hemisphere.
Our policy has been one of patience and restraint, as befits a peaceful and powerful nation which leads a worldwide alliance. We have been determined not to be diverted from our central concerns by mere irritants and fanatics. But now further action is required, and it is under way; and these actions may only be the beginning. We will not prematurely or unnecessarily risk the costs of worldwide nuclear war in which even the fruits of victory would be ashes in our mouth; but neither will we shrink from that risk at any time it must be faced.
-John F. Kennedy Cuban Missile Crisis Address to the Nation 1962
We face, therefore, a moral crisis as a country and a people. It cannot be met by repressive police action. It cannot be left to increased demonstrations in the streets. It cannot be quieted by token moves or talk. It is a time to act in the Congress, in your State and local legislative body and, above all, in all of our daily lives. It is not enough to pin the blame on others, to say this a problem of one section of the country or another, or deplore the facts that we face. A great change is at hand, and our task, our obligation, is to make that revolution, that change, peaceful and constructive for all. Those who do nothing are inviting shame, as well as violence. Those who act boldly are recognizing right, as well as reality.
-John F. Kennedy Civil Rights Address 1963
Four Freedoms
For there is nothing mysterious about the foundations of a healthy and strong democracy.
The basic things expected by our people of their political and economic systems are simple. They are:
Equality of opportunity for youth and for others.
Jobs for those who can work.
Security for those who need it.
The ending of special privilege for the few.
The preservation of civil liberties for all.
The enjoyment — The enjoyment of the fruits of scientific progress in a wider and constantly rising standard of living.
These are the simple, the basic things that must never be lost sight of in the turmoil and unbelievable complexity of our modern world. The inner and abiding strength of our economic and political systems is dependent upon the degree to which they fulfill these expectations.
-Franklin Delano Roosevelt The Four Freedoms 1941
Peace & Freedom
But wherever we are, we must all, in our daily lives, live up to the age-old faith that peace and freedom walk together. In too many of our cities today, the peace is not secure because freedom is incomplete. It is the responsibility of the executive branch at all levels of government — local, State, and National — to provide and protect that freedom for all of our citizens by all means within our authority. It is the responsibility of the legislative branch at all levels, wherever the authority is not now adequate, to make it adequate. And it is the responsibility of all citizens in all sections of this country to respect the rights of others and respect the law of the land.
-John F. Kennedy American University Commencement Address 1963
Atoms for Peace
On July 16, 1945, the United States set off the world’s first atomic explosion.
Since that date in 1945, the United States of America has conducted forty-two test explosions. Atomic bombs today are more than twenty-five times as powerful as the weapons with which the atomic age dawned, while hydrogen weapons are in the ranges of millions of tons of TNT equivalent.
Today, the United States stockpile of atomic weapons, which, of course, increases daily, exceeds by many times the total [explosive] equivalent of the total of all bombs and all shells that came from every plane and every gun in every theatre of war in all the years of World War II.
…the United States pledges before you, and therefore before the world, its determination to help solve the fearful atomic dilemma — to devote its entire heart and mind to find the way by which the miraculous inventiveness of man shall not be dedicated to his death, but consecrated to his life.
-Dwight D. Eisenhower Atoms for Peace 1953
"A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both. Whatever America hopes to bring to pass in the world must first come to pass in the heart of America." Dwight D. Eisenhower- Inaugural Address, Washington, D.C., 1/20/53
…women come together every day in every country. We come together in fields and factories, in village markets and supermarkets, in living rooms and board rooms. Whether it is while playing with our children in the park, or washing clothes in a river, or taking a break at the office water cooler, we come together and talk about our aspirations and concern. And time and again, our talk turns to our children and our families. However different we may appear, there is far more that unites us than divides us. We share a common future, and we are here to find common ground so that we may help bring new dignity and respect to women and girls all over the world, and in so doing bring new strength and stability to families as well.
What we are learning around the world is that if women are healthy and educated, their families will flourish. If women are free from violence, their families will flourish. If women have a chance to work and earn as full and equal partners in society, their families will flourish. And when families flourish, communities and nations do as well. That is why every woman, every man, every child, every family, and every nation on this planet does have a stake in the discussion that takes place here.
-Hillary Rodham Clinton Remarks to the U.N. 1995
At the present moment in world history nearly every nation must choose between alternative ways of life. The choice is too often not a free one. One way of life is based upon the will of the majority, and is distinguished by free institutions, representative government, free elections, guarantees of individual liberty, freedom of speech and religion, and freedom from political oppression. The second way of life is based upon the will of a minority forcibly imposed upon the majority. It relies upon terror and oppression, a controlled press and radio, fixed elections, and the suppression of personal freedoms.
I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.
-Harry S. Truman The Truman Doctrine 1947
The United States contributed $341 Billion toward winning World War II. This is an investment in world freedom and world peace. It is only common sense that we should safeguard this investment and make sure that it was not in vain. The seeds of totalitarian regimes are nurtured by misery and want. They spread and grow in the evil soil of poverty and strife. They reach their full growth when the hope of a people for a better life has died.
We must keep that hope alive.
The free peoples of the world look to us for support in maintaining their freedoms. If we falter in our leadership, we may endanger the peace of the world. And we shall surely endanger the welfare of this nation.
Great responsibilities have been placed upon us by the swift movement of events.
I am confident that the Congress will face these responsibilities squarely.
-Harry S. Truman The Truman Doctrine 1947
In this country — the most favored beneath the bending skies — we have vast areas of the richest and most fertile soil, material resources in inexhaustible abundance, the most marvelous productive machinery on earth, and millions of eager workers ready to apply their labor to that machinery to produce in abundance for every man, woman, and child — and if there are still vast numbers of our people who are the victims of poverty and whose lives are an unceasing struggle all the way from youth to old age, until at last death comes to their rescue and lulls these hapless victims to dreamless sleep, it is not the fault of the Almighty: it cannot be charged to nature, but it is due entirely to the outgrown social system in which we live that ought to be abolished not only in the interest of the toiling masses but in the higher interest of all humanity….
I am opposing a social order in which it is possible for one man who does absolutely nothing that is useful to amass a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars, while millions of men and women who work all the days of their lives secure barely enough for a wretched existence.
I never so clearly comprehended as now the great struggle between the powers of greed and exploitation on the one hand and upon the other the rising hosts of industrial freedom and social justice. I can see the dawn of the better day for humanity.
-Eugene Debs Statement to the Court 1918
We are a nation that has a government — not the other way around. And this makes us special among the nations of the earth. Our Government has no power except that granted it by the people. It is time to check and reverse the growth of government which shows signs of having grown beyond the consent of the governed.
Government can and must provide opportunity, not smother it; foster productivity, not stifle it. If we look to the answer as to why for so many years we achieved so much, prospered as no other people on earth, it was because here in this land we unleashed the energy and individual genius of man to a greater extent than has ever been done before.
-Ronald Reagan First Inaugural Address 1981
Know the differences between
a fight, an argument,
and a debate.
A fight is simply when people throw their feelings at each other. There’s no interest in understanding, compromising, or listening. Walk away from a fight. Every time. There are never any winners in this situation. Even if you “win” a fight, it’s likely the damage you have caused to the other person, and thus to your own personhood, has caused you loss. Walk away.
An argument is a disagreement that is hoping to reach a conclusion. I will say this loudly and repeatedly. Argue to resolve, not to win. RESOLUTION not VICTORY is your goal in an argument. A good argument requires a lot of listening, which we’ll cover in the 9th commandment.
A debate is more of a banter of ideas and is less personal than the first two. A debate is not necessarily seeking a conclusion or resolution, and is often for the benefit of the audience more than the debaters. A debate is an airing of ideas, and exploration of thoughts and logic. Think of it as a persuasive essay in speech form. Emotion, insults, and negativity have no room in a mature, responsible discourse.
Lindsey Murphy’s blog, “Advice from a mom to her kids”.
In 1963 over 70 percent of Americans trusted government to do the right thing all or most of the time; nowadays only 16 percent do. There has been a similar decline in trust for corporations. In the late 1970s, 32 percent trusted big business, by 2016, only 18 percent did.
Trust in banks has dropped from 60 percent to 27 percent. Trust in newspapers, from 51 percent to 20 percent. Public trust has also plummeted for nonprofits, universities, charities, and religious institutions.
Why this distrust? As economic inequality has widened, the moneyed interests have spent more and more of their ever-expanding wealth to alter the rules of the game to their own advantage.
Too many leaders in business and politics have been willing to do anything to make more money or to gain more power – regardless of the consequences for our society.
The challenge is to turn all this into a new public spiritedness extending to the highest reaches in the land – a public morality that strengthens our democracy, makes our economy work for everyone, and revives trust in the major institutions of America.
Robert Reich, “Why the Common Good Disappeared
(And How We Get it Back)
A preacher in Oklahoma had this to say about the Common Good…
“the common good” is only discovered by the common people, never by those with power or money at stake. The profit motive is a great incentive to demand an official narrative and to ensure that any narrative that does not conform is silenced. Demands for conformity, uniformity, and synonymity of the common people are the symptoms of tyranny, not liberty.
It is an old trial lawyer saying that “When the facts are on your side, pound the facts. When the law is on your side, pound the law. When neither is on your side, pound the table.” The moment you see the establishment pound a person’s character, motive, or mental state, it is a tell-tale sign that the facts and the law aren’t on the pounders’ side.
Distrust of those in power is healthy. Blind trust of the establishment will always lead to oppression. The common man must hold those in power accountable, for history has shown that for those in power, profit motive always trumps the common good.
Before you acquiesce to a government demand “for the common good,” ask yourself the questions who’s at the top, and who’s telling you it’s for your good, and who stands to profit if you obey? Nature itself might give you a better alternative than those in power.
Wade Burleson Istoria Ministries Blog May 23, 2020
Health and medical care have long been objects of moral concern and controversy in the United States. Today, it is common knowledge that millions of Americans lack insurance and thus access to needed care, that the costs of health care are high and growing at an alarming rate, and that the quality of care is mixed. These are problems of widespread concern among Americans—just as the proposed solutions to these problems are matters of pervasive controversy.
How should we think ethically about health care? How should we think about responsibility and obligation—about individual and social responsibility and obligation—in relation to human need to maintain health and to prevent as well as ameliorate disease?
A good society that recognizes the equal dignity of its members can, should, and, indeed, must respond to such avoidable human suffering—especially a society as affluent as our own. Our society has a moral obligation, not to meet every conceivable health-related need of every citizen, but rather to ensure that its members—especially the vulnerable members of our society—have the requisite ability to meet their needs for emergency, catastrophic, and chronic care.
Medical Care and the Common Good, Dr.’s Thomas W. Merrill & David G. Miller, 2008
Medical Care and the Common Good, Dr.’s Thomas W. Merrill & David G. Miller, 2008
…health care is often described and treated either as a commodity or as the subject of a right that individuals possess, and polities are duty-bound to provide. Although there may be grounds for those assertions, they are rarely questioned or examined as claims worthy of careful scrutiny, especially in light of what is at stake in these debates: matters of critical importance to all Americans simply because every American is human and, as such, is vulnerable to illness and needful of healing…we subject these claims to scrutiny and ultimately conclude that medical care is a human good, specifically an essential element of the common good, and that our society has an obligation to ensure that its citizens who need it have access to it.
…we contend that the language of rights, like that of markets and commodities, can easily skew our moral perceptions and deliberations.
We argue that the focus of our moral concern should be medical care—that is, emergency, catastrophic, and chronic care—and that a good society has an obligation to make sure that its citizens have access to it.