Happy Independence Day!

Our nation is founded on the most amazing principles of human rights and democracy.  The law of the land is that every person is created equal, endowed with certain unalienable rights, such as life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  What perfect ideals.  However, throughout the ages we are discovering that while people are created equal they are not equal in our society.  The rich get richer, the pool of poor get larger, and the middle class is shrinking.  Politicians do so very little to make us a greater nation.

Instead of getting better as a nation we have stalled into partisan politics and as a nation we reflect the day’s psychology of selfishness and self-centered thought.  Instead of being a nation of people, we are individuals living in the same nation.  Instead of being part of a whole, made up of all different folks from all over the world, we are individuals who strive for ourselves first, our personal beliefs first and think of the country as one entity only when necessary, like when we are attacked.  It’s not the way it should be.

The natural course of events is for us to see ourselves not as individuals but as small parts of the bigger whole.  To see all people as our equal and to respect everyone in the world.  I do believe that radical Islamic thought is the reason for so much terrorism in the world, but does anyone think it would be so easy to recruit suicide bombers if we showed respect to everyone in the world? To not be so glib about collateral damage?   I am so grateful to live in this great country, and I celebrate this today, but I also think of how we can do a better job for ourselves, and how that will make the whole world a better place.