Conceived
in Liberty
“To
every people the land is given on condition. Perceived or not, there
is a covenant, beyond the constitution, beyond sovereign guarantee,
beyond the nation's sweetest dreams of itself.”
Leonard
Cohen
Abraham Lincoln thought
of America as “an almost chosen nation.” He believed that we had
a providential role to play in the world that was almost as sacred as
God's covenant with the Hebrew people. When he wrote the words of the
Gettysburg Address, “...our fathers brought forth on this
continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the
proposition that all men are created equal,” he did so because he
held us to a greater purpose, a higher calling.
Since its inception,
we have believed this country to be “the land of the free, and the
home of the brave.” We have often fallen short of that mark—with
our Native people, with our black and brown people, with our
women—but we were still trusted around the world as a land where
freedom rings. I feel very sad that, in the course of one week, we
have allowed the destruction of the “sweetest dreams” of
ourselves, and turned back two hundred years of progress. There is an
older, deeper covenant to be honored here that is neither
represented, nor respected, by the protectionism and cruelty of this new
leadership.
Winona LaDuke, outspoken
advocate for the preservation and protection of tribal lands, says
this: “Whether you have feet, wings, fins, or roots, we are all in
it together.” When a people do not honor the covenant between
themselves and their creator, they lose the land they cherish.
Consider for a moment the ancient text of the Old Testament and what
happened to the Hebrew people whenever they went astray—they found
themselves either in exile, in the wilderness, occupied by an enemy
force, or worst of all, in captivity. All of us, whether footed,
winged, finned or rooted, must do what we can to hold on to the
promise of liberty and justice for all—or else, there may be
liberty and justice for none.
In the Spirit,
Jane
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