![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/641\/2018\/07\/Chains-Feet-Bondage-Prison-Freedom-Sand-19176.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nMy youngest woke me up this morning by waving a set of tiny American flags in my face, exclaiming about how it\u2019s going to be a happy day. And it is. We have the day off; it\u2019s my favorite ninety-degree-and-humid weather, and I scored some fabulous steaks from our local rancher. I\u2019ll probably fill the stock tank so the kids can cool off in the water, and if I\u2019m feeling like working up a sweat I\u2019ll ignore the heat advisory and scythe some hay, the old-fashioned way: freedom, right?<\/p>\n
Not really.<\/p>\n
I refrained from saying \u201cI wish we had some UK flags instead\u201d because it\u2019s pretty obvious that the UK has its problems, also, both in its shameful imperialist history and in its political choices today. But it feels wrong to be celebrating America. It feels like surrealism to be celebrating freedom<\/em> in America, particularly.\u00a0 If I have any freedom, it\u2019s a freedom that is only possibly because of chance, and because of privilege. And within narrow parameters. Yes, we have a transcendent freedom, an existential freedom, as humans, as spiritual beings. But we almost seem determined to ignore and abolish the transcendent within.<\/p>\nI don\u2019t mean that I feel like nihilistically divesting myself of the genuine goods in my life \u2013 but, we have a responsibility to think beyond what is immediately available to us. We must consider also our obligation to those who are deprived of these goods we so carelessly enjoy.<\/p>\n
How precarious our happiness is. It hangs by a thread. And if that thread should snap, would we be able to count on others to spare us a moment of mercy? Or would others not want to be made uncomfortable, by thinking about anything beyond the immediate pleasures of a bourgeois existence? \u201cNo man is an island\u201d \u2013 the famous quotation from Donne reminds us. But in order to enjoy our pleasures without troubling ourselves about those who are suffering precisely because of our unjust regime, often precisely because of wealth and privilege we personally enjoy, we have to slice ourselves off from the great body of humanity, and wallow in an illusory independence. And this has always been the case. This is our history.<\/p>\n
My friend Miles Woodfield captured what I was thinking perfectly, in a Facebook post today:<\/p>\n
During your brews and barbecues today, please take some time to remember the immigrant toddlers separated from their parents by U.S. officials, the children left fatherless by police violence, the middle eastern and Muslim brothers and sisters banned from our freedoms, and the massive discrepancy of people of color incarcerated by our government.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\nPlease take time to realize that while you get to spend time with your family, see the ones you love, and have some time to relax by the pool today, many families do not have that luxury for no reason other than injustice in the system, racism, and religious intolerance.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\nWhile you are watching the fireworks and smiling and clutching your kids close because you\u2019re so thankful for the freedoms you have, don\u2019t fool yourself. <\/em><\/p>\nWe are not free.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\nOr, perhaps, we are as free as the least free among us. Whatever one\u2019s fleeting individual experience of freedom to pursue the pleasures of the moment, this freedom is illusory so long as our brothers and sisters are in chains.<\/p>\n
Remember to call your representatives, join protests when you can, support humanitarian organizations, donate to fundraisers to raise bail and hire lawyers \u2013 and VOTE.<\/p>\n
image credit:\u00a0www.maxpixel.net\/Chains-Feet-Bondage-Prison-Freedom-Sand-19176<\/em><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It feels like surrealism to be celebrating freedom in America, particularly.\u00a0 If I have any freedom, it’s a freedom that is only possibly because of chance, and because of privilege. And within narrow parameters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2650,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,3,18,47],"tags":[193,320,1489,156],"class_list":["post-2224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-ethics","category-politics","category-social-justice","tag-freedom","tag-immigrants","tag-independence-day","tag-racism"],"yoast_head":"\n
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