Try here. And it pretty much links back to all of them (or most).

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/therap/2009/02/in-the-service-of-justice.php

:)

DD, and Thera too because it's her post: Does liberty carry more responsibility than freedom does, or is neither responsible by itself without justice? Is the use of the word in the Pledge of Allegiance inspired by the catchy French Liberté?

If the Pledge ended "with freedom and justice for all", and we followed its intent, Justice could seem to have a hard row to hoe. I get an image of vehicles traveling helter skelter in all directions with no traffic lights or Stop signs, just some unlucky consequences for the many.

Maybe I'm nitpicking.

Maybe the use of freedom - as in "they hate us for our freedoms"-by GWB was crafty, deliberate framing. Or maybe growing up in peculiar privilege defined "freedom" in a perverse way for the shrub and shaped his disregard for the common good.

Wow... I'm speechless. Thanks for pointing that out. I have some reading to do.

The great leap of human development will be when enough human beings fully understand and take seriously what you just wrote above. It is no less than the recognition that we are not simply here for ourselves, but for eachother without any distinction between whether we are near or far from eachother.

Naturally, we all understand that as long as humans exist there will be inequalities. Things will never be perfect if people are involved. However, we also understand that it is within our power as human beings to make damn sure, despite all the imperfections will know will arise, that there is a floor below which no human being should be allowed to slip, that people must be treated with dignity and we must all provide for eachother if any of us is to survive, thrive, and to be free to fully express our humanity in the moments we are given.

Our heritage as humans is a long and brutal story of competition and struggle. It is a story of conflict after conflict punctuated on occasions of peace, prosperity and plenty. But competition for resources has historically compelled humans to renew conflicts of various sort out of a sense of fear and need to control resources.

It is time now to leave that behind because we realize that with all we have achieved this no longer need be the case. There does not need to be a priveleged few. There are plenty of resources for every human today to live a joyous, abundant, and productive life if we manage what we have been given by way of natural resources with just a smidgen of responsibility and care. If the sacrifice required is that there are no more Sir Allen Stanford's then so be it. I think we'll make it without them.

We must understand that oppression comes in many forms, it's most brutal and corrosive forms are not naked force but the far more seductive but deadly forms that divide humans, produce voluntary, slef-imposed oppression and deny the fundamental truth that humanity is one irrevocably connected fabric. All of us in existence today are connected to every human who ever lived prior to our births and we are, at this very minute, connected to and impacting the lives of every human being who is to come.

When the moment arrives, and a critical mass of revelation has been reached by the living, that is the day justice and freedom will begin to be seen on earth. This is the result humanity has always striven for, but the fears and small mindedness of our leaders and ourselves have distracted us from what we know in our bones is true, and that is that beyond being here to love and care for one another, we really don't have any idea why we are here.

Greed, which is born of fear and gluttony is antithetical to the idea of caring for one another. If we are ever going to achieve our purpose, even for a brief moment in time, then it must be a conscious and determined effort that brings it about. Every individual has a part to play in reaching this one certain purpose of humanity.

The story of humanity gives us hope for achieving this goal because despite all the conflict and violence, we have established a clear trajectory of progress over time. But this point in time is absolutely a critical turning point in the development of humanity. It may well be the pivotal moment in the history of humanity.

Survival, for the longest time, was the primary struggle but we have mastered the art of survival in earth's environment. The conflict and competition of the past clearly is not necessary. In order to move on to a better phase of humanity we must pass one final, but treacherous test of survival. That test is essentially whether or not we will allow the greed, avarice and megalomania of a small handful of humans who hold the reigns of power and wealth to destroy us and all we have achieved. Our ultimate survival test is whether it is within our capacity that we insist upon respecting and honoring eachother enough not to destroy the planet and ourselves through out of control industrialism or out of control military conflict and ultimately nuclear war.

I believe we can do it, but our leaders will not lead us there voluntarily in America or elsewhere. We common people all over the earth will have to demand that our leaders take us there and if they refuse we shall have to replace them with leaders who get it and are willing to lead in that direction.

This theme brings to mind another song from the early 20th Century, called Bread and Roses. It is a hauntingly beautiful tune born out of a bitter, but successful strike in New England led by the IWW. In this strike, men and women fought for progress together on several fronts against the vicious mill owners who used every possible means to crush the workers efforts at establishing greater equity and humanity in the mills. It was the women of Lawrence who stood out and captured the imagination of workers around the country with their fierce courage and determination as evidenced in this song.

Personally, I think it is beautiful. It brings tears to my eyes when I hear it and even when I read it. Bread and Roses demonstrates, among other things, the idea of our connectedness and how both the past and future are connected to the present. The first time I heard it was before a crowd of several hundred thousand on the elipse in Washington back in 1981. It was sung a capella by several women with marvelous voices that gently pierced the air from the Washington Monument to the White House. To me it is not only beautiful, but a sacred song.

"As we come marching, marching in the beauty of the day,
"A million darkened kitchens, a thousand mill lofts gray,
Are touched with all the radiance that a sudden sun discloses,
For the people hear us singing: "Bread and roses! Bread and roses!"

"As we come marching, marching, we battle too for men,
For they are women's children, and we mother them again.
Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes;
Hearts starve as well as bodies; give us bread, but give us roses!

"As we come marching, marching, unnumbered women dead
Go crying through our singing their ancient cry for bread.
Small art and love and beauty their drudging spirits knew.
Yes, it is bread we fight for -- but we fight for roses, too!

"As we come marching, marching, we bring the greater days.
The rising of the women means the rising of the race.
No more the drudge and idler -- ten that toil where one reposes,
But a sharing of life's glories: Bread and roses! Bread and roses!"

And so, as you read I hope you too can feel our ancestors crying out to connect to us today, teaching us and urging us to do so with eachother and with the future. There is no power greater than that which, as one common humanity, we already possess.