Arlene Violet: On This 250th Birthday, Have the Candles Been Blown Out?

Arlene Violet: On This 250th Birthday, Have the Candles Been Blown Out?

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed -  Declaration of Independence, JULY 4, 1776

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, my sister and brother, Americans! We have made it through 250 years, believing in the previously mentioned declaration, well, sort of. Thomas Jefferson and other so-called Fathers of our country were slave owners. Slavery persisted for many years, and it took a civil war to recognize that the color of one’s skin does not change someone from being a human. Women’s right to vote lagged behind equal treatment, and Civil Rights laws were quite late in being recognized in law. Nonetheless, the concept of equality has governed the sentiment of being an American for all these years, until now.

A New York Times column by Kim Phillips-Fein, a professor at Columbia, explores the claims of the superwealthy.

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Now, far too many folks, primarily billionaires, have eschewed the concept of egalitarianism. Peter Thiel, in his 2014 book, ZERO TO ONE, argued that entrepreneurs like himself outstrip all rivals, which is the law of the universe. By the 19th century, industrial capitalists argued in support of inequality, asserting that the assertion that all men are created equal is the purest falsehood in dogma ever put into human language. 

Such captains of industry, from Henry Ford, Andrew Carnegie, to today’s tech barons, praise inequality as a new virtue, so, since nobody is as good as they are, they rule. Ironically, many billionaires, although not all, start with inherited wealth like Donald Trump, and get incredible tax favors to keep them in the style to which they have become entitled. Their businesses receive tax breaks since they create jobs(and also fire folks, too), and bankruptcy gives them a fresh start.

The Yale political economist William Graham Sumner wrote that “the assertion that all men are equal is perhaps the purest falsehood in dogma that was ever put into human language.”

So, I started thinking whether the concept of inequality as the new norm has infected the general population. I think so. One only has to look at “religious people” who do not blink at a lot of inhumane acts, particularly against immigrants, just as long as the politician doing the harm is theoretically opposed to abortion. President Trump’s largest block of supporters are white Christians who want to protect the fetus while not giving a darn for people for whom they have proof are already born. Far too many also consider themselves superior because of their religious beliefs so that is their own brand of inequality.

The Bill of Rights has been the cornerstone of justice for Americans. Do the majority of today’s citizens give two hoots about the rights enshrined in these precepts? I think many do not. The ruling class” supports the doctrines of 'fake news,' and 'woke rhetoric' in accepting the most blatant lies told by the President, who routinely tries to abridge the Constitution.

President Donald Trump has weaponized the Dept of Justice against his enemies, secured a lifetime pardon for any income taxes returns past, present and future he may deign to file or not, politicized the military and stationed them in states where some of the governors or mayors objected to their presence, started a war with Iran without congressional approval, gutted health care for working poor people, persecuted universities who are not to his liking ideologically, and makes millions of family dollars with deals for himself despite the conflict of interest. Yet, 35% of the country and readers here laud him.

The President has captured July 4th as a day of veneration for himself. With his rally and his multiple images on banners throughout D.C., he reminds me of Saddam Hussein, who did the same self-glorification. Mr. Trump’s 60-million-dollar testosterone-laden celebration on the White House lawn, where men pummeled each other in a cage, was hardly a stunning example of what principles should govern America.

So, on our birthday rooted in equality and respect for the Bill of Rights, I pray that we do not forfeit those principles that guide our country and that motivate us to see others as our neighbors in other countries. America still has a great heart, as was witnessed by the tens of thousands of visitors from other countries during the World Cup. Now, if we can only rejoice in sharing that cup of brotherhood with others, America may see another rebirth on the principles upon which we were founded. In John Quincy Adams and Daniel Webster’s eyes, the highest attainment of future Americans would be to understand and live up to the greatness of the American Revolution, namely the idea of independence itself, the political freedom expressed most memorably in the document whose 250th anniversary we are celebrating.