The Declaration of Independence and social justice

I heard it said once that we view our world as a set of opposites. Cold is the opposite of hot. Right is the opposite of wrong. When you think about it almost everything is seen as either hot or cold, right or wrong, black or white. Lets take it a bit further. Christian or Muslim. Legal Citizen or illegal immigrant. Law abiding or criminal. Saved or not saved. American or Arab.

But when will we move past that and become one? We are all created in the image and likeness of God. In fact, our very own Declaration of Independence says, “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.” True, pursuit of happiness replaced property so that slavery could be justified. BUT, that does not rule out the term “unalienable rights”. That means that the right to “life, liberty and pursuit of happiness” comes from God himself and therefore cannot be taken away. But is that not what happens when we hold others down or at least insult them for their beliefs, ethnicity, or skin color. How about when we do it because of their social situation?

The only way to make peace is to talk in a productive dialogue. The more we try to push our beliefs on others through any form of force or terror (including waving signs on Bourbon Street saying you are going to hell), all you do is push them further away. The only way to defeat terrorism is not war, but peace. We must be willing to listen and learn of their situation. But we must also be willing to care for others and quit putting our drive for more money at the front of our mind.

For example, giving food to Central America is great. But why give them food that can be produced and sold there? All you do is kill the local economy even more.

We have to let the problems of Arabs become our problems. We have to make the problems of the poor across town our problems. They aren’t getting enough money for food, yet we have enough money for too much food. To quote Hotel Rwanda, and we sit and say, “Wow, that’s horrible,” then go back to our TV show and dinner. Something is not right. No, we should not go and give up our money and extra possessions right now as individuals. That is why we have a government. Not to do the job for us, but to do the job in a centralized manner, beginning with proper education.