Observations©

By Donald S. Conkey

Date: June 19, 2008 - # 8825 - Title:  232 Years Ago (820)

Two hundred and thirty-two years ago this week Thomas Jefferson, at the request of the first Congress, sat down to draft a document that would separate the thirteen British Colonies from their motherland England, and the tyranny of King George III. Jefferson opened with: “When in the course of human events …”

This document has become known as America’s Declaration of Independence and has, in the ‘course’ of 232 years of subsequent ‘human events’ become a beacon of hope for the worlds enslaved. This document led to a war fought to rid the world of tyrants. That war is still being waged. This coming July 4^th America will celebrate the 232^nd anniversary of the signing of that document by 66 true patriots.

July 4, 1776 was a historic day, not unlike June 3, 2008 which was another historic date, a day few Americans, especially African Americans, believed would ever happen. An African American became the official presidential candidate for a major political party in America. If he is elected President of the United States it would bring to an end 232 years of white presidents, mostly ‘White Anglo Saxon Protestant” presidents.

As I ponder this historic event my mind thinks of the events that led up to this day. There were the initial debates in 1787 during the constitutional convention where the issue of slavery was debated vigorously, then compromised when two states, Georgia and South Carolina, threatened to withdraw from the union if slavery were ended. The compromise was that in 1808 all the states would free their slaves. It didn’t happen.

This led to another war that was fought fifty-two years later between father and son, brother and brother, a civil war over the right of a state to withdraw from the Union. It was during this war that Lincoln emancipated the slaves – freedom for all at last. Yet it would be another 100 years before Martin Luther King arrived to lead a people against government sanctioned oppression. I witnessed this movement first hand including watching King’s casket being pulled by a team of mules in downtown Atlanta.

Now forty years later another historic day. Where will this historic day lead too? No one knows. Many are elated, elated over the prospects of a charismatic African American being elected president. Others are scared, scared of the unknown that is unfolding before during this unusual campaign. The one thing we can predict with certainty is that the November 2008 election will see a record number of voters casting ballots.

My thoughts then turned to the scriptures where I looked up verses referencing liberty and freedom. One of the best known scriptures is the one where Moses declared: “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land and to all the inhabitants thereof: …”  Then, about 1750, the followers of William Penn inscribed this verse on a bell, a bell that is now an icon of freedom, America’s Liberty Bell, housed in Independence Square in Philadelphia. And America has by example, until recent years, ‘proclaimed liberty’ to the world, freeing millions from slavery and providing them with an opportunity to become what they may, even president of the United States.

Another tells how He suffered “the laws and constitution to be established and should be maintained for the rights and protection of all flesh, according to just and holy principles.” It continues with: “it is not right that any man should be in bondage one to another. And for this purpose have I established the Constitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose, and redeemed the land by the shedding of blood.”

But can America preserve its liberty and freedoms? This election should answer this question.

Moses made it clear that both personal and national freedoms are subject to obedience to God’s moral laws. The Israelites ignored Moses’ counsel and were ‘scattered’ and ‘dispersed,’ lost to the world for centuries. America’s Founders understood America’s future freedoms were based on those same moral laws. It was Washington who stated “And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”

 I agree with both candidates that change is needed in our government: big changes. But the question is: will it be the kind of change Moses and Washington spoke of: a rejection of secularism and materialism with a return to the principles America was founded on as prescribed in its two foundational documents?

But now, as we prepare to choose our future president, one question keeps nagging at me: “Can America Ignore ‘the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God’ (Jefferson’s words) and Survive?” Let’s hope ‘the people’ make a wise choice in July and in November.