Independence Day

america verse

As the power of ‘the 4th’ Reverberates in our collective consciousness…
Let’s think ‘Peace, Love & Understanding’…While imagining that the “bombs bursting in air” are beautiful, gentle fireworks of realization & enlightenment, Going off like light bulbs in American minds…Working towards a Global Interdependence Independence Day. A mutual dependency upon the independence of every nation and its people…Imagine everyone celebrating our differences with great admiration and respect…

We have all heard of Betsy Ross right?
I just love this enterprising woman who led a very interesting life. She was actually disowned as a Quaker because she married an Episcopalian, who was later ironically killed while guarding a munitions dump.So here she was a young widow, telling George Washington that she thought the 5 pointed star would look much better on the flag then his idea of having 6 pointed stars, true story. I can just picture her sitting in the back room of the small upholstery business she ran by herself, with this mighty symbol that she helped design, laid out on her sweet lap, sewing away.

Now I’m not much for nationalism with all its borders & power over others kind of patriotism, but I must admit I love to see a well-made flag flapping in the breeze. All flags are cool – family crests with their ancient symbols, & especially those colorful banners you see on the porches of houses, shaped like butterflies or autumn leaves. I’m just a sucker for a glyph in the wind, but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy a good flag burning, don’t get me wrong I love America, I just think fire rituals are very powerful & impacting. And as a matter of fact, at the BBQ I went to on the 4th a few years ago, the wind blew the table cloth decorated with American flags into a candle where it caught fire & I was the 1st (& only one) to shout yeah, burn the flag, burn the flag…I don’t think the Ginsberg’s totally get my sense of the dramatic…but I digress…
We all know what we’re talking about when we say ‘the 4th’ right…But when was the last time you stopped to think about what ‘the 4th’ is really all about. When I looked on the internet it gave me hit after hit on picnic ideas, & recipes for apple pie, hints on BBQ techniques, free patriotic screen savers, many downloadable versions of the “rockets’ red glare” with animated fireworks displays; & yet somehow they forgot to mention the fact that fireworks were a Chinese invention, an ancient art form that we took & made into gun powder.

I’m serious, is baseball & burnt wieners all there is?
Does anyone want to give us some history here, or a brief overview of the meaning of Independence Day? I was never much good with all the details, the dates & names & such, so history isn’t my strong point, but I’m always able to get the big picture, & it seems to be about freedom from oppression… ‘No taxation without representation’…& all that…the center point being the Declaration of Independence. When was the last time you read this important document of our countries origin? You can print it off the net.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people 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…”

Now before we all jump up & start pledging allegiance here, let’s remember that these ‘founding fathers’ with all their Masonic symbolism & righteousness, denied women the right to vote, & considered the Native American people to be “savages”. There is a direct reference to them as such in the document itself, & they felt justified in the systematic genocide of these highly spiritual people in the name of gentrifying the frontier. And of course most of these men were slave owners, participating in the unjustifiable atrocity of buying & selling human beings, virtually destroying the royal kingdom of the African people, employing many hideous human rights violations, enslaving them, raping, beating or working them to death. Can these sickening offences ever truly be rectified? Such a bitter legacy to add to our melting pot.

The rest of the document goes on to give a laundry list of the crimes against the colonists by the king of Great Britain, whose name happens to be George the 3rd…who says history doesn’t repeat itself, many of these same crimes were perpetrated not so long ago by George Bush & his dynasty.

Have we gained independence from one tyranny all those years ago, only to allow it to happen again on a world scale? Maybe it’s time to open our eyes & read the fine print of our birthright, reclaim our rights & go forward as a united community of World people, in peaceful justice, in equity, in reason, with compassion, having come through so much pain, to really start to, not just declare our independence, but to really live it…As individuals, as well as with the united community of the whole planet…
We have a strong voice…this is our world…our sacred space & we can sing any reality we want to…& I don’t know about you, but I’d rather sing ‘America the beautiful’, or even something like, ‘It’s A Small World After All’, then the war worshiping ‘Star Spangled Banner’ any day…

So for our next song, I’ll get off the soap box, & let the power of our united rhythm be our anthem…to bring healing & forgiveness to the old wounds & hope for the future…

blessed be…
~hag

american woman

“We can rise with the fire of freedom
Truth is the fire that burns our chains
& you can stop the fire of destruction
Healing is the fire running through our veins.”