Fundamental to the notion of America is that all people are equal, endowed with inalienable rights, among those rights are liberty, life, and the pursuit of happiness. In the course of our nation’s history, growth towards those ends has been remarkably painful, but we do still stretch for the light of the greatest good, not because it is easy, but because it is hard. We have traveled to the heavens together and yet to stand united; is perhaps our greatest test. The law of our land is incomplete until there is a recognition in the Great Document, the origin of our recognized authority as a people, that rights are not to be bartered at the auction of politics, but are to be affirmed by the people and exercised freely. A unity of goodness is required to accomplish such an undertaking, and no banner of goodness may be left unheralded. We have not reached the promise land and we will not do so until the flags of freedom, are conjoined to inspire all creeds, all sexes and orientations, all skin tones, all abilities and manners of existence to live in freedom and the pursuit of happiness without infringement from an aggressive minority determined to dominate and control the rights of others. Goodness must believe that an equal rights amendment is not only possible but necessary for our country to realize the substance of its ideals and begin to abandon the notion that rights are gifts of the privileged bestowed for the determination of power. A unified ERA would exercise the rights of humanity, not in a constant state of polarity, but rather, in a state of unified equality.
“More and more I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people.”
Here is Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail,” as it appeared in the August 1963 issue of The Atlantic:
Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘Letter From Birmingham Jail’
theatlantic.com
We’ve missed you Eryn - glad you made it home safe, and it’s like you haven’t missed a beat! 😉