DEPARTMENTS
ANTI-WAR
DEATH PENALTY
ELECTIONS
ENVIRONMENT
GLBT ISSUES
HEMP
INTERNATIONAL
NATIONAL
REVIEWS
|
Departments National Issues Where Is Our National Conscience? -President Franklin Delano Roosevelt "Mankind was my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!" -The Ghost of Jacob Marley Americans have long been enchanted by the story of our own magnificence. Deep in our national psyche lies the myth of our divine exceptionalism. As children, we were read the great American fairytale - the one about the precious God-blessed paradise, and its shining "city upon a hill", whose holy light leads the way in a dark and unholy world. As adults, we're still reading this story, only now to our own children. Viewing ourselves as the embodiment of absolute goodness in a world of evil, and of justice in a world unjust, we mistake our methods as entirely wholesome, and our purpose as completely pure. We even go so far as to sing "God Bless America" at our baseball games, and put "God Bless America" bumper stickers on our cars, believing somehow that America is divinely entitled, deserving of God's special favor. God, indeed, has blessed America, abundantly, as He has in varying ways all nations and peoples of His earth. We live in a time of unparalleled abundance. Our nation is blessed with riches and possibilities far beyond anything imagined by our ancestors. That we should be so fortunate to live in America at this time in history cannot be understated. How is it, then, that in the midst of all this greatness we are giving unwitting consensus to allowing more and more of our fellow citizens, disproportionately children, to fall into vulnerability, and into poverty? We profess to pollsters a high regard for "moral values", and yet why isn't poverty immoral? Why isn't lack of medical care immoral? Surely there is no more commanding moral imperative than to "value" the poor and the vulnerable, for whom the God of all religions admonishes us to care? That as a people we take so little interest in the troubles of those less fortunate demonstrates plainly that America is failing to honor God's blessing. We esteem ourselves an advanced society, and technologically we are. Yet as a nation obsessed with money and possessions, celebrity and sport, we are not advanced morally or spiritually. As a culture that has established monetary criteria for success or failure, we are not advanced morally or spiritually. As a society that increasingly misuses religion as justification for intolerance and division, we are not advanced morally or spiritually. A moral culture is defined through tolerance and compassion, and respect for the image of God in every person. A moral culture has a national conscience, upon which weighs heavily the plight of the nation's poor, and its vulnerable. In this way, a nation honors God's blessing. And where is our national conscience? Do we still have one? Parading a hatred of homosexuality under the banner of "moral values" is not the same as having a national conscience. Pushing an aggressive agenda of sexual morality legislation is not the same as having a national conscience. How can one read religious texts and find justification for such intolerance when others find inspiration for charity? America does not have a money problem - it has a priorities problem. We silently tolerate widespread poverty and blatant inequalities. We give tax cuts to the wealthy, and budget cuts to the poor. We allow forty percent of our fellow citizens to go without health care. We demand lower levels of government spending, thereby allowing higher levels of economic inequality. All this, even though the provision of decent subsistence, shelter, and health care are well within our national capacity to provide. If, as was apparent this past election, Americans across the political spectrum are to inject religion into the national political conversation, it must first and foremost be done with the common understanding that God is not partisan. Religion is a source of wisdom, strength, and moral clarity, not a source of words to be used to gain political advantage. Religion, if it is to be used politically at all, must be used only to rediscover the sense of the preciousness of every human being, our fundamental connectedness, and the responsibility we all share towards the common good. Our greatest challenge if we are to remain a great nation is not terrorism, and not Iraq. Our greatest challenge is to recover our national conscience. Many will choose to do this with the help of religion, and some without. But the only way to honor God's blessing of America is to become conquerors of poverty and ignorance, and not remain defenders of greed and arrogance. Only in this way can we actually be as good as we already see ourselves. Todd Huffman, M.D. Eugene, Oregon |
|
Recent National Issues Articles Stay granted pending appeal Divided we stand: The cleaving of America The Right, the Cross and the CIA: Immaculate Deception Degrees of Separation: Mass Murder Style Hispanic vote for GOP does not reflect long-term shift Gonzales is poor choice for U.S. Attorney General Tavis Smiley’s exit from NPR will be great loss for radio Basket brawl recreates gladiator-spectator relationship HRC releases World AIDS Day report card The Impossible Will Take a Little While: Hope in a Time of Fear Attorney jailed, released pending appeal on privilege issue Subordinating nation's secular values to zealots' will Sorry, No Foreign-Born Presidents Flight Attendants, the Working Day and Labor Solidarity Attorney refuses to testify, jailed Where Is Our National Conscience? Beam me Up Scotty… Under Cheney, Halliburton Helped Saddam Hussein Siphon Billions from UN Oil-for-Food Program Disinformation and Depleted Uranium The History of the CIA and the American Elections Coup Unnoticed 1st Amendment Abuses How Dick Cheney Got Away With $35 Million Right Before the Govt Launched a Probe into Halliburton The Results of Ten Years of Prosecution of Corporate Crimes Greens cite reasons for a new, independent 9/11 probe Empty Platform, Empty Town Ralph Nader Sleeping with the Enemy? Let's Be Fair Missing Government Documents- Berger and Bush ADC Update: Contact ADC if Approached by the FBI The isolation of Indiana, USA The Convention Speech A Child Longs To Hear Waging War with Wal-Mart Good for Business, Bad for the People Condi Rice salutes war president, It's not who you think Did Ashcroft 'behead' an innocent man in an Ohio election-terror scam? Ohio Muslims react to arrest of terror suspect New documents suggest Enron’s Lay, Skilling, Washington lobbyist knew about company’s trading schemes in California Ronald Reagan's Hip-Hop Legacy Impeach the SOB, Damn the Republicans-Full Speed Ahead! Labor Media May Be Our Best Hope Against the Corporate Version Energy advisors helped fund governor's campaign Schwarzenegger Pulls a Cheney; Aides Refuse to Identify People Who Helped Governor Draft Calif. Energy Plan Got Juice? California May Be Saddled With Severe Power Shortages This Summer Bush Was Warned of Possible Attack in U.S., Official Says Faking Democracy - Americans Don't Vote, Machines Do, & Ballot Printers Can't Fix That When Good Men Don't Do Nothing 9/11: It worked, didn't it? One quarter of every tax dollar you pay! $7 Trillion national debt driving interest expense to record highs The strange collapse of building seven Read National Issues Articles by Year: |
FREE PRESS EMAIL UPDATE
Donate to the Free Press Election Protection Fund to help us investigate and monitor election fraud in this year's election.
FOLLOW US ON
twitter
facebook
SEARCH THE FREEPRESS
1021 E. Broad St. Columbus, OH 43205 | 614.253.2571 | truth@freepress.org
All content © 1970-2012 The Columbus Free Press
Disclaimer