#United States – The Corrigan Encore

Daily writing prompt

What does freedom mean to you?

I won’t let you down
I will not give you up
Gotta have some faith in the sound
It’s the one good thing that I’ve got

Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
You’ve gotta give
For what you take

I loved all the George Michaels songs growing up and now the song Freedom is going to be stuck in my head all day. Freedom! Freedom! Man such a good song.

Freedom is pretty interesting concept. I was 17 years old when I decided I wanted freedom from my parents tyrannical rule (total joke there I had it made honestly, dad and mom only bugged me when I got out of line otherwise they supported me 100 %), looking for freedom from the parents and the town I grew up oin I joined the US Army.

I was told when to wake up, when to eat, when to go to sleep, where and how to do all that as well, so not much freedom. I finished up my contract with the US Army and entered the civilian world a free man. A free man with a family and bills to pay. To pay the bills I got a job and started school. The workplace bosses told me when to arrive at work when I could eat and how to do that.

No one is truly free, they are a slave to wealth, fortune, the law, or other people restraining them from acting according to their will.
Euripides

At one point in my career I had a very long commute that involved getting on and off the highway. Everyday at an intersection I would see a person with a cardboard sign asking for money. I felt bad for this person and if I had any cash I would try to give it to him.

There is legislation popping up now all over the United States that has made it illegal to be homeless. The cost of not working in a capital society seems to be homelessness and relying on others who are working or living “off the gird” like Thoreau did while writing Walden. Making it illegal to live this way seems to be an infringement of freedom.

For me freedom is the ability for me to make a choice and live with it.

Since 1976 every US president has officially designated the month of February as Black History month. In 1865 the United State abolished slavery by amending the US Constitution. After abolishing slavery, racism persisted within the United States. So much racism persisted that laws needed to be changed again. The laws needed to be changed because the racism was entrenched and written into the laws and part of the culture of the United States. The law was changed in the United States in 1964, the change in the laws was known as the “Civil Rights Act of 1964“. The Civil Rights act explicitly prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin.

Even with this new law racism has persisted within the United States in a systematic manner. One major system that has promoted racism, through exclusion, is the public and private education system in the United States. Black citizens contributions to the United States throughout history are excluded from the history books and curriculum within the school system.

Human beings become the stories they are told and tell. If we exclude a race of people from the collective stories what we become is less diverse and racist.

Right now in different parts of the United States of America there is an effort underway by racists to prevent curriculum changes to the public school systems that would include black folks and indigenous people.

As a society it is important to stand against racism like the efforts to stop teaching our children about black history and racism that exists and did exist.

One way to make a difference is by letting your voice be known at the ballot box by not voting for these racists. Another way to make a change is through teaching your children the truth and telling the stories that are diverse. There is no better time to resolve our will to fight racism within the United States than Black history month!

Tag: #United States

That is what I will be hearing all day now

This Month