Apple Pie and the 4th of July

photo from Wikicommons, Pascual de Ruval

Back in the day when I was working as a community activist in poverty and women's issues, I learned the urban take on that line in the Pledge of Allegiance was "...with liberty and justice for y'all." People who were poor, black, Hispanic or female felt left out of liberty and justice because they couldn't afford it. They couldn't afford safe housing. They couldn't afford nutritious food. They were fast losing the ability to pay for heat with rising oil prices. When they needed legal advice, they couldn't afford lawyers. They couldn't afford medical care. Lots of them worked, but at low paying jobs without bennies. I have said many times since then, the hardest working people in this country are the poor. People at the top of the heap don't know that, but it is true.

Things have changed, but for folks at the bottom of the socio economic barrel, not much. Yet on this American birthday, on this 4th of July, our government is turning back against the anti poverty programs that made such a difference in the 70's, 80's and 90's. Congress has tried dozens of times to stop health care extension to people who work and have no insurance. Congress attacks social security, food stamps, WIC, college loans, and Goddess knows what else. Anything that supports the working poor and middle class, especially labor unions, has become some sort of infringement of the rights of the rest of us, as if "entitlements" attack apple pie.

Huh? How is that possible? Those are my rights I am entitled to: life (to live in a safe neighborhood, to have access to health care that I can afford, to collect my social security, to buy safe food, to go out at night as a woman and not be accused of asking for it), liberty (to speak my mind, to worship the Goddess, to gather with my friends around a cause we support, to read independently produced literature and news, to travel and not answer to anyone), and the pursuit of happiness (to seek what gives me joy, to own property, to start a business or do work that is meaningful, to have free time and waste it, to raise my kids, to  build a family or a community, to be educated). The government is here to ensure these rights for everyone.  In my humble opinion it does. Imperfectly perhaps, but it does.

So why are so many people grousing about loss of liberty? Why do they hate taxes that fund the government entitlements? Why are we so selfish we think this country is lost and our rights are gone because of taxes and government policies supporting our rights? I can still exercise all my rights if  I have money. If I don't have money, and the government programs that help with housing, nutrition, education, business start ups are cut, then my rights are screwed. You would think the ones complaining the loudest would be the poor.  Nope. They complain, and rightly so, but the poor are being drowned out by the selfish. This has to stop. We have to get back together and realize that if we want liberty and justice for all, we have to fund it. There is no liberty or justice when people are ignorant, hungry or scared.

Let me be more positive and upbeat. This country is the land of greatest opportunity and potential, probably in the whole world. In the US we can beat the class system with education and decent employment. However that means corporate America has to keep jobs here. It has to pay taxes like it did in the 60's and 70's. College loans need affordable rates. Universities need to keep their costs down.

We can beat injustice. That means our legal system needs to solve crimes with full investigations, not pick a likely suspect and prove a case against them regardless of the facts.  I've been a court observer too many times to be naïve about how DA's get convictions.  Beating injustice means our Civil Rights laws need enforcement so people are truly not judged on the basis of race, color, creed, sex, age, disability, sexual orientation or national origin. If you want to live in a land of justice, that enforcement is absolutely essential because we have yet to outgrow our prejudices. Beating injustice means women must be able to live with men and be equal partners, that the rape culture that still exists in the media, jokes, government debate, and even at home has to change.  Women are not on earth as men's servants and sex toys. Men are not here on hearth to make women's decisions for them. Beating injustice means we have to curtail our right to swing our arms when we stand close to other people's noses. If we fail to control our arm swinging, then dammit the government better step in and stop the violence.

There is such a thing as white male privilege. There is such a thing as male privilege. There is such a thing as Christian privilege. These privileges are preference and deference so ingrained in the culture that we don't even ask why we get Christmas off and not Hanukah or Yule. We don't ask why when two people come home from work, the wife cooks dinner and the husband sits and watches the news. We don't ask why George Bush gets a pass on starting a war costing thousands and thousands of lives in the Middle East based on lies, but Barack Obama is castigated for the 4 deaths in Benghazi. In fact, we are so deeply accepting of the privilege of males, whites and Christians that the questions offend us.  It is that acceptance that anybody gets a pass because of their skin, genitals or creed that is in the process of changing, and that change is painful. Necessary, but painful. It cuts at what we thought were the foundations of our history. They aren't but we thought they were.

We can finish our creation of the land of opportunity and justice, but to do that we have to look at our culture honestly. We Us-Americans are very lucky people but there are miles to go before we sleep, miles to go before there is really liberty and justice for all. Commit to justice. Commit to being who you are as a partner, neither boss nor servant. Do what you can to untangle the train wreck we have made of our progress toward liberty and freedom, and speak up. It is that nagging voice of conscience that is our heritage, our apple pie that we celebrate.  Happy Birthday America. And may the Gods and politicians give us another 237 years to keep working on this so we can all get a piece of the pie.