"The Spirit of Liberty"

 The first paragraph of 

"The Spirit of Liberty" by Judge Learned Hand

We have gathered here to affirm a faith, a faith in a common purpose, a common conviction, a common devotion. Some of us have chosen America as the land of our adoption; the rest have come from those who did the same. For this reason we have some right to consider ourselves a picked group, a group of those who had the courage to break from the past and brave the dangers and the loneliness of a strange land. What was the object that nerved us, or those who went before us, to this choice? We sought liberty; freedoms from oppression, freedom from want, freedom to be ourselves. This we then sought; this we now believe that we are by way of winning. What do we mean when we say that first of all we seek liberty? I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions, upon laws and upon courts. These are false hopes; believe me, these are false hopes. Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. While it lies there it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it. And what is this liberty which must lie in the hearts of men and women? It is not the ruthless, the unbridled will; it is not freedom to do as one likes. That is the denial of liberty, and leads straight to its overthrow. A society in which men recognize no check upon their freedom soon becomes a society where freedom is the possession of only a savage few; as we have learned to our sorrow.

WAR

 My personal edit, sourced mostly from a portion of Haile Selassie's address to the United Nations in 1963, made not just for one continent but all the world.

On the question of discrimination history has taught us, to those who are willing to learn, this lesson:

That until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned;

That until there are no longer first class and second class citizens of any nation;

That until the color of a man's skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes;

That until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race or origin;

That until that day, the dream of lasting peace and world citizenship and the rule of international morality will remain but a fleeting illusion, to be pursued but never attained.

That until the ignoble and unhappy regimes that hold our brothers and sisters in subhuman bondage have been toppled and destroyed;

That until bigotry, prejudice, malicious and inhuman self-interest have been replaced by understanding, tolerance and good-will;

That until all humans stand and speak as free beings, equal in the eyes of all people, as they are in the eyes of Heaven;

That until that day, the world will not know peace. We must fight, if necessary, and we know that we shall win, as we are confident in the victory of good over evil.

(image: President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy greet the Emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie I, upon his arrival in Washington, D.C. on the first of October 1963)

Vinegar tasters

The Vinegar Tasters: The three wise men dipped their fingers in a vat of vinegar and tasting it; one man reacts with a sour expression, one reacts with a bitter expression, and one reacts with a sweet expression.

The three men: Confucius, Buddha, and Laozi.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Each man's expression represents the predominant attitude of his philosophy: Confucianism saw life as sour, in need of rules to correct the degeneration of people; Buddhism saw life as bitter, dominated by pain and suffering due to the attachment to possessions and material desires; and Taoism saw life as sweet due to it being fundamentally perfect in its natural state.

All three different but all three were also correct from their own perspectives. Just because they disagreed doesn't mean anyone of them was wrong.

How does the vinegar taste to you?

image: by Kanō Isen'in.

Japan, Edo period, 1802-1816. (edited)

the lesson of the moth

 i was talking to a moth

the other evening

he was trying to break into

an electric light bulb

and fry himself on the wires

why do you fellows

pull this stunt i asked him

because it is the conventional

thing for moths or why

if that had been an uncovered

candle instead of an electric

light bulb you would

now be a small unsightly cinder

have you no sense

plenty of it he answered

but at times we get tired

of using it

we get bored with the routine

and crave beauty 

and excitement

fire is beautiful

and we know that if we get

too close it will kill us 

but what does that matter

it is better to be happy

for a moment

and be burned up with beauty

than to live a long time

and be bored all the while 

so we wad all our life up

into one little roll

and then we shoot the roll

that is what life is for

it is better to be a part of beauty

for one instant and then cease to

exist than to exist forever

and never be a part of beauty

our attitude toward life

is come easy go easy

we are like human beings 

used to be before they became

too civilized to enjoy themselves

and before i could argue him

out of his philosophy

he went and immolated himself 

on a patent cigar lighter

i do not agree with him

myself i would rather have

half the happiness and twice

the longevity

but at the same time i wish

there was something i wanted

as badly as he wanted to fry himself

by Don Marquis

The History of Social Security in the USA

 

The Social Security Act was signed by FDR on 8/14/35. Taxes were collected for the first time in January 1937 and the first one-time, lump-sum payments were made that same month. Regular ongoing monthly benefits started in January 1940. Social Security number (SSN) were never intended to be a form of identification. It was initially created to track the earnings history of workers for Social Security purposes. While the SSN has become widely used for other purposes, including identification, it was not designed for that purpose. Social Security benefits were not originally designed to be taxed. Initially, they were considered a form of government assistance and were excluded from federal income taxes. Social Security benefits have been subject to federal income tax since 1984. The social security tax was signed by President Reagan into law on April 20, 1983. Initially, up to 50% of benefits could be taxed for those with incomes exceeding certain thresholds. Later, in 1993, the taxability was expanded to include up to 85% of benefits for higher income earners by President Clinton (the president some claim had the most documented assasination attemps).

The myth of Osso, Mastrosso and Carcagnosso

There were three brother knights, Osso, Mastrosso and Carcagnosso, who had a younger sister. A rich man raped her one evening and they were furious. They decide they had to avenge her honor and that the rich man must pay for his offense with his life. They brutally tortured and killed the rich man for his offense. It turned out the rich man was a very good friend of the king and the king was very upset. He had the three  knights arrested, condemning them to twenty-nine years, eleven months and twenty-nine days imprisonment inside the fortress of Santa Caterina on the island of Favignana in Sicily. They spend those prison years consumed by thoughts of revenge. They used that time to write codes of honor, rules, rites of affiliation, symbols and inviolable commandments with the intent of reconstituting a society that would have the task of not allowing injustices by the powerful anymore. When the three knights of the legend got out of prison after thirty years they made a new order that had at its core an emphasis on honor and a code of silence. Osso stayed in Sicily and founded Cosa Nostra. Mastrosso went to Calabria  and founded ' Ndrangheta. Carcagnosso went to Campania and founded Camorra. It is the myth of the birth of the Mafia.

Vengeance and Justice

 

In modern times things can be very hard to understand clearly. Questionable truths and different opinions have a way of doing that. Freedom is hard and judgement can be difficult. 

Good and bad can seem like fuzzy concepts. Remember vengeance is bad and justice is good. While both vengeance and justice involve responding to wrongdoing, vengeance is driven by a personal desire for retribution. Justice seeks to restore balance and fairness through established systems and principles with the goal of preventing future harm. When you’re not sure who the bad people and the good people are, ask yourself, do they seek vengeance or justice? Contrary to our favorite films and media that exploit our emotions I find it good to remind myself: 

Bad people seek vengeance. 

Good people seek justice. 

Forgiveness is divine.

(Image: 1804-1808 Divine Vengeance and Justice Pursuing Crime painting by Pierre-Paul Prud'hon)