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FREEDOM
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Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human
freedom.
It is the
argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
William
Pitt, 1783
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INTRODUCTION:
It
seems that down through history it has been common for democratic
countries to go through a period of "patriotic
intolerance" and a withdrawal of more and more basic freedoms
during and after a time of war. We are seeing a strong movement in
this direction in the United States since September 11th. It seems
that this is a period when the "forces of darkness" gain a
stronger and stronger foothold as fear forces normal common sense to
the background. It is a most opportune moment for those in favor of
censorship and intolerance. We have seen many "backward"
steps taken these last months in the name of "fighting
evil". This
is a time when we must stand up and speak out for human rights and
protect the freedoms we have struggled so long to achieve. As Edmund
Burke said over two hundred years ago, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to
do nothing." This is as true today as it was then.
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Arabic Calligraphy design for Freedom
by Nihad Dukhan
www.ndukhan.com/
Main Entry: free·dom
Pronunciation: 'frE-dom
Function: noun
Date: before 12th century
1: the quality or state of being free: as a:
the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action b: liberation from slavery or restraint or from the power of another :
INDEPENDENCE
c: the quality or state of being exempt or released usually
from something onerous <freedom from care> d: EASE,
FACILITY
<spoke the language with freedom> e: the quality
of being frank, open, or outspoken <answered with freedom> f: improper familiarity g: boldness of conception or
execution h: unrestricted use <gave him the freedom
of their home>
2 a: a political right b: FRANCHISE,
PRIVILEGE
synonyms
FREEDOM,
LIBERTY,
LICENSE mean the power or condition of acting without compulsion.
FREEDOM
has a broad range of application from total absence of restraint
to merely a sense of not being unduly hampered or frustrated <freedom of
the press>. LIBERTY
suggests release from former restraint or compulsion <the
released prisoner had difficulty adjusting to his new liberty>. LICENSE
implies freedom specially granted or conceded and may connote an
abuse of freedom <freedom without responsibility may degenerate into license>. |
The first casualty when war comes is truth.
Hiram
Johnson, 1917
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www.closecampsfield.org.uk/
camp.html
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Four Freedoms
of FDR
A formulation of worldwide social and political
objectives by U.S. President Franklin
D. Roosevelt in the State of the Union message he delivered to Congress
on Jan. 6, 1941:
Roosevelt stated these freedoms to be: the freedom
of speech and expression, the freedom of every person to worship God
in his own way, the freedom from want, and the freedom from
fear.
"Four Freedoms" Encyclopædia Britannica
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"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil
is for good men to
do nothing."
- Edmund Burke (1729-1797)
From the Spirit
of Freedom website
The
Speech: A PRAYER FOR AMERICA
by
Congressman Dennis Kucinich
(to
be sung as an overture for America) "My country 'tis of
thee. Sweet land of liberty of thee I sing. . . .
From every mountain side, let freedom ring. . . . Long may our
land be bright. With freedom's holy light. . . ."
" Oh say does that star spangled banner yet wave. O'er
the land of the free and the home of the brave?"
"America, America, God shed grace on thee. And crown thy
good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea. . . . "
I
offer these brief remarks today as a prayer for our country,
with love of democracy, as a celebration of our country. With
love for our country. With hope for our country. With a belief
that the light of freedom cannot be extinguished as long as it
is inside of us. With a belief that freedom rings resoundingly
in a democracy each time we speak freely. With the
understanding that freedom stirs the human heart and fear
stills it. With the belief that a free people cannot walk in
fear and faith at the same time.
With the understanding that there is a deeper truth expressed
in the unity of the United States. That implicate in the union
of our country is the union of all people. That all people are
essentially one. That the world is interconnected not only on
the material level of economics, trade, communication, and
transportation, but innerconnected through human
consciousness, through the human heart, through the heart of
the world, through the simply expressed impulse and yearning
to be and to breathe free. I offer this prayer for America.
Click
here to read the Prayer for America
See
article from the Hope Magazine on the Action
Page 2
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"For
freedom intrinsically involves the courage to exercise it, to embody and thereby
accept the responsibility for the vision." T.
Carney
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www.bugbios.com/ced4/freedom.html
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www.bikeflorida.org/
photo9.htm
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Two Roads
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by, And
that has made all the difference.
Robert Frost
Today, humanity stands at an
intersection of great significance. Though this is not the first time that we
have stood at such an intersection, and probably will not be the last, we are
faced this day with two paths. One path, the one towards which we seem to be
inclined, leads directly and rapidly to the loss of human freedom, a condition
which for the human family represents at the very least a pause in our evolution
and at the worst a very large step backwards. The other leads to the ... pre-ordained golden age in which we will see the full flowering
of human freedom, and the final breaking away from the prison house of form and
illusion within which, during this long dark age, we have been imprisoned.
As
time goes, in the sweep of evolution, this is not an entirely new intersection.
It is the same one we have been facing since very early in the last century.
Then, in a many years long ceremony of sacrifice, we, as a people, chose to
resist the forces of retrogression and engaged in a long, sad and terrible world
war which ended finally in the defeat of the forces of retrogression on the
physical plane. Since then, we have struggled to keep the war off the physical
plane. The war, however, did not stop; it merely became invisible to most
people.
The forces of retrogression continued to wage deadly war on the higher
planes of ideology and thought. One of the major mistakes that Humanity has made
in understanding the nature of this mostly hidden war is the assumption that the
Forces of Evil or Retrogression are on this side or that side. Thus the fanatics
on either side, who actually are soldiers of the dark forces, are able to
inflame the people on either side with the illusion of fighting evil. This
notion is no doubt fostered and fed by the Forces Of Retrogression. Nothing
helps their goals more than having humanity engaged in a killing struggle with
one another to stop them. Thus, they have skillfully and powerfully waged this
war by adamantly opposing the living ideas of essential divinity, good will and
unanimity, with the ancient and imprisoning thoughtforms of separation,
exclusivity and special privilege. They have waged this war on a global scale
through all nations and governments and through all of our systems
everywhere.
True, we have had many successes in this war, and as we can so clearly see
today, many setbacks. With the recent hot wars in Viet Nam, the Balkans, the
attacks of September 11th and the bloody and destructive responses that
accompanied the declaration of world war on terrorism by the President of the
United States, the war seems to have returned to the physical plane and is
becoming visible again.
The Face of Darkness
This fact, it would seem,
represents a major set-back for the forces of Light. However, it may serve to
reveal the face of darkness, which is, when the mask of rhetoric is stripped
away, a face that mouths fear and hate and peddles the poison of revenge all in
the guise of religious exclusivity and separative flag waving patriotism no
matter the religion, the country or the color of the flag.
Humanity stands where
we do today because of the decisions that we have made and allowed to be made in
our name since 1945. It seems clear to many that since then the forces of greed
and separation have controlled or manipulated many of these decisions. These
forces are in a position of strength now, and, as I mentioned a minute ago, the
path towards which we seem to be inclined leads directly and rapidly to the loss of human freedom.
Click
here for the remainder of this article.
Tom Carney
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www.maloofjewelry.com/circleoflove/
circleoflove.htm
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Freedom
of Speech.
In
the U.S., this freedom is protected by the 1st Amendment to the Constitution,
and is considered essential to the vitality of representative government. At the
core of 1st Amendment concerns is the protection of expression that is critical
of government policies.
In
the view of some scholars, public speech includes freedom of the press (see Press,
Freedom of the). Because it is essential to political activities and
religious practices, the exercise of the right of free expression often occurs
in association with the exercise of the right of peaceable assemblage and
freedom of worship; it is also intrinsically related to academic freedom, that
is, to the right of teachers to express opinion in accordance with their belief
and conscience and with immunity from dismissal or other penalty.
For
three-quarters of a century after the establishment of the U.S., freedom of
speech and all other rights were denied the black slaves until they were
emancipated and were legally endowed with the same rights as white citizens.
During this period freedom of speech was abridged by Congress in 1798 by passage
of the Alien
and Sedition Acts, which made it a criminal offense to foster opposition to
the federal government. After the American Civil War, during the rapid
industrialization of the U.S., problems of free speech arose in connection with
efforts of unions to organize workers and to conduct strikes (see Trade
Unions in the United States). A wave of patriotic intolerance in the U.S.
culminated during World War I in the enactment by Congress of the Espionage Act
of 1917, and in the enactment by a number of states after the war of
criminal-syndicalism laws; under these laws, the right of free speech of
foreigners, labor organizers, pacifists, radicals, and others was seriously
abridged, and academic freedom was impaired. Abroad, free speech and other
libertarian rights were abolished after World War I by the totalitarian
governments of a number of European countries. The organization of communism as
a worldwide movement dedicated to the overthrow of democratic governments raised
a new question, particularly in the U.S., regarding the line to be drawn between
sedition and the lawful right of free speech. The trial for conspiracy of 11
American Communist leaders in 1949 focused nationwide attention on this
question. See also Civil
Rights and Civil Liberties; Democracy;
Liberty.
Further
Reading
"Freedom of Speech," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2001
http://encarta.msn.com © 1997-2000 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
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"I leave you, hoping that the lamp of liberty
will burn in your bosoms until there shall no longer
be a doubt that all men are created free and equal."
-Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
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www.sto-med.com/
 We Can Do This
It must not be thought that we are traveling on a luxury train—we are
walking over an abyss on a plank. … The very greatest Forces are in Battle for
the salvation of humanity...New Area Community #76
...As we look out over the planet..., we see on the horizon of consciousness a rising cloud of darkness.
The times are not yet getting better. Despite the positive messages of the
defeat of the Taliban, the destruction being wrought on the resources of the
terrorists, the death of Osama’s lieutenants, even the possible capture of
Osama, the enemy is no where near defeated. In fact, to many of us it is clear
that we have as yet not even publicly recognized the true face of the enemy.
The
Taliban, the terrorists and the personalities who lead them, including Osama bin
Laden, are not the enemy, they are but facades behind which the enemy lurks,
stalking horses used to further cloud the light of reason and love, to deepen
the veils behind which the true enemy, The Great Lie, moves and out of which it
strikes through any channel open to its delusive force. The target of the Lie is
not the United States or any country or group. The target of the Lie is, as it
was in the last world war, and always has been, basic human freedom, the basic
essential of every divine person to be able to choose his or her own path.
No,
we are not yet out of danger. We are not yet even in the deepest part of the
danger, and I am here not with words of comfort and ease, or words
of peace. However, I am here with words of hope and encouragement, for, also
rising on the horizon of consciousness, visible to those who have the eyes to
see is a great pillar of light. It is the light of fiery hearts who at last know
who they are and what they are about. So, we come with a call to service which is just another word for battle.
The
message, friends, as I am registering it, is very simple. It is time for
all of us, for Humanity as one being, to respond to what the
Light released with the events of September 11th. Around the world, we have
heard the clarion call of the Soul of humanity. The sounding of this horn was
and is apparent in the numerous calls for reason and prudence, and the calls for
building, for liberating and bringing dignity and freedom into peoples lives
that have started to emerge from the fear-generated din and thirst for blood of
the first reactions to the bombings. It is time for us to accept our role to don
the mantle of the warrior and to once again face the darkness that looms before
us. This time, we must be totally conscious of what it is we face and why we are
facing it.
In this effort, thankfully, we have a secret weapon. Secrets, of
course, are nothing new to Humanity. The literature of the ages is stuffed with
secrets: maps, rings, formulas, sayings, hiding places, potions, and, of course,
spies and police: the CIA, KGB, FBI, MI-7. What do you think Microsoft’s XBOX
really is?
Anyway, it is a given that we would have a secret weapon. Usually,
when we hear about a “secret weapon” it is something like The Death Star
which is a completely functioning light-speed, space station which carries a
Death Ray, capable of melting an entire planet in 30 seconds. Our secret weapon
is of a different sort. It creates. It brings Spirit into form.
The disciple, as
I have said is the arrow, but the arrow is not the secret weapon. The secret
weapon is what propels the arrow, for in essence, absolute bottom line, the
disciple is nothing more or less than the sum total of his or her will-directed
meditation. Our secret weapon, our only weapon is the linked power of our hearts
and minds. This is the power that gives us the ability to penetrate the veils of
illusion and glamour which surround the planet and cut us off from the Light
both on our way to the truth and on the way back as messengers of the Light. Our
secret weapon is our daily meditation.
Click
here for the
remainder of this excerpt...
Tom Carney
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This I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is
the most valuable thing in the world. And this I would fight for: the
freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected. And this I
must fight against: any idea, religion, or government which limits or
destroys the individual.
John
Steinbeck
www.hp.com/.../accessibility/
resources/legislation.htm
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www.hrichina.org/topics/
threefreedoms/
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Universal Declaration of Human Rights
On December 10, 1948 the General
Assembly of the United Nations adopted and
proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the full text of which
appears in the following pages. Following this historic act the Assembly
called upon all Member countries to publicize the text of the Declaration and
"to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded
principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction
based on the political status of countries or territories."
PREAMBLE
Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and
inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of
freedom, justice and peace in the world,...
For a printable
version of the whole declaration click
here.
Courtesy of the UN
website: http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html
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