Printable May-June 2002 Newsletter page 1

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>.

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

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil
is for good men to do nothing."

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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