It is a perfect example for others to review to check the quality of their own work. Only by keeping a constant remembrance of why we forged this nation and its numerous communities can we hope to surmount the ever present conflict and vacillating imbalance that attends our search for true liberty. Too often, in the midst of battle, the ideals of the Declaration of Independence-upon which this nation is founded-are forgotten or cast aside or both. On the one hand is the demand for freedom from (negative) discrimination, and on the other hand those who claim the freedom to (positive) act according to the dictates of their own conscience. For example, the ongoing fight between the LGBTQ groups and those who are worried that their rights of religious freedom are being eroded. Another way to look at this is, is this tyranny by the minority? While Lincoln said this in the middle of a bloody war, we may be facing similar circumstances today. Lincoln, in justifying the use of force during the Civil War, suggested that “we must settle this question now, whether in a free government the minority have the right to break up the government whenever they choose” (The War that Forged a Nation, Chapter 11, page 164, emphasis added). One of the underlying themes of the Civil War was the imbalance of liberty. It seems in our culture that we need to be better balanced between positive and negative liberties. In Asian culture, there is a constant striving to achieve balance between yin and yang. However, I question whether or not the pendulum has swung too far to the extreme. Clearly, as evidenced by his apparent emphasis, he favors positive liberty. McPherson discusses in at length in Chapter 1 two types of liberty: positive (freedom to do something) and negative (freedom from something). In my opinion, liberty is not well understood by many. Moreover, it is reasonable to say that as long as we welcome or invite or allow or embrace or tolerate differences in those with whom we associate we will continue to have civil battles-only now we wage war with words through social media, and casualties are most often counted in terms of emotional damage done. Indeed! Given the disparity in economic, social, political, and intellectual conditions that exist in this nation, one could conclude that we are still fighting our civil war. are created equal” could “long endure” (emphasis added). In his speech delivered on the battlefield at Gettysburg, he wondered aloud if any government “of the people, by the people, for the people” which was founded on the concept “that all. It would seem that few of us have the capacity to step back and apply some objectivity in order to see possible long-term outcomes. Our history is the history of this nation’s citizens-and to a lesser extent, its visitors-grappling with this issue, sometimes verbally, sometimes violently, and always intensely focused on the here and now. This is the answer to the implied query posed by James McPherson regarding the “role of government in social change and resistance to both government and social change” (The War that Forged a Nation, Chapter 1, page 4). Our nation’s government was to ever be about the business of securing the rights of its citizens-and to a lesser extent, its visitors. Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence “that to secure these rights” (i.e., life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness), “governments are instituted among men.” By so doing, he established forever in American culture the acceptable parameters for its government. Her mother no longer had to witness them silently or impotently.Blog #1, Lessons For Our Times (Chapters 1, 11, 12): Laurie no longer had to put up with beatings from her mistress. The path to freedom was never straightforward, but freedwomen were determined to take it. A party sent after them found them still on the road, dumped their belongings from the cart, and left the women where they stood. Two days later, Laurie, her mother, and her sister took four oxen and an ox cart, piled their belongings into the cart, and left. When they returned, their mistress whipped one of them, Laurie, and sent her away with instructions never to return to the yard. Taveau, ex-masterĪt the end of March 1865, with the war closing in, a group of female slaves left their chores to take a ride in their mistress's carriage. I have lived to change all these opinions. Good masters and bad masters, all alike, shared the same fate – the sea of Revolution confounded good and evil.…I believed for a season that these people were content, happy, and attached to their master. …the conduct of the Negro in the late crisis of our affairs, convinced me that we have all been laboring under a delusion.
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