Saturday, July 4, 2020

Liberty and Justice for All?


The Pledge of Allegiance commits the USA to providing "liberty and justice for all."

It was written by a socialist and Christian, Francis Bellamy in 1892.

Yet votes for all and justice on the streets and in the courts are not really supported by many Americans, whether in 2020 or back in 1900, 1950, 2001.

It's no wonder that these Americans-- including #Trump and #StephenMiller and others-- don't really want #liberty or #justiceforall. Is #Capitalism actually compatible with #equality?

Can you have justice when billionaires can buy the presidency? ...when corporations can contribute to election campaigns? The Supreme Court ruled in 2010 that corporations can be considered to be persons and can donate in huge amounts: Citizens United v. FEC.

Can you have liberty when the police are trained to kill first and ask questions later? ...when many are military veterans trained to fight enemies? ...when used military tanks are sold to police departments?

Our police need de-escalation training. Our elections need to be free from large corporate donations.

We have a long way to go in living up to that radical pledge we adopted in 1892.

Note: Stephen Miller fought to get his high school to require students to recite the pledge at the beginning of each school day. But he doesn't seem to understand liberty or justice.

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