Clarendon has been celebrating freedom for a long time. Since that first summer in 1878 when those Christian colonists first observed Independence Day, our community came to be known for its Fourth of July festivities.
A lot has changed in the last 137 years. Singing and the reading of the Declaration of Independence have given way to parades, turtle races, and rodeos. But the spirit remains the same as our community rallies together to trumpet the greatness of America and the promise of Liberty and Opportunity that our Founding Fathers risked their lives to secure.
America, too, has seen a lot of changes. We’ve seen freedom expanded in many ways as the definitions of personal liberties have been broadened, and we’ve seen freedom limited in other ways as federal taxation and regulation constrict the free marketplace and the economy.
As a country we have much to be proud of about tolerance and the rights of the individual. And yet we also have much to learn as we all still figure out how to live together in what has been called a great melting pot of different people with many different beliefs.
Last week, the United States Supreme Court again upheld the Affordable Care Act, more commonly known as Obamacare. Republicans acted with surprise and outrage and continued to issue calls to repeal that law. Many people, your editor included, think the ACA is an abomination and a gross intrusion into our private lives. But after it survived its main Supreme Court challenge, that law has no more chance of being repealed than does Social Security or Medicare. It is here to stay.
Then on Friday, the High Court expanded the rights of same-sex couples to marry in all 50 states, saying those individuals deserve equal protection under the law. This caused the expected backlash from many people, but most puzzling came from Republicans in Texas and elsewhere who basically feel like religious freedom is under assault or at least threatened by this ruling.
It is an age old problem that America must still wrestle with. Freedom must be for everyone… or there is freedom for no one.
People are entitled to their beliefs and their opinions on same-sex marriage, for example. But the highest court in the land has determined that these marriages are legal. Your church doesn’t have to condone it; and you don’t have to attend a gay wedding; but if you’re a public official, you do have to provide them the same service you would be legally obligated to provide anyone else. Politicians and demagogues who encourage public servants not to provide government services based on their religious beliefs, are dangerous at best. For if you can refuse to give a same-sex couple a marriage license, what is to keep other people of strong faith or beliefs from refusing to prepare alcohol permits, serve mixed-race couples, or serve people of other faiths?
Freedom also means that sometimes you have to stomach things you don’t like. The Confederate battle flag in recent days has become a lightning rod again in conversations about race. Some people, like your editor, see the flag as a symbol of Southern heritage and the standard of a lost cause and a people who fought for their homeland. Others see the flag through the single view of racism, noting the Confederacy’s support for slavery and the use of the flag by hate groups.
Freedom means you can put crosses on your property up and down the highway, but freedom also means the travelers who are creeped out by what appears to be an overly zealous town can take their business elsewhere.
Freedom means you can put a Ten Commandments monument on the Courthouse Square and call it a historical marker, but it also means someone else could erect a monument to Jews and Muslims who have also called the same county home.
Freedom is hard. Freedom means you can do what you want, believe what you want, and say what you want. But so can I, and so can the other guy, and so can the Democrat and the Republican and the Communist and the Baptist and the Atheist. And most of all, for it to work, you have to be able to stand up for the rights of those you disagree with.
The biggest problem America – and indeed Texas – faces right now is that our two-party system wants freedom in different ways. The left largely wants personal freedoms with a strongly regulated economy, and the right largely wants a more deregulated economy with low taxation and gives lip service to personal freedom… as long as you’re an evangelical Christian who isn’t gay or wants an abortion.
We need to get back on track. We need to recognize that freedom comes in many forms and it benefits many people… not just ourselves or those who believe, worship, or think the way we do.
Jefferson said it best: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” America works best when we let those words be our guide.
The following recap is part a section from a book published by Jerry Brewer from Oklahoma. He gives a standing offer to teach that era of American history if any classroom teacher would like for him to come to the classroom. He says, “I have offered to serve as a resource in schools when history classes are studying that period of 1861-1865”
Mr. Brewer begins his message by saying, “The latest newsletter from Oklahoma’s Junior United States Senator, James Lankford, carries this statement from him regarding the Supreme Court’s decision:
““It is hard to imagine that any court would place the 14th Amendment, a newly discovered implied right, above the free exercise of religion—a clear Constitutional right—, but in the days ahead, legislation may be needed to allow people to live their faith in America.”
It was Thaddeus Stevens, a radical from Lankford’s own party who crafted the 14th Amendment.
“The Reconstruction Act of 1867 declared that the Southern states were not part of the Union. Remember, this was the Union from which the North had previously said that these states could not withdraw! From 1866 to March 2, 1867, the Southern states were accorded the rights of statehood. They participated in the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment and in the rejection of the Fourteenth Amendment. The rejection of the Fourteenth Amendment posed a major roadblock to the revolutionary schemes of the radicals in Congress. They knew that even after their successful military conquest of the Southern people, they could not complete their evil designs as long as the South retained even this slight amount of political power. To further their evil schemes the radicals decided to eject their conquered foe from Congress and then complete their revolution. To further their revolutionary and evil goals, the Northern element treated the Southern states alternately as states and as conquered territories.” (James Ronald Kennedy & Walter Donald Kennedy, The South Was Right! (Pelican Publishing, Gretna, LA: 1994), p. 168
President Johnson’s veto of the Reconstruction Act was quickly overridden by the Republican Congress and military rule was imposed upon the Southern states for the next 12 years. All of that was because the Southern States rejected the 14th Amendment. That amendment made a United States citizen of “All persons born and naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” This effectively abolished primary citizenship in the states, further eroding State sovereignty. Henceforth, United States citizenship would take precedence over State citizenship. The amendment’s second section prohibits any test for voting except “for participation in rebellion, or other crime.” That deprived states from setting their own voter qualifications and gave that power to the federal government. Johnson’s plan prohibited only former Confederate government officials from voting. The Congressional plan denied the vote to all Confederate soldiers and officers. By specifying that males 21 years of age were ineligible because of “participation in rebellion,” the Republican
Congress disenfranchised most white voters in the South. The third section prohibited any former U. S. official who had served the Confederacy from serving in Congress, being a presidential elector, or holding any civil or military office in State or federal government. Section four rejected any responsibility of the United States government to accept claims for debts incurred by Southern states for the war, including claims for emancipation of slaves. In the fourth section, the federal government gave itself power to take the property of anyone without due process of law, which violated the Constitution they were amending, and struck another massive blow in dismantling the Republic. The significance of this illegal amendment cannot be overstated. Its rejection—especially by Southern States—resulted in the Reconstruction Act of 1867 that placed the conquered States of the South under military rule and occupation. The 14th Amendment was illegally adopted and should not be a part of the Constitution today.
“At the time of the introduction of the Fourteenth Amendment, there were thirty-seven states in the Union. By mid-1867, the federal Secretary of State had received official documents from the legislatures of thirty-three of the thirty-seven states giving the states’ answer to the proposed Fourteenth Amendment. The result was a rejection of the radical amendment.” (Ibid, p. 171)
The Kennedy brothers indicate that out of 37 States in the union, 28 were needed to ratify the 14th Amendment. Of the 37 states, 22 voted yes, 12 voted no, and three did not vote. Mississippi’s resolution rejecting the amendment did not reach Washington, and was counted among those who did not vote, but “even if the three non-voting states are added to the states voting for ratification, the amendment would still be short of the number needed for ratification.” (Ibid, p. 172)
Undaunted by failure, the Republican Congress ejected the Southern States from the Union, and declared them conquered provinces. But even then, the 14th Amendment failed to be ratified when New Jersey, Ohio, and Oregon rescinded their ratifications and it remains today an illegal appendage to the U. S. Constitution. (Jerry C. Brewer, Dismantling The Republic, Brewer Publications, Elk City, Okla., 2010)”