Live United by Ann Austin

July Fourth is a time we fully recognize the freedoms we have experienced in our country and the new freedoms people are granted every day.

We are lucky to live in a country where we can gather in celebration during parades and fireworks without fear of personal harm, where most have access to food and clean water every day, where most children can participate in school and we have so many opportunities to make our lives better.

There have been countless people who have lost their lives and continue to live in pain and suffering to secure this freedom for us. I’ve been thinking of them a lot lately — and of the families that have been torn apart. It’s likely each one of us has a story of how we have been personally impacted by the war. We need to remember this — and join together to create a better world.

On July 2, 1964, the Civil Rights Act was enacted to ban discrimination across our nation in the schools, workplaces and public places and work towards greater protection of all people. This was groundbreaking legislation and it was intended to reverse much of the intentional animosity towards black people that existed in our country since the time of slavery. Yet, we all know there is still much work to be done. And that slavery still exists in many forms.

Unfortunately, in our world, there are people who are driven by less than honorable intentions.

It hurts all of us to see the violence that is occurring across our nation, known and unknown. There are churches with predominately black congregations that are being burned down — we can say this is because of one group of people, or that it is an attack on the church, or black people in particular and all of this would be true. These actions certainly do not represent the majority of our country.

In the same measure, these actions, though they are against one group of people, inevitably affect us all. We all breathe the same air, drink the water that rains down from the sky and are influenced by negative or positive actions from others across the world. In no way can we even manage to isolate ourselves from what is occurring in our world, nation or own backyard.

We are a country that continues to explore what freedom is and how it should be expressed. This is the beauty of where we live and how our Constitution operates. Though we may not agree with all decisions that are made, it is a great freedom to be able to make those decisions.

However, though we live in a country that has a history of fighting for freedom — people still are living in conditions that have limited their ability to understand what true freedom is.

There are people in our country who daily fear for their lives, just because of the neighborhood they live in; children who are unable to get to school because there is no transportation or the walk to school is not safe; families who do not have access to healthy food and children who go hungry every night; and people who do not have a safe, warm place to sleep at night (many of them are our veterans).

We have fought as a nation for our freedoms, yet in the same measure, there are so many freedoms we need to ensure in our own neighborhoods.

When I was around 10 years old, I had done a simple search on the Internet while helping my mom at school, and came across the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by the UN General Assembly on Dec. 10, 1948.

It was the most beautiful language I had ever read:

Article 1: “Human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”

I encourage everyone to read through the whole text and recognize the intentions set not only by our nation, but by nations across the world as they joined together in common vision and mission.

Each one of us, every day, is compelled to express our freedom and assist in the freedom of others. That is our true call to action as we live together on this earth. We are here to help each other.

 

Albert Lea resident Ann Austin is the director of the United Way of Freeborn County.