The REvolutionary War

July 4th, 1776 marked a pivotal moment not just in American history, but world history. Revolutionary thinkers had decided that it was time to declare among other things that everyone was entitled to certain inalienable rights: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. According to early American ideologists these were rights, not privileges, afforded to us by our Creator and required to be protected by the community in which we live.

The philosophy was brilliant, but the execution of so noble an ideal was unquestionably flawed as history has indeed proven. This groundbreaking doctrine of beliefs applied not to everyone as implied, but only to the self-declared majority – adult white males. Unconscionable slavery remained a function of the Land of the Free. Women still had no voice in political and industrial settings. Children lived, worked, and oftentimes died serving whatever purpose was deemed necessary by the head of the household. Inalienable rights apparently weren’t rights after all for these particular people because the mindset of the time didn’t actually define them as people.

Slaves. Women. Children. Property.

Historically speaking, this is just the way things had been done. Ancient Greece, ancient Rome, even dating back to the time of the Babylonians, majority leaders enacted laws granting men exclusive authority over their respective property – explicitly including women, children, and slaves. It would take brilliant luminaries centuries to evolve the dialogue, to explore and find meaning in the abstract notions of freedom, of purpose, and of life itself. These revolutionaries believed in thinking beyond themselves, beyond their own lifetimes, toward some intangible greatness: Socrates, Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, George Washington, Galileo, Mother Theresa – the list goes on.

You see, The Revolutionary War was just another battle in the long and arduous Evolutionary War – a War that began ages ago, the moment one human being tried to dominate another. With each act of courage and compassion and kindness, we evolve. With every commitment to change, to civil rights, and to community we evolve.

Progress has been made, but among the voiceless, among the most vulnerable remain children. They are chattle. They are property. They are no one’s natural constituency. Join the ranks in the Evolutionary War. Together we can end the Cycle of Silence.

Together, as Gandhi said so poignantly, we can BE THE CHANGE

#revolutionrightschildrenempowermentcycleofsilence