"Just living is not enough... one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.” - Hans Christian Andersen"

As today is a holiday, this is not one of my Last 100 Mondays, and I’ll be writing a bit less this Independence Day. I am grateful for the freedom we enjoy and for the efforts of all those who have fought, protested, worked, and died to gain, protect and enhance our freedom. I read the Declaration of Independence again today and I imagine Thomas Jefferson would be glad that we continue to challenge inequality.

When he wrote “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” I believe he meant “men” in the universal sense of all human beings. At times I’ve substituted “people” and I like a friend’s suggestion that this can simply be read as “all are created equal”.

Clearly, we have a lot of work still to do to realize these truths in the day-to-day lives of people in our nation. While created equal, not everyone is treated equally. The work to secure equal rights for women, all races and ethnicities, spiritual beliefs, gender orientations, abilities, ages, etc must go on.

We also have a lot of work to do to ensure that immigrants and refugees are treated as equal. Among the issues that Jefferson raises in the declaration with regard to the actions of King George are that “He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.” While times have changed and the need to populate the US has passed, there are still many who would treat immigrants and refugees as less deserving of freedom as others.

When Abraham Lincoln addressed the people at Gettysburg in November of 1863, he spoke of the need to work for “a new birth of freedom - that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” Some four years earlier, in a letter to Henry L. Pierce, Lincoln, declining an invitation to speak at an event in Boston to honor Jefferson’s birthday, wrote that "Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves” and that Jefferson had defined in the Declaration of Independence, “an abstract truth, applicable to all men and all times, and so to embalm it there, that to-day, and in all coming days, it shall be a rebuke and a stumbling-block to the very harbingers of re-appearing tyranny and oppression.” We must continue the work to honor this truth today and every day.

As we celebrate this 4th of July, let us celebrate our diversity and the freedom we have to remain ourselves as we come together to create this rich and vibrant nation. When we take a coin, or a dollar bill, with its image of the Great Seal of the United States, from our pockets, we are handling something that should remind us of a de facto motto of our nation. E Pluribus Unum - Out of many, one. So, while we celebrate our freedom today, let's remember to keep working to make sure we share it equally with everyone!

I’ll end my reflections today with a quote from John Muir’s “My First Summer in the Sierra” that describes one of my own favorite ways to enjoy our freedom. "Another glorious Sierra day in which one seems to be dissolved and absorbed and sent pulsing onward we know not where. Life seems neither long nor short, and we take no more heed to save time or make haste than do the trees and stars. This is true freedom, a good practical sort of immortality.”