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justice
We the People Face the Abandonment of America's Foundational Principles
Are we ready to defend our ideals, or have we lost interest in distinguishing virtue from vice and public good from private greed?
Feb 05, 2025
Misattributed quotes and next-level gaslighting aside, we find ourselves yet again at a crossroads in time—a moment demanding serious reflection on the foundational principles that shaped our republic. This is not hyperbole.
For far too many years, most of what we have been willing to believe contradicts the ideals of the figures said to be revered by those we have entrusted with our government.
As to misattributed quotes, we could jump right in with Thomas Jefferson's actual words regarding our shared principles, but let's first reflect on the insights of his revolutionary compatriot turned bitter political rival, John Adams. In a letter dated April 16, 1776—less than three months before the signing of the Declaration of Independence—Adams shared this wisdom:
Public Virtue cannot exist in a Nation without private, and public Virtue is the only Foundation of Republics.
Now, recognizing that those working to recreate our nation—in their own oh-so-very perfect image—may not favor the Federalist Adams, our indispensable second president, let us fast forward some 140 years to Theodore Roosevelt. "Teddy" Roosevelt, a man well-versed in the ideas of our Founding Fathers and our foundational principles, had this to say in a letter dated January 1917:
Americanism means the virtues of courage, honor, justice, truth, sincerity, and hardihood—the virtues that made America. The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety first instead of duty first, the love of soft living and the get-rich-quick theory of life.
The focus on virtue as the foundation of national character contrasts sharply with the narrative we have been fed by those who, in reality, promote "the things that will destroy America." God only knows why we, the people, have been so accepting of their manipulative tactics instead of insisting upon promoting "the virtues that made America." Regardless, we have once again set ourselves up to watch as policies that overwhelmingly benefit a growing cadre of super-rich are implemented.
Yes, they will fuel their economic fire sufficiently so that some of us will enjoy a few crumbs. But regardless of their justifications, the harsh realities facing the shrinking middle class and the most vulnerable will be disregarded. They'll tell us that our best way forward is to be dragged down some technological path by today's Monied Interests, feeding us an amped-up version of the same greed-driven trickle-down bullshit that we've willfully consumed for nearly half a century. And for good measure, they will, this time, destroy as many ballasts of good governance as they possibly can. Then, their blaze will exhaust itself—leaving behind a stunning path of destruction. Never mind the damage done.
We the People should by now recognize their ways.
Let's now acknowledge that many of our antagonists today would prefer that we conclude this essay with the Anti-Federalist Jefferson's 1801 Inaugural Address, wherein he listed his governing principles and said, "These principles form the bright constellation, which has gone before us and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation. The wisdom of our sages, and blood of our heroes have been devoted to their attainment..." However, it seems anything but likely that those currently at the helm of government are willing to acknowledge this in context.
For example, we are far removed from Jefferson's agrarian society, our need for a standing army is without question, and the Monied Interests have evolved beyond anything Jefferson could have imagined. So, we'll conclude, in a moment, with another example of Jeffersonian wisdom. Nonetheless, here's an abbreviated look at Thomas Jefferson's "bright constellation":
- "Equal and exact justice to all…
- Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations…
- The support of the state governments in all their rights…
- The preservation of the General government in its whole constitutional vigor…
- Absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority…
- A well-disciplined militia…
- The supremacy of the civil over the military authority…
- Economy in the public expence…
- The honest payment of our debts and sacred preservation of the public faith…
- Encouragement of agriculture, and of commerce as its handmaid…
- The diffusion of information, and arraignment of all abuses…
- Freedom of religion; freedom of the press; and freedom of person…
- and trial by juries impartially selected."
To close, let's turn to the wisdom of an aging Jefferson, as he penned in an 1819 letter:
Of Liberty then I would say that, in the whole plenitude of its extent, it is unobstructed action according to our will: but rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will, within the limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add "within the limits of the law"; because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual.
We may not yet fully realize it, but we are literally in the process of deliberating (for lack of a better term) our foundational principles, and the chaos to come is going to test our commitment to Jefferson's Rightful Liberty—our foremost foundational principle of liberty and justice for all. We will soon know if we, as a nation, will continue our pursuit of a more perfect union.
The good news is that we, individually and collectively, get to decide which path we will pursue. The choice is ours.
Are we ready to defend our ideals, or have we lost interest in distinguishing virtue from vice and public good from private greed? Are we really to be remembered as the ones who abandoned America's Foundational Principles?
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Don’t Let the Supreme Court Get the Last Word on Housing Justice
New laws criminalizing the state of being homeless will not pass, and existing laws will not be retained, if we the people reject them.
Jun 29, 2024
Yesterday’s Supreme Court decision in City of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Johnson was an abomination. Justice Sonia Sotomayor had it right when she said that criminally punishing people for sleeping outside when there is no shelter available to them is “unconscionable and unconstitutional.”
Alas, six of her fellow justices disagreed, ruling that fining and imprisoning people just because they are homeless does not violate the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. So these vile, counterproductive responses to our housing crisis have been held to be constitutional.
But the second half of Justice Sotomayor’s verdict is alive and well: Punishing people because they are unhoused is unconscionable. The Supreme Court failed to stop this hateful practice, but we can.
Laws that imprison people for being unhoused are just as unconscionable today as they were before the Supreme Court ruling.
In my work teaching a law school clinic where we defend people facing eviction, and in research and writing as part of a book project, I have spent the last few years researching and writing about inspiring housing rights campaigns across the country.
Tenant unions, religious groups, civic organizations, labor unions, and others have come together to lobby local officials in Louisville, confront corporate landlords in North Carolina, run candidates for office in Kansas City, commit civil disobedience in Connecticut, convene phone banks in Tacoma, and fight like hell in dozens of other communities, too. They have won victories like bans on cold-weather and school-year evictions, referendums creating huge boosts in affordable housing funds, ceilings on rent increases, and protections against unlawful evictions.
This growing movement demands the fulfillment of the human right to housing. The people in this movement, not a half-dozen unelected, lifetime-appointed elites in black robes, will have the last word on how we treat our unhoused sisters and brothers.
That was always going to be the case, no matter how the court decided Grants Pass. As a practical matter, the Supreme Court majority only ruled that anti-homeless legislation is allowable—not that it is advisable, much less required. New laws criminalizing the state of being homeless will not pass, and existing laws will not be retained, if we the people reject them.
More broadly, transformative justice always comes from the bottom up, not from court decisions handed down from on high. Compare the anti-abolition movement to the Dred Scott decision sanctioning slavery, the civil rights movement to the Plessy v. Ferguson decision that enshrined “separate but equal,” the labor movement to multiple anti-worker decisions like the Hammer v. Dagenhart ruling that struck down laws prohibiting child labor.
During one of my visits to the amazing advocates of the Louisville Tenant Union, I heard one of the tenants tell her story. She and her children had not only been unlawfully evicted, she was wrongly arrested and imprisoned in the process. Judges did not save her, and law enforcement certainly didn’t. Instead, she found support and justice when she joined together with her fellow tenants.
“The powers that be told me I was crazy, but that’s harder to say when I am standing next to 100 other people who have gone through the same thing,” she said. “We are the ones to keep us safe.”
She is right. Laws that imprison people for being unhoused are just as unconscionable today as they were before the Supreme Court ruling. Together, we can stop them. Together, we can keep all of us safe.
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Waging Peace in an Uncertain World
Discovering solidarity and joint action on this International Day of Peace.
Sep 21, 2023
Every year, the International Day of Peace is observed around the world on September 21. Based on a declaration in 1981 by the United Nations General Assembly, this day is devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace and designated as a day of nonviolence and cease-fire. This notion is rooted and anchored in the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, which clearly states, “Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security of person” (Article 3), and yet, we are left wondering how this will be actualized in our worldly affairs both individually and collectively.
UNESCO cogently calls out the importance of peacebuilding in our time of unprecedented challenges:
New forces of division have emerged, spreading hatred and intolerance. Terrorism is fueling violence, while violent extremism seeks to poison the minds of the vulnerable and young. In the poorest and least-developed parts of the world, climate-related natural disasters are compounding existing fragility, increasing forced migration, and heightening the risk of violence.
Through social media, we have seen a cheapening and commodification of words, phrases, and concepts. Peace has become a marketing campaign for some, and for others, it is now conflated with ideological arguments that diminish meaning and capacity for change. The level of extremism we are witnessing today in many places of the world is reminiscent of a not so recent past, in which demagogues, fascists, extremists, identitarian youth movements, and eugenics all held hands together. The promise of their future was one of no diversity, no elderly or disabled, no poverty, no dissent. Instead, they offered up a sterile world, in which there would be total war to accomplish their aims.
Today, we are sadly at the same precipice. There is a war in Ukraine, despots and despotic regimes that use slave labor and traffic men, women, and children for exploitation. We have extremists who are committed to agitation and even violence, and our youth are influenced and emotionally agitated more and more through social media and substance abuse. In the midst of these human realities, there also exist the realities of nature, which include dramatic force-majeure events. Under this burdensome weight, one can easily be overwhelmed by the enormity of the challenges that each of us faces, and, as UNESCO clearly states, “The barriers to peace are complex and steep—no one country can solve them alone. Doing so requires new forms of solidarity and joint action, starting as early as possible.”
Each generation has a responsibility to the next in moving us toward non-violence, liberation, and justice.
What does solidarity and joint action look like? The pedagogical principle of empathy may best be captured by the African principle of “ubuntu” (Omeje, 2008). Ubuntu is a humanistic philosophy (which has no English synonym) and connotes “collective personhood” and is best captured by the Zulu maxims: “A person is a person through other persons” and “my humanity is inextricably tied to your humanity.” It is an overarching, multidimensional philosophy that invokes the idiom and images of group cooperation, generosity, tolerance, respect, sharing, solidarity, forgiveness, and conciliation (ibid., p. 89).
To engage an empathic pedagogy requires us to move beyond our binary thinking of us versus them and embrace the complexity of human thought and experience. We also need to actively look without bias through new perspectives and suspend personal judgment by approaching something with a willingness to understand (Millican et al, 2021).
As we move forward into the fourth industrial revolution with current and looming existential challenges, we cannot afford to barter away our ethics as a human community to the seductions of our own self-made technology. This is not to say that technology does not have a place, for it most certainly does and will continue to do so; however, the ethical considerations as it relates to our planetary survival and justice are even more critical. For this reason, we are now compelled to really question our reliance on instrumental logic and must begin to advance from the 20th century post-enlightenment turn in modernity into a post-human world that centers planetary interrelatedness. This will be part of our human journey together, perhaps even our errant into the wilderness. It is our destiny to take this journey and to take it together. How we do that will require great fortitude, a willingness to see ourselves as the extended kin that we are, and to wrestle with difficult questions, not one another. This is a spiritual reawakening more than anything else.
For those of us who work in and with community, this will be the work of our lifetime, and the International Day of Peace should be a time of reflection, repentance, and reconciliation. It should also be a time for action—we should not only have a “cease-fire” on all global violence, but also in our interpersonal relationships. We should take steps to reconcile where we may have fallen short, misjudged, or harmed in some way another individual and find a way for individual and community-wide reconciliation.
Perhaps it is auspicious that the 2023 International Day of Peace falls between Rosh Hashana (the Hebrew calendar new year) and Yom Kippur (the day of atonement)—a time to reconsider where one has missed the mark, fallen short, or done harm to another (knowingly or unknowingly). It is a time for reconciliation, where the powerful lessons of forgiveness and mercy become central. There are many interpretations and lessons to be learned from this, but peacebuilding is not a one-day affair, as it requires a lifetime commitment to human justice. It will take extreme perseverance as the fruits of peacebuilding may not happen in our lifetime. It will require us to always renew the covenant that says we stand committed to one another and to all creation. In the Jewish tradition, there is a wonderful passage from “The Ethics of the Fathers” that should give us strength and agency. The passage states that in our striving toward peace and justice “you are not required to finish this work, yet neither are you permitted to desist from it.”
In considering our work in social justice and peacebuilding, this statement is perhaps the most relevant and captures the long-enduring spirit that is required to heal a world out of balance. It is a beautiful concept in which you are not obligated to finish the work of perfecting the world today, but neither are you permitted to do nothing toward that goal. Each generation has a responsibility to the next in moving us toward non-violence, liberation, and justice—and to think with an Indigenous mindset of the seven generations to come. What a beautiful and powerful gift we have—to live life in the fullness of moving us toward perfection in the recognition of our shared humanity and the potential of our genius.
As educators, we understand that the world stands on justice, truth, and peace, and peace is where the true beauty of humanity rests in all its perfection. Perhaps this is the highest calling for all of us as educators. We have chosen a path that can and should open hearts and minds to bring healing into those dark spaces of the human experience. Erich Fromm calls the art of loving in which love is not a feeling, but rather love is a practice that is our only path forward to actualize peace. Let us consider this day of International Peace a day where we recommit ourselves anew to the values that higher education and other sectors offer up to the world, an opportunity to develop perspective taking. May we discover a way of seeing the world from a new and different aperture and exhibit the energy and zeal to actively seek justice and engage the intractable issues of our time.
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