Friday, June 30, 2017

Observe Your Freedom


 
 
To observe without judgment is to practice non-judgment. It is the ability to view the world without superimposing your opinions, perceptions and attitudes. The minute we apply judgement we break the suggested rule of “do not harm.” To judge another is to challenge another person’s right to walk their own path. Everyone is on their own mission and yet the mission of life involves all of us. We are not here to judge the path of another person. We are here to understand both our actions and our reactions, observe them and then reconstruct them to make the world a better place. The focus in life should always be on self and self- development without harm to anyone or anything. You are simultaneously responsible for bringing goodness to everyone and everything and at the same time only responsible for the path you walk. Walk it with respect and kindness.

As I head across the pond to visit our neighbors in Scotland and Ireland I am sure I will be asked about our politics and the state of our great nation.  As I observe the 4th of July in another country my response will be simple; I am a proud American. I respect the Constitution, the office of the President of the U.S (whomever is leading) and am so grateful for all the freedom and prosperity that exist in the United States. But I am saddened by the dwindling respect and lack of kindness.

 

When I first registered to vote I was living in Maine. I wanted to vote for a woman I admired. She was strong willed and a straight shooter. Her name was Margaret Chase Smith. She was the first woman to serve in both houses of the U.S Congress and the first woman to represent Maine. She was a moderate Senator, the first to criticize the tactics of McCarthyism in her 1950 speech, “Declaration of Conscience.”

 In this speech she said, “It is high time that we stopped thinking politically as Republicans and Democrats about elections and started thinking patriotically as Americans about national security based on individual freedom. It is high time that we all stopped being tools and victims of totalitarian techniques -- techniques that, if continued here unchecked, will surely end what we have come to cherish as the American way of life.

She went on the remind us to get off the Four Horsemen of  Calumny, which means making false statements to damage someone’s reputation. She called the four horsemen -- Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry and Smear.”

To this I would add let’s get on the Four horsemen of dignity, respect, kindness and comradery. After all don’t we all want the same things; freedom, prosperity, good health and the right to the pursuit of happiness? What will I tell our friends across the pond? I am a proud American!

Wishing you all a happy Fourth of July!

Doctor Lynn

http://www.facebook.com/DrLynnAnderson

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