Thoughts on Independence Day 2020 | #4thOfJuly #IndependenceDay

Photo by Tyler Whitehead
on Unsplash

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.

As I contemplate these words on this Independence Day 2020, I am drawn to this first sentence of the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence. In the list of our unalienable rights, Life comes first.

 

Before Liberty.

 

Before the pursuit of Happiness.

 

Life comes first.

 

I think this is instructive. Jefferson could have written those things in any order, but he chose this one.

 

So perhaps as we think about the grave concerns facing our country this Independence Day, we, too, should think of Life first.

 

Of the Lives we can save by staying home as much as possible and wearing masks when we cannot stay home. Though it may temporarily restrict our individual Liberty and pursuit of Happiness.

 

Of the minority Lives who for hundreds of years have not been valued equally with the Lives of the majority, so that their own Liberty and pursuit of Happiness has been diminished.

 

I hope you, too, will take time and consider these self-evident truths. And reflect on your role in bringing the ideals set forth in the Declaration of Independence closer to fruition as we enter our 245th year as a nation.

 

As we test whether this nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.

References:

• The Declaration of Independence
• The Gettysburg Address

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All original work in this post by Sandy Kendell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). Please see specifics on my re-use policy before re-posting/re-using any of my blog content.

Real-World Consequences of What We Post On Social Media

Do We Understand We're Shouting to the World?
Photo Used With Permission Under a Creative Commons License

Wow! Talk about a chance to really teach students about the consequences of what they post via social media.

This post on Jezebel.com captures some no-holes-barred racist Tweets sent out in the wake of President Obama's re-election. The fact that anyone holds these views is unfortunate, that they would openly spew such hate disturbing, and the fact that most of them appear to be young people heart-breaking.

What's intriguing to me, though, is the discussion that is going on underneath the post. A commenter looked up many of the young people whose racist Tweets are featured and posted their names and schools. He or she then encouraged others to contact their current schools or colleges which have awarded them athletic scholarships. Several people have posted about their attempts to contact the students' schools!

If you can stand the language, or maybe take some screen shots of a few things and blur the most offensive words in the Tweets and/or comments, you could turn this into a timely discussion of how we have no control over where our online postings wind up as well as the real-world consequences of what we post online.

You could also encourage conversation around the debate going on in the comments over whether it is ethical to report these students to their schools or not.

What say you? Could you or would you use this in a class lesson? Do you think those who are reporting the students are doing the right thing? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

Thanks to @corinnew whose Tweet brought this story to my attention and @marybethleeybnp whose follow-up Tweets (#1 & #2) inspired me to write this post.