Healing Our World: Weekly Comment

By Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D.

Independence Day – Celebrate A New American Dream

As we express our gratitude,
we must never forget that
the highest appreciation is not to utter words,
but to live by them.
-- John F. Kennedy

On July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress of the United States unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence. While celebrating Independence Day only became commonplace after the War of 1812, it has become synonymous with the ideals of America. What those ideals are, however, is much in question. All the assumptions most Americans make about what values drive the United States must be challenged.

George Washington of Virginia was the first President of the United States from 1789 to 1797. He died at the age of 67 in 1799. In his will, he emancipated his slaves. (Image courtesy The White House)

The new states declared, “That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.”

It is well known that the Declaration’s statement “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” was never intended to be applied to all humans. Many signers of the Declaration were slave owners, but since they didn’t believe that slaves were men anyway, then there was no conflict.

Native Americans were not included either. The original inhabitants of the captured continent were to be relentlessly hunted and killed for the next hundred years. Some would say that extermination effort continues today.

Our country’s original leaders were very much like our leaders of today in that they mostly represented the wealthiest citizens.

Some who analyze the motivations of the initial leaders of the United States suggest that their intent was never to be egalitarian. The Constitution and Bill of Rights that followed intentionally forbade government interference in private property, for example, so the wealthiest citizens of the new nation had free rein to use their wealth to acquire large tracts of land.

Assembly Room in Independence Hall, Philadelphia, site of the signing of the Constitution in 1787. (Photo courtesy Independence National Historical Park)

These are troubling thoughts to consider on Independence Day 2002. But they do seem consistent with the undeniable reality that our political and industrial leaders work hard to convince us that more is better, all material progress is positive, and that all consequences of this perceived progress are acceptable, even if people suffer and die and ecosystems are destroyed.

While most of us are aware that there are inaccuracies in the history we learned as children about the creation of the United States, few of us really know about the horrible truths that have shaped the values of our western culture.

The lies we continue to teach our children may be directly responsible for the destructive environmental and social ethics that continue to this day. If we are to have any chance of healing our relationship with the natural world and with each other, we must acknowledge these lies and work to transform them.

For example, before the arrival of Europeans, the inhabitants of North and South America were remarkably healthy. But along with the Europeans came their illnesses and their livestock, and the native inhabitants were then exposed to the many diseases that can be passed back and forth between those animals and humans – anthrax, tuberculosis, cholera, streptococcus, ringworm and various poxes.

The British and French had fished in southern New England for some time before the Pilgrims landed in 1620, and it is likely that they came in contact with the Indians. The native inhabitants had no resistance to the diseases brought by the Europeans, and within three years, a plague wiped out between 90 and 96 percent of the inhabitants of coastal New England! This death rate was unknown in all previous human experience. The Black Plague in the 1300s killed about 30 percent of Europe’s population.

This piece of history is omitted from most textbooks, yet these plagues, which ravaged the Indian population for the next 15 years, set the tone for our relationship with the native peoples and the natural world.

The first settler's cabin in Elmira, New York. "A small pox outbreak in 1802 caused the final exodus of Indians from this area," according to Town of Elmira records. (Photo courtesy Town of Elmira)

Between 1520 and 1918, there were 93 epidemics among Native Americans.

The effect that this plague had on the native populations reached into their psyches as well. They felt that the Supreme Being had abandoned them. Some survivors of the Cherokee lost all confidence in their gods and priests and destroyed the sacred objects of the tribe. Indian healers could do nothing and their religion provided no cause.

But the whites usually survived and their religion seemed to save them. Many Indians turned to alcohol, Christianity or committed suicide. So, it was a psychologically and physically devastated people that for the first 50 years of British occupation presented no real opposition to the invaders.

As of 1492, prior to the arrival of the Europeans, the native population of North and South American was 100 million. Ten to 20 million of them occupied what is now the United States and Canada. The entire population of Europe at the time was 70 million. If colonists had not been able to take over lands that the Indians had already cleared and cultivated, and if the Indian population had not been devastated by disease, there might not have been any colonization at all.

By 1880, the Indian population was 250,000, a drop of 98 percent.

We must examine how we are using this stolen gift of a nation. As life support systems crumble, hundreds of species become extinct every day, and people everywhere are dying from environmentally induced illnesses, can we really say we have learned anything in the last 226 years since independence was declared?

Celebrate this 4th of July, but celebrate values that are your own creation, not those of the wealthy trying to protect profit. Celebrate the value of all life, human and non-human, the sacredness of the earth, air and water, and independence from racism, classism, and human and animal suffering. Create your own declaration of independence, independence from greed, hunger, hatred, and selfishness. Now that would be something to celebrate.

RESOURCES

1. For your celebrations, please try not to add to the air pollution problem that major holidays bring. The lighter fluid fumes from those fun backyard barbecues in Los Angeles alone dump up to four tons of hydrocarbons a day into the air, equal to the emissions from a typical oil refinery. Check out alternatives to chemical barbeque starters at: http://www.diynet.com/DIY/article/0,2058,5127,00.html

2. Meat particles make up nearly 1/5th of the particulate component of Los Angeles air pollution, making it the largest single source of this life threatening category of toxic substances. This is an amount greater than that generated by car exhausts, forest fires, and aircraft. Read about the particulate problem at the National Resources Defense Council site at: http://www.nrdc.org/air/pollution/qbreath.asp

3. Consider grilling something other than meat. It turns out that grilling meat releases heterocyclicamines (HCAs) which are potent animal carcinogens and may play a role in causing cancer in humans. Even the fumes of cooked meat contain HCAs, which have been implicated in cardiomyopathy, breast cancers, and colon cancer in animal studies. HCAs are formed during cooking when naturally occurring amino acids in meat react with muscle tissue in the meat. They are among the most potent carcinogens known. There are lots of vegetarian barbequing ideas on the Internet. Read about some of them at: http://www.interlog.com/~john13/recipes/barbeque.htm

4. The July 1994 issue of the "Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry" reported an increased risk of respiratory tract cancers among cooks! And don't think that eating chicken will get you out of the frying pan. Grilled chicken contains two to seven times more HCAs than beef. A grilled soy-based tempeh burger, by the way, contains no HCAs. For chicken lovers, try grilling “Un-chicken,” found in most natural markets. The details about HCAs and grilling meat can be found at: http://ehpnet1.niehs.nih.gov/docs/1996/104(6)/forum.html

5. Read “Lies My Teacher Told Me” by James Loewen to learn about more surprises in American history. Visit a website devoted to this book at: http://www.uvm.edu/~jloewen/

6. For many perspectives about Native Americans and the environment, check out: http://www.indians.org/library/naehome.html?

7. Learn about ongoing harassment of native and indigenous people around the world at: http://www.blackmesais.org/index2.html

8. Find out who your Congressional representatives are and email them. Demand that they stay strong and work harder to protect our health, the environment and animal rights. If you know your Zip code, you can find them at: http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ziptoit.html

9. For the complete text of the Declaration of Independence, click ">here.

10. To get help redesigning your concept of the “American Dream,” visit: http://www.islandpress.com/ecocompass/dream.html

{Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D. is a writer and teacher in Seattle and the author of ""Healing Our World", A Journey from the Darkness Into the Light," available at: http://www.xlibris.com/HealingOurWorld.html or your local bookstore. Please send your thoughts, comments, and visions to him at: jackie@healingourworld.com and visit his website at: http://www.healingourworld.com}