Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote the anti-slavery book Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1852. Since reading that book last year, I have thought about Uncle Tom and slavery today. I found that the thing that kept Uncle Tom a slave was his loyalty to his master, his fear of the unknown and his unwillingness to remove himself for that which enslaved him.
Of whom are we the slave? What keeps us from reaching our potential. Benjamin Franklin said:
"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759
Who is our master today? Why are we unwilling to break the bands that enslave us. As those to whom we, as a republic, gave authority to govern try to increase our collective "safety", we will find that we are losing our freedom of self governance and self determination.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
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