Author: Jill

I wrote recently about the strange phenomenon of an individual’s pride related to one’s birth. I guess it’s not really strange. The lie that one derives value from their place, time or region of birth has been perpetuated since the beginning of history. The stories of clans, castes and dynasties are legion. I am aware that ascribed status is a norm of human history and those with money and power rule. The pride thing just seems dumb. I think of the Braveheart story and William Wallace asking Robert the Bruce, a “noble,” “What really makes a man noble?” At another...

The Preamble of the Constitution states: “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity,” makes me ask: What does it really mean to secure the blessings of liberty? Or rather, what are the blessings of liberty? The second paragraph of the United States Declaration of Independence starts as follows: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their...