Freedom is on my mind. As the U.S. prepares to celebrate Independence Day several days from now, I’ve been contemplating my freedoms.
I enjoy the freedom to vote for the candidate of my choice. I enjoy freedom of religion. I enjoyed the freedom of a good education, which gave me the opportunities to do work I love and to marry the person I chose. I enjoy freedom from want, with a place to live and food to eat. I enjoy the freedom to live where I want to live and to travel to the places I want to travel.
Recently, I’ve been contemplating how easily democracy can be undermined and how freedom can be eroded. I’ve been thinking about how my country only became a full democracy, with freedom for all, on August 6, 1965, with the Voting Rights Act. Now authoritarian forces are chipping away at that democracy.
As more information came forth this week about the insurrection at our nation’s capitol on January 6, 2021, and how close we came to having the results of a free and fair election overturned, I tremble at the fragility of democracy. Democracy requires informed citizens who engage in civil debate and respect election results. When an armed mob storms a nation’s capitol with the support of a sitting president, democracy is at risk.
With Supreme Court decisions that run counter to the will of the American people, I ask, with The Guardian, “Is the Supreme Court a threat to American democracy?” Striking down New York gun laws that protect people from mass shootings, when most Americans support such laws, reveals the Supreme Court to be more a servant to the gun lobby than to the American people. And whatever a person’s opinion about abortion, a Supreme Court ruling that is at least as much about power and control and other issues than it is about protecting life is suspect. The NETWORK Catholic lobby expressed well the need for a comprehensive understanding of issues in its statement on the Dobbs Decision:
The Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization will have deep ramifications in people’s lives, many of whom may not even realize it yet. Undoing nearly half a century of precedent and jurisprudence will undoubtedly have a disorienting and destabilizing impact on our laws, the provision of maternal health care, and our already fraught civil discourse. . .
With polarization and extremist violence growing in our country, people of faith have a moral duty to work toward the common good across a spectrum of issues. Catholic teaching states that a focus on one moral priority cannot lead to “dismissing or ignoring other serious threats to human life and dignity” (“Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship” #29).
For anyone who has made ending federal protections for abortion the singular focus of their political activity, we at NETWORK urge you to expand your focus to include the economic realities of women and families. Now is the time to listen to the experience of women, particularly women living in rural, low-income communities and women of color.”
I ask myself, “What does soulful leadership look like at this time? How can I help rebuild our fragile democracy? What is my part?” May we all find ways to discover our part in re-weaving the fabric of democracy.