Peace for this Thanksgiving
I would like to share some good news about the first Thanksgiving. We have much to be thankful for! Democracy, Separation of Church and State, Consent of the Governed, Self-Determination, Equal and Just Laws Serving the Common Good. The tenets of civil government that arose from the principles and ideals of the Mayflower pilgrims and the Native Americans they lived among.
This origin story of the United States begins with a compact, a peace treaty and three days of inter-cultural celebration, followed by a melding of cultures through a half century of friendship between the Mayflower Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians at Plymouth Plantation 1621-1675.
What is the American mind? The American spirit? Where did they come from and where will we take them? What is the nature of true freedom? Throughout time humanity has made choices, which have created our history. What of our future? Our choices will lead us there.
At the founding of this nation an extraordinary exception to the human condition unfolded when the visionary leaders of two radically different cultures met and worked together to maintain an inter-cultural exchange that became what I call the “First Great Synthesis” between Europeans and American Indians. I believe this gave birth to American democracy and to the American mind and spirit. The “Second Great Synthesis” occurred when aspects of The Great Law of the Iroquois were integrated into the United States Constitution in 1787. I foresee a third synthesis, as our cultures come together again to realize the great promise of liberty, justice, equality and abundance for all that America made to the world in its freedom documents: The Mayflower Compact, The Declaration of Independence and The U.S. Constitution.
I believe we can bring it into balance through a perspective on the common vision for humanity shared by the Pilgrims and the Natives they lived among: a vision based upon the right to act according to one’s conscience in a in a self-governing democracy.
Connie Baxter Marlow
Woody Creek