Janice L. Mathis Speaks
Good afternoon, Atlanta.
I want to thank the Butler Street Y – a
venerable and
lasting institution - for the opportunity
to stand here today. I am a fan of the Butler Street
Y. It represents all that is good and wholesome and
true about the black experience in Atlanta and in
America. Just as much as the Georgia Dome, or the City
Hall atrium, this place is one of Atlanta’s enduring
symbols.
I want to thank all of
you for coming out.
I want to ask our Rainbow PUSH family to stand – Gail
Davenport, the newest Senator from Clayton County. She
has to go through the formality of an election on
November 7th, but she does not have
opposition. Randolyn Jones – this is our 25th
year working together. Thanks for everything. Axel
Adams – runs our One Thousand Churches Connected
Program. He does a great job reaching out to clergy
across the nation to improve financial literacy. Dextor
Clinkscale – our national director of Rainbow Sports –
has planned an awesome panel for the 7th
annual Creating Opportunity Conference. You don’t want
to miss Creating Opportunity, October 25-27. Mo’Nique,
Julianne Malveaux, Michael Colyar, Dr. Ron Walters, Ron
Daniels, Al Sharpton, and of course, our own Rev. Jesse
Jackson. Visit our website at rainbowpushatlanta.org to
learn more about it and about us.
The last time I was here I
talked a little about Education. The time before that I
think I tried to say something about history. Our lives
don’t last long enough to learn everything we need to
know about life from firsthand experience. So the wise
among us take the lessons of history to expand our grasp
of the world around us.
Our lives don’t last
long enough to learn everything we need to know about
life from life. So we look to history to
provide clues to the present.
Today, I want to talk
about Freedom.
The declaration of
independence says, we hold these truths to be
self-evident that all men are created equal and endowed
by their creator with certain inalienable rights – among
them are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Freedom is in the eye of
the beholder.
Because of these words,
Freedom and Equality are twins in my mind. If we are
all free, don’t we all have to be equal? Liberty is an old-fashioned
synonym for freedom. It comes, interestingly, from the
same Latin word as library, as if there were some
connection between knowledge and freedom. Liberation,
liberal are also derivatives from the same idea. I wish
today’s conservatives were better educated.
Freedom is in the eye of
the beholder.
When we think about Freedom,
we think of it as one of the characteristics of
Democracy. Today, this nation is engaged in a
protracted and difficult struggle to determine we are
told, whether other societies and other cultures will
have the freedom to experiment with Democracy. And
certainly democracy is an experiment.
Sometimes I say that the
reason we say doctors practice medicine and lawyers
practice law is because they are only practicing. Like
you practice the piano. Like you practice with the
football team. Practice does not necessarily make
perfect. Practice means you are still experimenting,
trying to find perfection.
The American experiment is
like that. We are practicing democracy. Not that we
have perfected it. We are practicing it – still trying
to find perfection. Ours has been an imperfect
experiment. If America is the laboratory of democracy
there are still many tests to be performed before we can
verify that freedom exists on this continent.
So long as Bin Laden is at
large and youngsters in Miami are under arrest for
terrorism, the experiment is incomplete.
Freedom like beauty – is
in the eye of the beholder.
Capitalism is nothing more than individual financial and
social economic freedom. The price of financial or
economic freedom is the potential for failure. Financial
freedom requires individual risk taking. Those who have
experienced success have also experienced failure, at
some point in their journey. In order to pursue success,
one must accept the risk of failure. In order to
succeed, one must endure and overcome those failures.
For some people, Free Speech
is tantamount to freedom. For some, it is a free
press. For our people, freedom has
been more basic. Lift every voice and sign till earth
and heaven ring. Ring with the harmony of liberty. For
us, our very physical selves were subject to bondage.
Freedom is the opposite of slavery.
The freedom experiment
is a long way from being finished.
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So long as standardized tests are used to retain
children in the third grade, but we cut $30 million
dollars from the programs of early intervention to help
them reach the goal of grade level, the experiments must
continue.
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So long as 60,000 African American women are dead from
HIV/AIDS, yet Viagra is covered by health insurance but
condoms are not, the experiment must continue.
Freedom and justice
go together.
I tremble for my country
when I reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot
sleep forever." Jefferson said, contemplating slavery,
that he feared a just God.
Then, there is the essential
paradox of freedom. As Joe reminded me last night –
thanks Joe – freedom is not free. That is the essential
paradox of freedom. There really is no such thing as a
free lunch.
I pledge allegiance to
the flag of the United States of America,
and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation,
under God, indivisible with liberty and Justice for
all. I think we should start back saying the pledge of
allegiance. It has sort of gone out of style in many
schools and churches. You see people with the flag in
their lapels. They are great patriots. You see
legislators wanting to amend the Constitution to protect
the flag from desecration.
But our allegiance is not
just to the flag.
We are called to be faithful to
the Republic for which the flag stands. The flag is a
symbol. The Republic is real. The flag is an emblem.
The Republic is the institution. The flag is the
figurative. The Republic is literal.
One nation – not Latino and
Black and white, gay and straight. One nation. Not
Christian and Muslim or rightwing or leftwing. But one
nation, under God. Indivisible. Not north or South, red
state or blue state. Undivided. Indivisible.
With liberty for all and justice for all. Not 2 years
for powder and 20 years for crack. Not 25 years for
some and no time for some. There is a case in Western
Pennsylvania. A black veteran moved his family out of
Philadelphia to escape drugs, crime and gangs. His teen
aged children went to a New Years Eve party. A fight
broke out. Somebody got stabbed – it was serious, but
no life threatening. These two youngsters had never
been in trouble before. The victim recovered. There
was no evidence about where the weapon came from.
Nobody saw who inflicted the wound. The two black kids
got 25 years each in prison. Their case is under
appeal. Their father is Reggie Lewis.
Freedom isn’t free
Joe reminded me last night
that Freedom isn’t free. Freedom has a price. Free to
be me. According to a conservative web site, the
price of financial or economic freedom is the potential
for failure. Financial freedom requires individual risk
taking. Those who have experienced success have also
experienced failure, at some point in their journey. In
order to pursue success, one must accept the risk of
failure. In order to succeed, one must endure and
overcome those failures.
Born Free – as free as the
wind blows – as free as the grass grows. Well, we were not born
free. Nor has our freedom been achieved without cost. There really is no such
thing as a free lunch. There is an economic aspect to
freedom. Something that is free doesn’t cost anything.
Free 90 day trial. Free sample enclosed. Free
consultation. We all love to get freebies. As a lawyer
often I get asked a legal question. Sometimes, after
giving the best advice I can on the spot, I tell folks,
but you know, free advice is worth what you pay for it.
Freedom
has boundaries. Freedom is not a blank check. Freedom
has a fence around it.
My freedom ends where yours
begins. Foley has the right to be gay. But his right
to be gay ends where a teenager has the right to reach
manhood unmolested.
There are so many examples
that I don’t have time to list them all.
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For some people freedom means free to discriminate.
They don’t want EEOC breathing down their neck.
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For some people freedom means making everything in China
and selling everything in America. They don’t want fair
trade, they want free trade.
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For some people freedom means free to pollute the
environment. They don’t want EPA breathing down their
neck.
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For some people frredom means free to practice sex with
men and free not to disclose that fact to their female
partners. I don’t care if you call yourself gay or
not. If you are having sex with a man, you heighten the
risk of HIV infection for the women you come into
contact with. And we as a society must be free to
accept people for who they are. We push them into the
closet.
But even that kind of
freedom isn’t free. Discrimination costs in terms of
productive. Discrimination is very inefficient for the
economy. It leaves some of the best players on the
sidelines –benched, not because they can’t play, but
because they don’t look like they can play. Pharoah let my people go –
the price of freedom is 40 years in the desert.
We talk about salvation
being free. We talk about knowing the free pardon of
our sins. Jesus stands at the door and gently knocks.
Heal the sick, cleans the lepers, raise the dead, cast
out devils. Freely ye have received, freely give.
But we have been bought with a great price. Dr. Lowery
calls us the salt of the earth. Not even salt is free.
Then Jesus said to those Jews which believed on him. If
ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples
indeed. And ye
shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never
in bondage to any man: how sayest thou. Ye shall be
made free? Jesus answered them. Verily verily, I say
unto you, whosoever committeth sin is the servant of
sin. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever,
but the Son abideth ever. John 8:31-35.
Being then made free from
sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. Romans 6:
18 For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free
from righteousness. Romans 6: 20
So the price of freedom is compassion. The price of
freedom is love, mercy, justice, kindness. The fruits
of the spirit are the price of real freedom. So now,
let us go out and be free.
We can say with Patrick
Henry. Give me liberty or give me death Oh freedom over me. And
before I’ll be a slave I’ll be buried in my grave and go
home to my Lord and be free. |
