This is Life as a Sacred Text 🌱, an everybody-celebrating, justice-centered voyage into ancient stories that can illuminate our own lives. It‘s run on a nonprofit, so it’s 100% NAZI FREE. More about the project here, and to subscribe, go here:
Over here in These United States, we're just about at Fourth of July weekend– during an election year, while white supremacist Christian nationalism is running the government and the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence is being marked. It's... a lot.
So I thought I'd remix something I did a couple of years ago, using the base text getting celebrated this year. So.
But first, I want to remind you that our first LEARN, TO DO is in just one week. For those of you less familiar with Mariame Kaba's work, she is, truly (as far as I can tell, and I do not say this lightly) one of the most important and visionary doers and thinkers of our era, and I believe that at some point will be more universally regarded as such.
(My friends, I'm not picking these people capriciously! Every single one of these sessions is going to be paradigm-shifting, and I mean that.) So this session, as all of these, is really a special opportunity to learn from truly extraordinary voices at a pivotal moment in our nation's history.
Finding your role in the work with Mariame Kaba, July 8, 7ET/4PT.
I'm not kidding.
Even if you feel that you have your role in the work this conversation will be worth your time and you will learn so much, as will we all. Click through and just do it already.
OKAY.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal–
And God created human in God's image, in the image of God God created them. (Genesis 1:27)
REAFFIRMING that indigenous peoples are original, diverse societies with their own identities that constitute an integral part of the Americas; (American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, 2016)
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
“That all men have a natural and unalienable Right To worship…according to the dictates of their own Conscience and understanding…” (the Jew Jonas Phillips to George Washington and the Constitutional Convention, convincing them not to include Christian religious test as part of the requirement of federal officeholders.)
Rav Yehuda said that Shmuel said... “You shall keep My statutes and My ordinances, which a person shall do and live by them” (Leviticus 18:5), and not that they should die by them. (Talmud Yoma 85b)
Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world... (The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948)
That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government... as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
To say now that America was right, and England wrong, is exceedingly easy. Everybody can say it...but there was a time when to pronounce against England, and in favor of the cause of the colonies, tried men’s souls. They who did so were accounted in their day, plotters of mischief, agitators and rebels, dangerous men. To side with the right, against the wrong, with the weak against the strong, and with the oppressed against the oppressor! here lies the merit, and the one which, of all others, seems unfashionable in our day.... (Frederick Douglass, "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?")
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government...
When a long train of abuses and usurpations... Such has been the patient sufferance of the women under this government, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to demand the equal station to which they are entitled. (The Seneca Falls Declaration of 1848)
"Oppression has an awful way of putting a ceiling on our imaginations."
– Mariame Kaba, 2026
We want freedom. We want power to determine the destiny of our Black Community.
We want full employment for our people.
We want an end to the robbery by the Capitalists of our Black Community.
We want decent housing, fit for shelter of human beings.
We want education for our people...
We want an immediate end to POLICE BRUTALITY and MURDER of Black people.
We want freedom for all Black men held in federal, state, county and city prisons and jails.
We want all Black people when brought to trial to be tried in court by a jury of their peer group or people from their Black Communities, as defined by the Constitution of the United States.
We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal... (From the Black Panther Ten-Point Program, 1966)
Why should we feel proud of a nation that gleefully denies us the ability to earn a decent living by making it easier to prevent us from getting a job? Why should we be proud of a nation that seeks to deny us medical care or get housing? Why should we be proud of a nation that seeks to pass dehumanizing modern-day Jim Crow laws regulating where we [use the bathroom]? ... I will not leave, because my ancestors shed four centuries’ worth of blood for us to be here in this moment... I love this country enough to fight for its soul and make it better ... I am not leaving because it would dishonor the memories of all the trans people we have lost to anti-trans violence. It is for their sakes that I must fight with every fiber of my being to create an America that recognizes the fact that the “We the People” in our Constitution unequivocally includes black transgender Americans. ("The Meaning of July 4 for Black Trans Americans," Monica Roberts, known often as TransGriot, 2019)
And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
You shall appoint magistrates and officials for your tribes, in all the settlements that God your God is giving you, and they shall govern the people with due justice. You shall not judge unfairly: you shall show no partiality; you shall not take bribes, for bribes blind the eyes of the discerning and upset the plea of the just. Justice, justice shall you pursue.... (Deuteronomy 16:18-20)
CONCERNED that Indigenous peoples have suffered from historic injustices as a result of, inter alia, their colonization and the dispossession of their lands, territories and resources, thus preventing them from exercising, in particular, their right to development in accordance with their own needs and interests; RECOGNIZING: That the rights of Indigenous peoples are both essential and of historical significance to the present and future of the Americas; The important presence in the Americas of Indigenous peoples and their immense contribution to development, plurality, and cultural diversity, and reiterating our commitment to their economic and social well-being, as well as the obligation to respect their rights and cultural identity; and that the existence of the Indigenous cultures and peoples of the Americas is important to humanity... (American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, 2016)
"Freedom is a place.... it’s not like a destination.
It’s the place that we make."
― Ruth Wilson Gilmore
And you shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof; it shall be a jubilee unto you; and you shall return every person unto their possession, and you shall return every person unto their family. (Leviticus 25:10)
Individually, our imagination is limited. But being intentionally in relationship with each other can help us to create new worlds – we can imagine ourselves differently.
We can move past the questions “what do we have now? How can we make it better?” to envision an end to death-making institutions....
We are not afraid of unanswerable questions. We’re dreaming as we pursue struggle. Our world can be different – let’s make it so.
My friend Harsha Walia asks a question I often turn to: “Is what we’re doing increasing the possibility of freedom?” If my answer is NO, then I’m not doing it. (Mariame Kaba in 2022)
❤️
Share this post
Share on Bluesky
Share on Threads
Share on Facebook
Share on Mastodon
Share on Reddit
Share on LinkedIn
Share on X
Share on Email
(The one that looks like this: 💬)
And YES I AM TELLING YOU TO SIGN UP TO THIS TRAINING SERIES FOR (Y)OUR OWN GOOD
I am not sure how much louder I can yell "come listen to someone who's gonna blow your mind and probably change your life" but like. (I'm not sure how to say that I'm really really not this series for my personal benefit– like, I'm not making any money off this and there's no secret magic sponsor, it's just a lot of time and labor but I am doing this because it matters and I'm in a position to be able to and these are the people who will have an IMPACT ON YOUR LIFE and on our collective work towards fighting for democracy and freedom as a whole. So please, sign up and spread the word?)
Finding your role in the work with Mariame Kaba, July 8, 7ET/4PT.
I cannot underscore enough what an opportunity this is.
When you join our inner circle,
you become part of a diverse community of insightful thinkers and doers who care about transforming themselves and this world
-- while geeking out -- as much as you do.
This is the space you've been looking for. ❤️
For less than the price of one coffee shop drink a month.
Join us.
Support independent work committed to telling inconvenient truths:
Did you know that you can now buy House of Study gift subscriptions for the people you love
(and also the ones you just kind of like pretty OK)
all year round??
Delight the folks who need inspiration and fortification while supporting independent media and enabling more community work to come!
Win! / Win! / Win!
MORE:
Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg
Today's visioning questions from the DEEP END
