As a nation, we progress slowly towards what may or may not be the halfway mark of our third century. Our nation began as the result of tumultuous rebellion, breaking free to establish independence due to viable complaints long unaddressed. In our infancy, the word on the page, the Declaration of Independence provided, to all who might listen, the birth cries of the United States of America.
Like many newborn nations, we struggled with identity, membership, and self-understanding. Did our bold emergence seal a fragile contract with destiny to act as planet’s friend, nursemaid, law enforcement provider, counselor, and judge? For decades and more than two centuries, we have considered ourselves to be green, growing, a bold shining representation of democracy and the proper use of democratic principles. We have ripened now, and thus have begun to rot.
Justice Statue at the Supreme Federal Court in Brazil [Photo Credit: Dasfour2022]
As Mars continues in retrograde in Cancer, the sign of our nation, the United States of America this rot reveals itself in current times. Recent events challenged our internal sense of home, justice, strength, and resilience. Do we have what it takes to make it through the turbulent growing pains of our still young nation? As a people, we cannot even decide on a single name to call the primary internecine conflict in our nation’s history: the Civil War. Northern states and southern states fought, not simply over the visible, but the invisible.
The larger battle represented as the Civil War challenged our awareness and acceptance of who exactly can be classified as a citizen belonging to the conglomerate known as the United States of America. We are, as often stated, an experiment. We have a national government, with 50 voices chiming for various laws applicable to those areas. Our union attempts to ensure that our agreements are more than our dissensions.
The COVID pandemic provided a second internecine conflict, challenging our union as dissenting voices regarding attitudes towards vaccination, isolation vs. the need to be in community, and where to direct our shared resources.
Who we choose to be as individuals who shape our shared union depends upon our ability to cherish Justice and shore up the role Strength plays in our lives.
National Memorial for Peace and Justice [S. Bustamonte]
Do we still hold as a cherished principle that all individuals are created equal? Our newly created Constitution evolved past the three-fifths compromise made to find agreement between states holding enslaved peoples and states that did not hold enslaved peoples in determining who counted for seats in the House of Representatives. It took a number of years before our shared community included those not originally counted – Native Americans and enslaved peoples. We used to teach our children that all men are created equal with a subtle change to all being equal.
Our communal acknowledgment of the role Justice plays in our lives faces challenges on frequent, and of late, daily basis. What does it mean to have fair treatment? Recent legal decisions, such as the July 2024 decision that U.S. Presidents have immunity from prosecution if the actions stemmed from official acts flies in the face of our nation’s bedrock: all are equal under the law.
The expansion of executive branch action and powers threatens to tilt the triangle base of shared authority between the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government. The breadth of orders during the first ten days of the current administration includes actions that disrupt our nation’s self-affirming role as peacemaker and shining example of democracy.
We stand as a nation with all the tools needed spread before us, yet we are paralyzed through emotional attachment to the past, to revenge, and to a definition of “justice” rather than a desire to embrace the principle of “Justice”: one of fairness not swayed by outside opinion or other considerations beyond what is needed to form a clear and just verdict.
Instead of hours, days now seem like years. Our principles of humanity and cherishing our fellow Americans remain challenged by choices, often made with great reluctance, to follow the insularity on one path into isolation from others or our choices to embrace the principles we learned as children and younger adults.
Justice Unbalanced [Wikimedia Commons]
As we progress through this time of popcorn events where each day brings shock and horror to some, sad resignation to others, and quiet glee to those who enjoy the perception of purge, destruction, and bloodletting present in our nation, let us continue to not forget why we are here. The act of choosing not to forget, rather than simply stating that we should remember is important.
Actions are important.
We are human. We are American. Our path back to Justice is through Strength: We use our mental capabilities (Air) and consider the strength of Venus (Libra) when we consider what Justice as a principle truly means. We need however the energy and volition (fire) of the core self (Sun) to overcome our problems through our strength of character.
Our test is to be strong as humans. Let us rush to create our best lives at this time of turbulence by remembering what makes us strong as a nation and why we came into existence in the first place. We must remember our history – the painful and the joyful – to continue our trek forward as The United States of America.
Let us consider carefully the tools we have in our cultural, religious, and spiritual practices to make our lives one that expounds upon Justice as a principle. We pray for those whose burdens need to be lifted, we act in community for those who have no one, and we remember the principles of our Constitution even when it appears that our government has forgotten them.
In short, we need to practice the quality of resilience – the ability to bound back from difficulty. We will need it during these near times, when nothing appears to reflect the redemptive qualities of Americans that we tell ourselves or our children. Differences are marked in a tribal manner, rather than what should hold us together.
Is it any wonder that the celebration, a true celebration, of our 250th birthday in the year 2026, less than 18 months away is in doubt? Now is the time to use our wits, our wisdom, our wise ways for guidance. We may hide in the open air, but we demonstrate resilience through Justice and Strength.
Let us be the light for those around us, for the ones who cannot speak, for the ones who need shelter however we can provide it, and for those who need to see that our strength as a people lies on the path of Justice, rather than avarice.
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