Freedom’s Truth: Justice and Responsibility
Liberty and the American Idea is a writing project that includes this blog, a forthcoming book, and the development of additional resources to come. The blog also appears on a parallel Facebook page, where 2700 readers are now following.
The project explores the close interrelatedness of freedom and responsibility in American history and culture, and addresses the immense challenges currently confronting the American people. It is a response to a decades-long deterioration of social and economic conditions in the United States, to the growing antipathy, divisiveness, and loss of civility among Americans, and to the loss of integrity and self-reliance in the American character.
Without partisan posturing or polemic, the book offers a pragmatic approach to healing and reconstruction that transcends political divisions and proposes a path forward to inspire and engage every citizen.
With insights into how personal independence and empowerment can be realized despite the obstacles we face, and how our ability to live and work with our neighbors depends on our own self-confidence and discipline, it proposes a direct path to long-term stability and honorable prosperity.
After briefly outlining the complexity of the challenges before us, the first half of the book offers wide-ranging consideration of the historical perceptions and ways of thinking that will influence any effort to strengthen the foundations for an American future we can respect and believe in.
A strategic approach is then presented in the second half of the book which responds to the growing disorder we can expect from multiple oncoming crises. Americans are encouraged to rise above our differences to the extent necessary to ensure safety and access to essential needs in our local communities.
Rational attention to resolving local problems and meeting shared needs will lead to functional person-to-person relationships which allow us to engage with honest integrity. Only in this way can we gradually come to understand and influence one another as fellow-citizens should.
This strategy is outlined briefly in the introduction to the book, (linked at the top of this page), and developed fully in the book. The project will include practical resources for strong, well-organized American communities.
Until the book is published, most blog posts will be adapted from or related to the manuscript. At the top of this page, several full chapters are made available in draft, in addition to the Introduction and a tentative Table of Contents. Thoughtful responses from readers, and dialog among readers, will be welcomed and greatly appreciated. Rules of engagement are posted at the bottom of the homepage.
