A day of celebrations of freedom, liberty, and democracy on our US soil and remembrance of those who fought on foreign soil for those rights. May we all pause, in the midst of our celebrations to remember not only our independence but our interdependence.  May we honor the service of those recognized as veterans and those who daily go about fighting for the same rights here on our soil and abroad but do so nameless, without fanfare or recognition. May we recognize that freedom, liberty, and democracy are not always experienced by all of us.  The statistics below are in no way meant to be a “downer” on this holiday. Like George Bernard Shaw, “You see things; and you say ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say ‘Why not?’” May the fireworks light the heavens and shower compassion of interdependence that is the root and mother of independence. If this holiday we could celebrate and illuminate the sky with the fireworks, effort, and zeal of compassion, and reduce these statistics – and so many others- to invisible ink…. We could truly link arms and sing with all life…. Freedom, liberty, and justice for all!

• Every day, approximately 105 Americans die by suicide. (CDC)
• In 2013, there were 45.3 million people in poverty in the US with 19.9 million living in extreme poverty. This means their family’s cash income is less than $10,000 a year for a family of four (US Census Bureau)
• In America, the wealthiest 160,000 families own as much wealth as the poorest 145 million families, and that wealth is about 10 times as unequal as income…not good for business or society (Fortune magazine, 2015)
• There are more than 12,500 Veterans living in shelters or homeless (US Dept of Veterans Affairs). Fireworks trigger PTSD symptoms in many veterans (google fireworks and veterans!)
• In 2010, on average, nearly 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner in the United States. During one year, this equates to more than 10 million women and men. 1 in 5 women and 1 in 71 men in the United States has been raped in their lifetime (CDC)
• Elder abuse, including neglect and exploitation, is experienced by 1 out of every 10 people ages 60 and older who live at home. This statistic is likely an underestimate because many victims are unable or afraid to tell the police, family, or friends about the violence (CDC)
• Bonded labour is one of the most common forms of slavery and one of the main causes of intergenerational forced labour exploitation. India topped the Global Slavery Index 2013 with the highest number of enslaved people, estimated at 14 million, which is nearly half the total world-wide. They are producing the products we buy (Huffington Post, 2011).
•  The average U.S. citizen eats over 11 pounds of chocolate per year but many are unaware of the rampant practice of child slavery involved in more than 70 per cent of the world’s cocoa production.
• Without human activities, the planet should lose a bird species only about once every 1,000 years. In actuality, at least 150 species of birds have gone extinct in the last 500 years alone, according to conservation partnership. Today, between 100 and 1,000 species per million vanish annually.  (Journal of Conservation Biology).
• At the turn of the 20th century, there were a few million African elephants and about 100,000 Asian elephants. Today, there are an estimated 450,000 – 700,000 African elephants and between 35,000 – 40,000 wild Asian elephants (World Wild Life Association).

 A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life depend on the labours of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received ~ Einstein

 If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together. – Aboriginal activists group, Queensland, 1970s

Namaste