In our times, the meaning of liberalism and conservatism is . . . well, confusing, even contradictory. According to Webster, conservatism is “a political philosophy based on tradition and social stability, stressing established institutions, and preferring gradual development to abrupt change.” So how does this definition explain why many conservatives want to reduce the role of government, eliminate several cabinet level departments and the IRS, emphasize polarizing policies that would reverse decades-long practices designed to enhance women’s health care and promote citizens’ voting? To be fair, let’s see how Webster treats liberalism: “a political philosophy based on belief in progress, the essential goodness of man, and the autonomy of the individual and standing for the protection of political and civil liberties. . . in economics, emphasizing individual freedom from restraint and usually based on free competition, the self-regulating market, and the gold standard.” So does this characterization help us understand why many liberals support punitive sentencing such as three-strike laws (versus rehabilitation), an extensively regulated economy, and the Fed’s manipulation of the money market? Perhaps what these definitions do reveal is that Webster no longer reflects the contemporary sense of these “isms.” If you, my reader, will allow me, I would like to simplify the matter, drawing from an encapsulation of historical perspectives. In the most generic sense, liberals have always stood for human progress, while conservatives have been steadfast in the preservation of our human heritage. If we could start with this premise, we would probably all find a common ground. When desperate ideological forces work together, you have the constitutional convention of 1787. When they don’t, you have civil war.

When I speak of “common ground” in our times, the last thing that comes to mind is Republican/Democrat compromise. After all, Republicans are composed of conservatives, moderates, neo-conservatives, tea-partiers, libertarians, and far-right “radicals.” Democrats are no less uniform since they comprise liberals, blue-dogs, red-state democrats, progressives, and far-left “radicals.” Many of these designees resist the labels affixed to them by opponents: liberal Democrats now prefer to be called “progressive,” while conservative Republicans project Janus-like facades, as very conservative in primaries and moderate in general elections. Neither party member wants to be called “radical,” even though radical policies proliferate—like sequestration, preemptive war, drone strikes against sovereign states, secret courts, the internationally condemned detention of enemy combatants without trial and/or sentencing, and the refusal to pay our national debt (as in 2011 and now threatened anew this year). The current confluence of these liberal/conservative parties has produced policies that would make our founding fathers question the relevance of our Constitution. When I consider how often I hear that memorable document misquoted, I cringe and can only conclude it is so maligned for not having been read. Or worse, it is being used as a bogus authority for policies of dubious or even insidious value.

Maybe this blog is nothing more than a rant born of frustration. My lone logical resolve may well be a refusal to be labeled liberal or conservative. Either label prohibits honest dialogue for each admits diverse definitions and irrational arguments. It has been said that we tend to believe whatever we want to believe. It seems to me that party affiliation in the context I’ve drawn here is a box too enclosed for any critical mind. Should party loyalty continue to supersede reason, then we will have all succumbed to “The State of -Ism.”

A close friend shared a scene he witnessed recently. “Walking along the water just outside of Lisbon last night, 2 young black kids on bikes split the gap between me and 2 middle aged women to my right. Clutching their Chanel bags a little tighter to their hips, the inevitable: ‘That’s the problem with this country (the blacks). They are the ones who make trouble and challenges at school . . .’” The irony, as my friend was quick to point out, was that this conversation was literally at the foot of the maritime fort where Africans were once chained, enslaved, and exported to serve the colonial empire. I replied, “You just gave context the ladies with Chanel bags lack. Conditioned behavior needs no context, since it comes easily, sans self-examination.”

Yesterday, the President of the United States surprised a small bevy of reporters in the White House briefing room by upstaging his Press Secretary at the podium. Apparently he felt a need to refocus the attention already given to the recently concluded trial involving the death of Trayvon Martin. He opened his remarks by saying, “I want to talk about context.” He invited us to consider the real life experiences of African-Americans, including his own, and the historical context of black suppression in our country. His statements were an invitation to the white majority to change perspectives—to see the pain in the black community, to empathize. The African-Americans I know never ask for sympathy since they recognize no white person can truly walk in their shoes. But, as human beings, we should be able to at least see the pain “that doesn’t go away,” as the President pointed out. When our black brothers and sisters demand fair treatment and justice, I listen to them not from a sense of guilt: I’m not responsible for the sins of the past. I listen to them because we share a common humanity and because we are imprinted by a common heritage that unfortunately includes racial discrimination. The only guilt earned here is from a personal failure to listen, to empathize, and to attempt self improvement. We should not avoid self-examination. None of us are exempt from the “soul searching” the President prescribed. He even rhetorically included himself when he asked of each of us, “Am I ringing as much bias out of myself as I can and am I judging people, as much as I can, based not on the color of their skin but the content of their character.”

It is not my purpose here to review or debate the various prescriptions suggested by the President regarding the Trayvon Martin case. There are already critics characterizing the President’s remarks as “race baiting”—a label designed to demonize his intent and preclude further thought or dialogue on the matter. What I do want to highlight, however, is that real change begins with the individual. Buckminster Fuller once used the metaphor of the trim tab’s role in turning a large ship on the ocean to describe how a small device can affect a disproportioned result. The small trim tab accelerates the movement of the larger rudder and thereby the maneuverability of the enormous vessel dependent upon it. We can transform our country, but we have to start with ourselves first. Once we broke the shackles of slavery, now we have to shatter the cocoon of denial. Each of us has to face the realities of a bias that has permeated our society for far too long. To ignore this context is an unpardonable conceit.

If you were on a floating platform in the South China Sea—as I once was—you would have discovered a dangerous and perplexing dilemma. Though tethered to a not-to-distant shore, the platform hovered over sometimes murky waters where unseen dangers lurked. Before I could swim to that shore, I would have to choose my point of entry into those waters. What unseen dangers might have lay in wait for me included electric eels, possibly sharks, and always jellyfish, whose umbrella-like extensions could reach 4 to 7 feet in radius. Once I almost dove directly into one of those unwelcoming, poisonous umbrellas. Today, I find myself in a similar predicament when diving into news reports on practically any subject. The dangers in our media waters are numerous: political spin, biased commentaries, uninformed statements of facts, hearsay, fear mongering, hate speech, and so on. How does one know the point where he/she can begin that swim to shore or that path to truth?

In a free society that is governed by consent of the people, there is a responsibility that falls on every voting citizen to be informed. So where do we go for our news? I have two practices that have helped me become better informed. They are not absolute remedies. But they certainly help me be a better participant in constructive dialogues, whether on politics, current events, or personal meaning in an ever-changing world context. First, I try to find first-hand accounts of events, actual source data (versus derived a/o manipulated data), and informed commentary on both sides of an issue. I read CBO analysis, IG reports, analyses from officially or otherwise fairly organized study groups, commissions or foundations, the full statements of individuals who are often quoted out of context, and the disinterested arguments presented by thoughtful people who may disagree on an issue. Secondly, and most importantly, I weigh the case for truth first in the light of my own experience and then in the broader scope of human evolution. The latter cannot even be approached without some form of deeper thought than we normally attain within the boundaries of ego and cultural conditioning. Here imagination is necessary in the same sense in which evolution invokes creativity. Bear with me as I try to explain what I mean. As a species, we have evolved discontinuously from other primates and have leaped into civilization and advanced cultures at an exponential rate in the context of earth history. The intuition that has brought us insights into quantum physics, inspired our artists, and sparked the wisdom of world leaders like Gandhi, King, and Mandela is actually available to every one of us. These individuals triggered transformations in society because they manifested wisdom that all of us could understand because we too had access to their visions. The ability to find meaning in the constant flow of information—which is the fluid world of news today—already rests with each one of us. But we have to learn to rid ourselves of the preconceived ideas/prejudices that disable us from seeing the big picture. For example, what is the relevance of rote education to the development of a critical electorate? How does our current energy driven framework for an advanced technological society affect future generations? How does intolerance for unconformity in appearance, lifestyle or imagination further the prospects for an innovative and vital society? How can a democracy subject to a Constitution and the rule of law justify preemptive war, rendition, torture, life imprisonment without trial, and secret courts?

America may not be perfect, but we have evolved into the best democracy yet conceived by man/woman. Of course, the so-called fourth estate has an important role to play: it is a check on politicians’ self-interested distortions; at its best it offers the public an unsullied access to facts and evidence for our consideration. But it still falls on each one of us to sift through an information blizzard and to make sense of it all. That last parameter requires us to draw on a higher consciousness. Each generation has visionaries that show us the way. But, in the end, we have to look within ourselves for that communal light.

“I was scared of the black cat crossing the road in front of me, but I’m not superstitious.” Most of us would conclude from this quote that its author harbored some level of superstition. Why else would he/she feel scared? The cat offered no real threat.

So why did George Zimmerman feel Trayvon Martin was somehow a threat to the community—or even to himself. Now many pundits and journalists have already weighed in. I don’t intend to explore the validity of the “stand your ground” law in Florida as it was presented by the trial judge in her jury instructions. I will not question the verdict reached by a jury panel of six who labored with the appropriate application of the law’s reasonable doubt requirement. Likewise, I’m not going to criticize the Stamford police department’s delay in issuing an arrest warrant. Nor will I criticize the prosecutor’s case in chief: strategically it ignored racial profiling (allowing the defense team to characterize it as appropriate); and tactically it failed to force Mr. Zimmerman to testify in his own behalf in lieu of introducing his unsworn, recorded accounts of his actions. No, instead of re-litigating and rehashing the many perspectives on this case—which is already being discussed in practically all media and from every possible angle, I’m going to accuse myself of racial profiling. In fact, I’m going to accuse you too, my patient readers. We are all guilty!

Unless you are raised in a black family or have had close relationships with African-Americans, your attitudes about people of color have been formed by your personal experiences and the cultural imprinting of your community. In other words, a white man or woman normally will never truly understand what it means to be black in America. But what we can understand—and are obligated to understand—is our own reaction to black people. If you are the average white American, you already have been conditioned to accept certain stereotypes about your fellow black citizens. News reports of inner city violence or movies that exhibit black male violence merely serve to substantiate those stereotypes. On the other side of this equation, African-Americans also suffer from cultural conditioning. If Mr. Zimmerman was telling the truth, Trayvor Martin confronted him and asked, “Do you have a problem with me?” As an opening remark, this question could be no more confrontational than “can I help you?” If instead it was uttered in a threatening tone, it would display the similarly conditioned attitude exemplified by George Zimmerman. It’s likely that both men felt threatened by the other—and for no rational, objective reason. We all need to learn how to defuse confrontational situations, whether experienced as road rage, workplace antagonism, or an unexpected, potentially threatening exchange with a complete stranger. The first step, however, is to be aware of our instinctual or conditioned response. There is no way to overcome racism or any other form of prejudicial (AKA, profiling in legal terms) action without self-awareness.

Sometimes we rest too easily on our alleged progress in the aftermath of constitutionally enforced oppression and slavery. Certainly, we can all celebrate the achievements of the XIV and XV Amendments (re: civil rights and black suffrage), the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act that followed. The moral boundaries of American society did indeed expand through the course of the twentieth century. If it will continue to expand in the twenty first century, we Americans will need to become more aware of our unexamined behavior towards each other. Only then can we both change as individuals and continue to transform as a society.

Our recent celebration of Independence Day inspired me to reread the Declaration of Independence. My first thought was to assess its relevance to our current state in America. Of course, we are no longer besieged by a foreign tyrant; and its enumerated grievances against a foreign power are no longer applicable. But its declarations still resound with a clarion call to action: “the right of the people to alter or abolish” any form of government deemed destructive of certain unalienable rights, among which are “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” Although Americans are not in the same plight as Egyptians, we do have a right to alter our government wherever it impedes one of those unalienable rights, many of which are further specified in our Constitution. These words were preamble to a revolution and justification for America’s Declaration of Independence. In our form of democracy, activism is not only justified. It is required. So, if government derives from “the consent of the people,” as the Declaration intones, then every citizen is required to understand his/her rights and to hold elected officials responsible for their safeguard. I think we all understand in general terms what “life and liberty” entails. But when we consider the right of the people to “keep and bear Arms,” are we cognizant of the second amendment context for the necessity of a “well -regulated Militia” to maintain “the security of a free State?” We do, after all, have law enforcement and a standing army to protect us from a foreign invasion. Certainly we all benefit from the first amendments’ freedoms of religion, speech and the press. But how do we explain our legislators’ application of religious interpretations to issues of homosexuality, same sex marriage, or abortion? It would appear that this amendment assures that no person can be forced to engage in any of these activities against his/her religious convictions. Equally, it assures the freedom of those who do not share these religious convictions. The fifteenth and nineteenth amendments state that the rights of citizens to vote “shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State” on account of race, color, sex, or previous condition of servitude. How does this mandate stack up against the whim of some state legislatures to abridge voting laws to curtail the vote of minorities?

Before I close this blog, I want to make one final comment on the “pursuit of Happiness.” A careful reading of the Declaration reveals what Jefferson meant. Also, his life gives an even more strident testimony of his intent. For Jefferson and for the signers of the Declaration, the happiness they considered our unalienable right was a common dedication to the public good. Of course, they foresaw a future nation where everybody had an equal opportunity to pursue their life goals. But this pursuit was seen as the necessary adjunct to the general welfare of the state. “It is the Right of the People to . . . institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their (the people’s) Safety and Happiness.” So with our freedom comes responsibility, not only to ourselves but to each other.