Regardless of your personal beliefs, religious flavor, or political party, America and most Democratic Societies worldwide face a problem. The problem is summed in a single word, unity. Except, and unfortunately, unity has been hijacked to mean all sorts of things, plasticized into describing what it is not, and abused until the term unity itself is becoming repugnant. Since the inauguration of the fraudulent president, the term unity has been used and abused until most people I know are ready to scream every time unity is mentioned.
According to Webster: Unity – is “the state of being united or joined as a whole; the state of forming a complete and pleasing whole; forming a complex whole.” Aristotle provided an excellent discussion on three unities when describing a dramatic representation for a stage, theater, or book. However, I find these three unities powerful as reminders of living unity. The three unities are:
Unity of time:
Unity of time, for me, is all about understanding that I am an eternal being experiencing a temporal existence. Hence, I have a purpose for living, I have an obligation to respect the time provided to me, and I owe a debt for that time to a power greater than myself, for having given me that time. Unity of time also refers, my mind, to the fact that I live each day minute-to-minute and day-to-day. Hence, procrastination being an enemy of the unity of time is a challenge to be overcome. Unity of time also refers to what is occurring right now in the world today, where leaders are wasting time as a precious resource to deter taking action.
Consider how angry the population was in the Summer of 2020, where the politicians refused to honor, uphold, and sustain the laws of the land for political profit. In this example, we can see how time was wasted, as a tool to create divisions, separate populations, and elect a fraudulent president. When this is understood, the same principles can be overlaid on today’s news, and similar conclusions are drawn. Unity of time is being abused for personal and political gain, and too often the time wasted, was ours, not theirs!
Unity of Place:
America is a Republic, not a democracy, so what I discuss in the unity of place is geared explicitly towards The United States of America but can be applied to any democratic society with a little tweaking for local circumstances. The founding fathers disagreed, vociferously and violently, on many topics. The founding fathers also agreed on many issues. Between the two extremes of belief, a consensus was formed. The foundation for America was laid down and written into the founding legal documents, the US Bill of Rights, and the US Constitution, among others. Hence, disagreement is not a bad thing, and disagreement is simply the launch point to finding consensus under US Constitutional Law.
The founding fathers were Judaeo-Christian in their knowledge and understanding, and one of the most compelling voices for the unity of place is Jesus Christ, who is recorded in Matthew 5:43-44, as saying:
“Ye have heard that is hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But, I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.”
Jesus Christ added a second action to the unity of place, from Luke 20:25:
“… Render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar’s, and unto God the things which be God’s.”
Unity of place is honoring and obeying the laws of the land, which in America means the US Constitution. Loving our enemies does not mean laying down and losing our liberties in the name of love and peace. It means unifying under the laws of the land, using the laws of the land to peacefully exist with those who choose to be our enemy, and finding consensus without violence, theft, property destruction, and creating enmity over an issue that is not eternally significant.
Honor and respect for civil authority, even when we are petitioning for redress from government abuse, is the first duty we owe to each other in American Society. Every person refusing civil authority, disturbing the peace, interrupting commerce, or restricting the free flow of ideas is acting in a manner that is both objectionable and illegal under the First Amendment to the US Constitution. President Abraham Lincoln said, “There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress by mob law.” Unity of place is living the law, peacefully petitioning for redress when needed, and respecting civil authority.
Unity of Action:
Reverend Theresa A. Dear is affiliated with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and wrote, “America’s Tipping Point: 7 Ways to Dismantle Racism,” stating: “… racism thrives on hatred, oppression, collusion, passivity, indifference, and silence.” Notice something remarkable, while one person may possess hatred, the remaining food feeding racism requires more than two people acting together. Hence, unity of action is represented by a double-edged sword. Unity of action can build and destroy in the same stroke of the arm. Unity of action requires many people acting in concert, swinging in the same motion, working together to bring about the desired end-goal.
Any worthy goal will require more than one or two people acting in concert to establish and create the desired goal. Hence, unity of action is a call, not for words, platitudes, and ambiguity, but explicit, concise, and applied action! Unity of action takes all the elements of the unity of time and the unity of place, and puts them to work towards the desired vision. However, the desired vision could be for good or ill, based upon those doing the work. This is where America and the fraudulent president are currently residing when he calls for “unity.” The calls for unity do not include a purpose, a reason, logic, or even an intentional statement, thus abusing and plasticizing the calls for unity!
Where do we go from here?
Would you believe me if I said, “I do not know?” Not knowing the intention behind the calls for unity means the three unities cannot work together, be understood, or even be applied. We have a complex country needing the three unities. Except, the person calling for unity is confused and derelict, leaving each person with some modicum of power to enact calumny, abuse the political opponent, and wreak havoc among the citizenry. We can discern the damage being made, we can observe and witness the harm, but to counteract and empower a population using the three unities is impossible.
What we CAN do!
Because I am an American (A(h)-ME-I-CAN), I am not willing to sit still and merely observe the destruction of America. I refuse to allow the US Constitution to die on my watch and deprive my posterity of the heritage of faith, courage, and liberty I was blessed with upon birth. Using the three unities, we can choose how, when, and where we swing the sword of the unity of action. We can study, learn, teach, and collect supporters who understand the tools we have, and desire to participate. We can encourage others to investigate the problems and issues we see. We can act locally to improve the results on State and National levels of government. We can become more unified in purpose, knowing the three unities and using them to improve ourselves.
Never forget, the greatest enemy to any tyrant is the population being abused, and the first tool that the abused population needs to fight back is literacy. Literacy breeds freedom and liberty. This cannot be stressed enough; let’s unify around local action through self-education and improved literacy. Then we will see the tyrants run like cockroaches in a kitchen when the lights come on.
© 2021 M. Dave Salisbury
All Rights Reserved
The images used herein were obtained in the public domain; this author holds no copyright to the images displayed.
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