{"id":6875,"date":"2014-07-08T19:09:48","date_gmt":"2014-07-08T19:09:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/?p=6875"},"modified":"2014-07-08T20:02:29","modified_gmt":"2014-07-08T20:02:29","slug":"when-and-what-to-declare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/2014\/07\/when-and-what-to-declare\/","title":{"rendered":"When and what to declare"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The Fourth of July<\/strong> made me think about our nation\u2019s Declaration of Independence<\/strong>, a declaration made while the Colonies were already at war, a war they fought for some six years longer. Our founders declared independence and then worked to make it happen.<\/p>\n

I thought I would write a post on how we all declare our patriotism on the Fourth. It comes as easy as wearing red, white and blue or waving the flag.\u00a0 Politicians especially want to be thought patriotic. But how can we not doubt their sincerity when partisan politics impedes progress? Corporations declare their patriotism but how can we think it is more than a marketing ploy when their first allegiance is to profit?<\/p>\n

I also thought about personal declarations I\u2019ve made, specifically all the times I\u2019d made promises and been unable to back them up. Sunday nights are for such declarations; Monday mornings are when I waver, when declarations go bust.<\/p>\n

These days there is no shortage of empty declarations. Take for instance the hashtag #amwriting. Kinda silly, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

I was going to write about how it seems to me that often when we make such declarations, the declaration itself is enough to satisfy us, that we don\u2019t follow through on the actions. In this age of\u00a0 \u201csharing\u201d we like to make announcements, declare our intentions. But isn\u2019t much of it all talk?<\/p>\n

I wanted to make a case for quiet determination, for getting things done without the fanfare, without trumpets or declarations blaring.<\/p>\n

But now it\u2019s Tuesday afternoon, July 8, and all I can declare is that my thoughts on declarations are muddled.<\/p>\n

The July Fourth weekend was violent in Chicago; reports<\/a> <\/a>are that 68 people were wounded and 14\u00a0 people killed. What I want now is some sort of declaration that Chicago is working to solve this problem, not adapt to it.<\/p>\n

Circulating over the weekend was \u201cThe Pitchforks Are Coming . . . For Us Plutocrats\u201d<\/a> <\/strong>by Nick Nanauer<\/strong> in the July\/August issue of Politico<\/strong><\/em>. I\u2019d love a call to action, a declaration that such sharp economic inequity is going to be blunted<\/p>\n

A comment on one of my previous posts on violence in Chicago, said, \u201cMy biggest concern is energy, unless we end climate change the world is going to be in serious danger.\u201d When we can\u2019t even seem to reach a consensus on this issue, what hope is there for action?<\/p>\n

The personal promises I declared to myself on Sunday night don\u2019t seem so important when I consider how: my state is broke; my city is breaking open with gunfire, one massacre at a time; how my country is stalled; how my world is suffering from years of abuse. Though these statements are true, I realize I am using them to rationalize my own failure, to fuel that downward spiral of negative thinking that ends in \u201cWhat\u2019s the use?\u201d A cop-out.<\/p>\n

Do you struggle too?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I guess what I am thinking now is we could do with fewer personal declarations of the #amwriting sort and more quiet determination.<\/p>\n

But as for the problems of the world, I yearn some meaningful declarations.<\/p>\n

Peace, love, and solace<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Fourth of July made me think about our nation\u2019s Declaration of Independence, a declaration made while the Colonies were already at war, a war they fought for some six years longer. Our founders declared independence and then worked to make it happen. I thought I would write a post on how we all declare […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2198,18,386,2200,2201,2196,2197,12,2194,2195,2202,2199,7,16,32],"class_list":{"0":"post-6875","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"tag-the-pitchforks-are-coming-for-us-plutocrats","8":"tag-anthology","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-chicago-violence","11":"tag-climate-change","12":"tag-declaration-of-independence","13":"tag-declarations","14":"tag-ellen-wade-beals","15":"tag-fourth-of-july","16":"tag-independence-day","17":"tag-nick-nanauer","18":"tag-politico","19":"tag-solace","20":"tag-solace-in-so-many-words","21":"tag-weighed-words","22":"entry","23":"has-post-thumbnail"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6875"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6875\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6904,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6875\/revisions\/6904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}