My fellow Americans,

Stay proud, my friends.

From Genesis Chapter 2:

And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden; and out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the Tree of Life also in the midst of the garden, and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. And the Lord God commanded, saying "You may eat freely of every tree of the garden; but of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die."

Now the serpent was more subtle than any other creature that the Lord God had made, and after he had convinced the man and woman to eat of this Tree of Knowledge, the Lord God said:

cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life.

Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to you . . .

you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken;

you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

Now, I'm not sure how much of this really happened, but I am certain that the story is true. Anyone who has ever attended Sunday School, of any denomination, knows it. It tells of the origin of a much-cherished human value - that of free will. Humanity declined the simple life, and instead opted to have self-awareness instead of innocence. Adam and Eve could have lived the life of highly-developed animals in the abundant wild, but instead sought to know good from evil, innocence from shame.

It's a cruel irony that God so loves humanity that the first man and woman to experience this love are placed in a beautiful garden where their every need is met; then, at the same time, this Source of Love placed in the midst of that garden "the knowledge of good and evil," powerful enough to strip humanity of its innocence and the unlimited abundance that had been provided for it.

Fast forward several millennia, and the birth of a man-made, God-ordained Garden of Eden: the United States of America. Yes, I am comparing the USA to the Garden of Eden, as it was intended to be: a beacon - a haven for those not fortunate enough to be born into nobility and privilege, where personal initiative and hard work provided bounty to those fortunate enough to reach its shores.

Bounty, that is, for Europeans who reached its shores. Not so much for Africans. The idea of enslaving other humans is the ultimate irony to the otherwise "self-evident" natural law that "all men are created equal," enjoying the right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."  The arrival of the British privateer ship White Lion near Jamestown in 1619 with “20 and odd” Africans on board marked this country's original temptation, our Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, delivered right into the heart of this paradise that is America. Was God laughing when the Africans on board were traded for needed ship supplies and "marked for legalized generational enslavement*"? Or was the Source of the Universe shaking its head, saying "there they go again"?

We cannot deny: Slavery defines our national identity as much as freedom.* Too much blood has been shed over this to claim otherwise.

Tomorrow we'll celebrate the 246th anniversary of our country's independence, and still we argue about which groups are actually benefiting from the American dream, and who can claim to be an American. I am closest to Americans who claim "my ancestors came here the right way." Really? Does that make you any different from those who arrived in chains? Did they arrive here the right way? You either owned slaves, or benefited from an economic system that initially relied on slavery. And did you arrive here before or after Native Americans were decimated and pushed off their land? You either participated in that crime against humanity, or you benefited from it.

Who, then, can really claim to be here, to be Americans, "the right way"?

Slavery was a curse to American soil, and we have toiled from it all the days of our existence as a nation. The thorns and thistles of anger, misunderstanding and conflict it has brought out in us, and as best as we can tell, we'll be eating of it for as long as we're around. For out of its oppression we were sprung, and under its shadow we shall remain.

This is not a condemnation on America - not at all. It's a condemnation of us. Our generation is doing no better than generations before in realizing that

What makes us Americans is what we love.

What we love and cherish is a life of liberty and freedom to make our own way in the world; the chance to raise a family in safety and with the promise of a bright future. We love the idea that we can be who the Creator meant us to be as individuals, and to create the future we want. We love the idea that we all love these ideas, and that others have fought and died to protect them.

Too often, when confronted with a choice between supporting good or evil, we stand by while "law enforcement" kneels on a black man's neck, and find a way to justify it. We choose to hold ourselves above others by virtue of our good fortune to have been born with some privilege, or simply born here, or to have been issued papers deeming us "citizens." But privilege, color and legal status continue to mislead and misguide us into conflict. What's relevant is what we have in common; what we love, value and share. 

If you simply love freedom, and will defend your neighbor's right to their freedom, then I'm proud to call you my fellow American.

* The New Jersey Amistad Commission