Showing posts with label democracy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label democracy. Show all posts

March 4 - Holy Experiment Day

Posted on March 4, 2020

Penn at age 22
There was this English man named William Penn. He was lucky enough to be born into a rich and important family; his father was Sir William Penn, an admiral, and his mother was a Dutch woman with money and family connections. 

Despite being a member of a high-prestige group - white, English, male, rich - Penn joined a religious group that was against the law of the land and was looked down on by most. He became a Quaker (Quakers are also called "Friends") and was even arrested for attending Quaker meetings. Rather than dodging the charges by ditching the label "Quaker," Penn proudly claimed the label. His family was important enough that he was released from prison.

BUT Penn's father was outraged that his son had turned away from the Church of England and worried that he would soon be in trouble with the King. Admiral Penn pleaded with his son to renounce the Society of Friends, to be reasonable and practical...but Penn, Jr., stood his ground.

Admiral Penn ordered his son out of the house and cut him off from family monies.

Yikes!

Still, William Penn (Jr.) stayed a Quaker. He began to live with various other Friends, and he began to write about the Quaker religion.
William Penn wore plain
clothing.

Here are some of the things Quakers were known for:
  • refusing to participate in war
  • wearing plain clothing
  • opposition to slavery
  • not drinking alcohol
  • not treating the insane as criminals who need to be locked up
  • human rights for those who don't own property
  • not believing in the necessity of a hierarchy (some people being ranked "above" or over others)

Charles II (sitting) and Penn
On this date in 1681, King Charles II surprised Penn by giving him a charter for a huge chunk of land in North America: more than 45,000 square miles (120,000 square km)! Charles II even named the land Pennsylvania - in honor of Admiral Penn, not Penn, Jr., but still!

("Sylvania" is Latin for "forests" or "woods.")

William Penn traveled to the New World, to Pennsylvania, and wrote a charter of liberties for the new settlement. He intended to set up a political utopia (perfect place), and he guaranteed free and fairy trial by jury, freedom of religion, freedom from unjust imprisonment, free elections. 

All of that seems so normal to us now - but a lot of that was unusual at the time. Since Penn was basically the owner and ruler of Pennsylvania, he could have ruled in a way that guaranteed his own continuing power, but he deliberately set up limits to his own power. He established two groups of lawmakers, and he safeguarded the rights of private property, and he even set up prisons as places of working on oneself - they were considered "workshops" - rather than places of punishment and misery. Penn knew that English law punished roughly 200 different crimes with a death sentence, but he considered that a problem; in Pennsylvania, only treason or murder would result in a death sentence.

Penn was influenced by the ideas of philosopher John Locke, but he also made up the idea of using amendments to change a written constitution so that government could change and evolve with changing times. 

Penn even treated the people native to "his" land decently (compared to other European settlers). He purchased land from the Lenape, and he made sure that the Lenape still had the right to travel across the land for the purpose of hunting, fishing, and gathering.

Penn considered the Pennsylvania colony, with all of his structure meant to establish democracy and human rights, a "Holy Experiment." Having a lot of religious diversity (not only did Penn recruit Quakers, he recruited other people being persecuted for their "misfit" religions!), and having religious freedom, certain were pretty darned experimental - and the experiment succeeded! This was an experiment that greatly influenced the eventual United States of America!





Plan ahead:

Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , ,

January 25 - National Voters' Day in India

Posted on January 25, 2020


According to election data, fewer and fewer young people in India were getting involved in the democratic process - in other words, fewer and fewer young adults were entering the electoral rolls. In 2011, the Indian government decided to take action - and created a new holiday.

 India's National Voters' Day involves identifying all the young adults who have turned 18 as of January 1, enrolling them on the electoral rolls, and giving them a badge with the logo "Proud to be a voter - Ready to vote." The fact that the government is actually seeking out just-turned-adults tends to motivate young people to take part in elections and gives the crystal clear message that every vote is important!

Hmm, I think maybe the United States should copy this holiday...!







Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , ,

January 10 - Majority Rule Day in the Bahamas

Posted on January 10, 2020

Today's holiday commemorates the Bahamas gaining majority rule for the first time on this date in 1967. Majority Rule Day symbolizes fairness and equality for all Bahamians.

I am used to living in a country where the majority rules, and let me tell you - it DOESN'T always mean fairness and equality. Unfortunately, the majority is often quite unfair in its laws, in its enforcement of laws, and in its justice system - unfair to minorities, whether they are racial or ethnic minorities, religious minorities, or minorities in the area of sexual orientation and gender identification. 

The truth is, people's rights cannot be up for a vote. For example, we should never decide whether people can or cannot practice Hinduism by popular vote. We can't shrug and say, "Sorry, Hindus, majority rules; that's just democracy!" Instead, human rights must be enshrined in first principles, in constitutions, in the fundamental basis and structure of a nation's laws. 

So...if "majority rule" isn't necessarily a recipe for democracy and fairness, why is Majority Rule Day billed that way in the Bahamas?

Ah....you have to look at the history of the Bahamas!

First inhabited by Arawakan-speaking Taino peoples, the Spaniards led by Christopher Columbus found no value in the forested islands of the Bahamas, and they forced the Taino people onto ships, taking them to other islands to be used as slave labor. The Bahamas were literally uninhabited for a number of years, although a variety of European groups tried to settle the islands. 

Eventually, the Bahamas became a sort of pirate republic. (The "pirates of the Caribbean" were not just a Disney ride and movie!) When the British got serious about squelching piracy, British weapons, ships, and people came to the islands and controlled the islands for the next couple of centuries!

The thick forests were cleared for British-owned sugar plantations, and as you can guess, many African people were enslaved and brought to the Bahamas to work the plantations. As a matter of fact, the vast majority of people living in the Bahamas from the early 1700s on have been Afro-Bahamians. These days, Afro-Bahamians make up around 90 percent of all Bahamians.

In other words, black people were and are the majority. Decidedly!

But because of the history of the Bahamas, with the black people being enslaved, with the land being owned by white people, with the government and other positions of wealth and power being controlled by white people, the minority ruled over the majority.

After World War II, Bahamians were seeking self-rule and more autonomy from Britain. At the time, the two most powerful political parties were split along racial lines, but the playing field was still tilted toward white people. It wasn't long after the new constitution went into effect, in 1964, that the Afro-Bahamian majority of the population finally gained a majority of the seats in the Bahamian parliament and the Bahamas finally had a black Premiere (the position was soon renamed Prime Minister). And less than a decade after that milestone, the Bahamas finally became fully independent of Britain!



With that history, with the vast majority of a country being controlled by undemocratic shenanigans pulled by a richer minority, I can certainly see why "majority rule" was an important beacon for equality and democracy!




The Bahamas are known for their beautiful beaches,
for cruise ships and resorts, and for Pig Beach, a teeny
island that is uninhabited by people but very definitely
inhabited by feral (wild) pigs!


Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)