After the distressing debate last week, it became apparent that there could be changes on the horizon. One of the first is that Marianne Williamson is back in the Presidential race.

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After the distressing debate last week, it became apparent that there could be changes on the horizon. One of the first is that Marianne Williamson is back in the Presidential race.

If something shifts so that there is a different Democratic candidate than what seems likely now, I would welcome seeing Marianne on the debate stage. She's smart, articulate and quick, but more important, she has an uncanny ability to see right through to the essence of the morality and balance of any situation. She lifts up rather than breaks down. Previous debates were better because of her participation. She is the only one who has been in the running who I feel I can trust and who would not let us down, the only one of the group that I could vote for and feel good about the vote I cast. I wish America was ready for her level of ethics.

Marianne reminds us that we don't have to be content with what we are served, we can reach for something better, and I am grateful to her for that.

Below is a portion of her July 4th message.

Happy July 4th!

On July 4, 1776, 56 men signed the Declaration of Independence. By doing so they were risking their lives, for if the British had won the Revolutionary War they would have all been hanged as traitors against the King of England.

In signing the Declaration they introduced into the political realm ideas that would change the world: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that governments are instituted to secure those rights; and if government isn't doing it's job, it's the right of the people to alter or abolish it.

Such ideals of personal liberty and potential for self-actualization lie at the heart of what America means. Our second president, John Adams, said he hoped that on every July 4th we would revisit those ideals. The Declaration of Independence is like America's mission statement - yet we must do the inner work of aligning our hearts with the mission or the ideals become as mere dust.

From the very beginning, there were those whose hearts were certainly not aligned with our highest ideals. For out of the 56 signers of the Declaration, 41 of them were slaveowners! From the very beginning of the republic there have been two opposing forces that constitute our characterological make-up: those willing to do whatever it takes to actualize America's highest ideals, and those willing to shatter those ideals if they do not align with their own financial or ideological purposes.

So it has been from the beginning and throughout our history. Every generation has experienced an iteration of that struggle, some more dramatically than others, and have dealt with it in their own ways. Yet despite the viciousness of anti-democratic forces that have always lurked in our national experience, in the long arc of America history the ideals of equality and justice have ultimately prevailed. Our ancestors repudiated slavery with abolition, they repudiated the institutional suppression of women with the Women's Suffragist movement, they repudiated the Gilded Age with the establishment of organized labor, and they repudiated segregation with the Civil Rights movement.

It's our turn now.

Today the ideals of equal rights and opportunity enshrined in the Declaration of Independence are not threatened by a particular institution so much as by an economic paradigm. It's simply the idea that corporate profits rather than democratic ideals should be the organizing principle of our society, turning us from a government "of the people, by the people and for the people" into a government "of a few of the people, by a few of the people, and for a few of the people." The results have been, and continue to be, hugely damaging in the lives of millions of Americans and others as well.

Today, on July 4th, let's consider very deeply what all this means - to us as individuals and as a nation. The American experiment does not perpetuate itself; it must be kept alive and protected by those who love it most, generation after generation. Today, our most precious ideals are being assaulted not so much by foreign enemies but by forces within our own society - indeed, within our own government - for whom the radicalism of the equality of all men goes against their grain. We know who they are, and now we need to decide who we are.

Authors Website: http://www.OceanViewArts.com

Authors Bio:

Meryl Ann Butler is an artist, author, educator and OpedNews Managing Editor who has been actively engaged in utilizing the arts as stepping-stones toward joy-filled wellbeing since she was a hippie. She began writing for OpEdNews in Feb, 2004. She became a Senior Editor in August 2012 and Managing Editor in January, 2013. In June, 2015, the combined views on her articles, diaries and quick link contributions topped one million. She was particularly happy that her article about Bree Newsome removing the Confederate flag was the one that put her past the million mark.

Her art in a wide variety of media can be seen on her YouTube video, "Visionary Artist Meryl Ann Butler on Creativity and Joy" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcGs2r_66QE

A NYC native, her response to 9-11 was to pen an invitation to healing through creativity, entitled, "90-Minute Quilts: 15+ Projects You Can Stitch in an Afternoon" (Krause 2006), which is a bestseller in the craft field. The sequel, MORE 90-Minute Quilts: 20+ Quick and Easy Projects With Triangles and Squares was released in April, 2011. Her popular video, How to Stitch a Quilt in 90 Minutes with Meryl Ann Butler can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrShGOQaJQ8

She has been active in a number of international, arts-related projects as a citizen diplomat, and was arts advisor to Baltimore's CIUSSR (Center for Improving US-Soviet Relations), 1987-89. She made two trips to the former USSR in 1987 and 1988 to speak to artists, craftpeople and fashion designers on the topic of utilizing the arts as a tool for global wellbeing. She created the historical "First US-Soviet Children's Peace Quilt Exchange Project" in 1987-88, which was the first time a reciprocal quilt was given to the US from the former USSR.

Her artwork is in collections across the globe.

Meryl Ann is a founding member of The Labyrinth Society and has been building labyrinths since 1992. She publishes an annual article about the topic on OpEdNews on World Labyrinth Day, the first Saturday in May.

OpEdNews Senior Editor Joan Brunwasser interviewed Meryl Ann in "Beyond Surviving: How to Thrive in Challenging Times" at https://www.opednews.com/articles/Beyond-Surviving--How-to-by-Joan-Brunwasser-Anxiety_Appreciation_Coronavirus_Creativity-200318-988.html

Find out more about Meryl Ann's artistic life in "OEN Managing Ed, Meryl Ann Butler, Featured on the Other Side of the Byline" at https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/OEN-Managing-Ed-Meryl-Ann-in-Life_Arts-Artistic_Artists_Quilt-170917-615.html

On Feb 11, 2017, Senior Editor Joan Brunwasser interviewed Meryl Ann in Pink Power: Sister March, Norfolk, VA at http://www.opednews.com/articles/Pink-Power-Sister-March--by-Joan-Brunwasser-Pussy-Hats-170212-681.html

"Creativity and Healing: The Work of Meryl Ann Butler" by Burl Hall is at
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Creativity-and-Healing--T-by-Burl-Hall-130414-18.html

Burl and Merry Hall interviewed Meryl Ann on their BlogTalk radio show, "Envision This," at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/envision-this/2013/04/11/meryl-ann-butler-art-as-a-medicine-for-the-soul

Archived articles www.opednews.com/author/author1820.html
Older archived articles, from before May 2005 are here.