We often view the use of the word, creed, in a religious context, and rightfully so; but at its essence, a creed is a belief that is fundamental, a guiding principle. This Podcast is dedicated to the principle of freedom and liberty. The antithesis of freedom and liberty is oppression. The right to be free is a fundamental belief in American culture, and must never be taken for granted or abused. Therefore, the creed of freedom is more important than any other principle or belief...indeed, perhaps the most important.
We can identify a creed as religious; or that which is considered a fundamental belief, or guiding principle. Our freedom and liberty must be the guiding force behind our growth as individuals, and our unity as a people. Join me, as I explore the marvelous creed, I call freedom!
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Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Freedom's Creed with your host, Rex Reed. I'm really grateful that you've taken the time to tune in today, and I look forward to exploring this venture with each of you. And so I want to jump right in here and talk about this podcast, the nature of it, and its intent and objective going forward. I want to focus on the word creed. Now, if we think of this word, we often think about the word creed in a religious context. And though that indeed is true, uh we can also look at the word creed in a different context. The context with which I have chosen is to look at it in terms of fundamental beliefs and guiding principles. So, how is freedom's creed a fundamental belief or a guiding principle? First off, let's take a look at the Declaration of Independence, for example. Now, stay with me here for a minute, because in this podcast, it's not necessarily a podcast about politics. Uh, I may discuss matters that touch on politics, but that's not the primary purpose of the podcast. So a very fundamental part of the Declaration of Independence has these words. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Let me pose this question. What would have happened in the country if this creed from the Declaration had been upheld? Obviously, this is a hypothetical question, and we're looking at it in the context of history, but it's safe to say that we would likely have still had a civil war. Um but what about slavery? What about women's rights? And to be clear, the use of the word men in the Declaration refers to man, which the dictionary defines as an individual human or the human race, mankind, among many other definitions. But the definition, of course, that we want to focus on is an individual human, be they male, female, black, white, no matter what. And again, we're talking about these things uh in a historical context. And so it is really a stretch to try to imagine or to uh pretend that history didn't happen the way it did. What I'm simply saying is that if we could imagine it, how would things have been different had the tenets of the Constitution been upheld? I mean, think about it. Some of us may have the tendency to think that this uh was some kind of pie in the sky uh belief, uh, that there's absolutely no way that these can't things could have happened uh the way that I'm talking about them. Um it obviously doesn't benefit anyone from our past uh who experienced the things that they experienced because of man's inhumanity uh to man. But is it really that unbelievable that we could say that because of the tenets of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, or in other words, since these things were codified and became the law of the land, is it that preposterous to think that if people would have just made better decisions, that history could have been changed dramatically for a lot of people? I don't think so. I mean, is it wrong to want to have a greater faith and confidence in humankind or mankind? Imagine for a moment if things would have been different, if the tenets of our founding documents would have been upheld and respected by all people. We may not have had a need for the Emancipation Proclamation because there may not have been slavery. And if that held true, then there certainly would not have been a need for the thirteenth or fourteenth or fifteenth amendments to the Constitution. But what about today in 21st century America? Do we have the ability as American citizens to make sure that these kinds of things that happened in our past that were a stain on our history? Can we prevent them from happening today or similar uh events or things like what happened back in the time of slavery and uh post-slavery, even in uh since the Emancipation Proclamation, uh in the era of Jim Crow? Uh, we could have uh avoided a lot of things if, for instance, we just would have been cognizant of, oh, I don't know, the golden rule. Uh what if people would have lived by that at that time? Um, what about now? Uh to do unto others as you would have them do unto you? Sounds like a pretty reasonable way to live as far as I'm concerned. And you may think me naive, and perhaps I am, but I can still believe. One thing is clear. We can't change the past, but we can certainly do our part to influence the here and now twenty-first century America, as well as shape the future for our children and grandchildren. And interestingly enough, the Golden Rule is also defined as a guiding principle. Uh, I would call it a creed of its own, as in Freedom's Creed. Yes, I said that. I have no shame. But what I do have is a great desire to want to emphasize these principles of freedom and to uh let people know that they are available to all people, no matter who you are, no matter where you live. The opportunities that are granted to us by the freedom that we enjoy and the liberty that we enjoy are boundless. But that doesn't mean that we don't have challenges, that we don't have instances in our lives that challenge us. Uh I would be naive, we would all be naive to believe that life is like that. It's not. But I choose to look at the glass as half full and not half empty to use the cliche. And I've purposely made this episode uh a little shorter than what perhaps it might be going forward. And so one of the things that I do want to do on a regular basis is to recognize that in spite of what I may have talked about in a particular episode, if it may be perceived as being negative by some people. And I hope that I'm able to communicate the intent of each and every episode. But in any case, what I want to do is I want to be able to leave each of you with something positive, whether that's a quote from someone or uh, and typically that's probably what it's going to be: a positive quote that we can all uh learn from and aspire to do better than we did uh yesterday. And so with that, I am going to bombard you uh in this episode with three quotes from three different individuals. Uh the first is from Gandhi, who said that freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes. I love that, and I think that all of us uh would and could and should support uh such a statement that yes, we're free, but that means we're free to make some mistakes, and hopefully we're free to be forgiven too. The second quote is from Frederick Douglass who said, Find out just what any people will quietly submit to, and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them. I'm not sure that needs a whole lot of explanation. I think it speaks for itself uh very effectively. The last quote is from Condaleza Rice, who once said that the essence of America, that which really unites us, is not ethnicity or nationality or religion. It is an idea. And what an idea it is, that you can come from humble circumstances and do great things, that it doesn't matter where you came from, but where you are going. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you again for listening, and I look forward to the next time. In the meantime, if you can think it, you can plan it. If you can plan it, you can do it.
