The Writer's Convenant

I have established a covenant with my self, the writer.

Write everyday.

Cease writing to be published.

Accept that what I have to offer readers is worthy.

Keep writing but write by the internal keel that is at the heart of who I was at about age fourteen.

Why age fourteen?

The ideas which determine our character and life are implanted in mysterious fashion. When we are leaving childhood behind us they begin to shoot out. When we are seized by youth's enthusiansm for the good and the true, they burst into flower, and the fruit begins to set. If allof us could become what we were at age fourteen, what a different place this world would be. ~Albert Schweitzer from Out of My Life and Thought

Be well my fellow writers everywhere!

Susan

To Mr. Bush

The True American Character

Some people believe that America exists in forever spacious skies, purple mountain majesty, and the fruited plain. America is not a place. America exists within the mind.

It was an idea whose time had come.
Birthed from the loins of Liberty, it came like a bright light in the midst of human strife. It came like a gentle rain on hardened soil, loosening each grain of rock for a seed to grow. The idea that all could be free...it was present on this continent.

The American mind was here when Europeans first stepped upon these shores. As pilgrims felled trees, and the air was filled with the sharp sound of the ax and saw and the heavy scent of hardwood, Liberty gazed through dark eyes in the green of thick woods. Liberty was bronze, bedecked in eagle feathers and soft hide. Liberty was sleek, bounding in a sunlit meadow, and silk-haired diving below blue waters. Liberty was vigorous.

It set minds to dreaming.
America is a belief, a principal of life - that all beings are free and self-determined. America means harm no thing. America means respect for all life. That is what America is and what a true American lives by. To live otherwise is to diminish it.

Those who came and still come to America are changed by Liberty. For so long now, immigrants think they made America. They think they thought of her. But Liberty made them think America. It was she who changed their minds and made their thoughts go to dreaming. She was already here among the people, and the animals, and all throughout the land. A true American understands this.

Liberty whispers in the ear: Let them all be free! Take only what you need and share the rest. Glory in the abundance therein. See the sunrise and the sunset, swim the clear lakes, and eat the flesh of my fruit. Liberty is a shimmering light on the rounded lip of water spilling over stones. Liberty is the glint in the eye of a child. Her voice is the high pitched scream of a hawk soaring off its prominence. Liberty is the cry of a man to be free at last!

America is an impulse. Americans are animated by it, driven to play out its creed. America’s elixir is Liberty, and once tasted, nothing will ever satisfy the soul again.

Liberty stalks the dark places.
Liberty walks the land with sure feet and white garments that dazzle the eye. She has a voice like a bell ringing. Americans listen for her coming. Sometimes she awakens them from their sleep. Liberty stalks the dark places in peoples’ hearts and minds. She says firmly: Let them all be free!

Americans like the sight and sound of Liberty. She is their beacon of hope and great teacher. When confusion comes and when strife and conflict arise, true Americans look for Liberty. They listen for her voice across the land and through the woods. When they hear it - the bell that rings so clearly - they can go on… they can endure anything.

A true American is ever vigilant. An American dissents if Liberty is threatened. An American has a certain kind of angst when told what to think or do: call it “democratic irritability.” It is the sign of true Americans. Listen to their voices:

Is there not something worthy of perpetuation in our Indian spirit of democracy, where Earth, our mother, was free to all, and no one sought to impoverish or enslave his neighbor? ~ Ohiyesa, Santee Sioux (1858 – 1939)

Yes, your honor, I have many things to say; for in your ordered verdict of guilty, you have trampled under foot every vital principle of our government. My natural rights, my civil rights, my political rights, my judicial rights, are all alike ignored. ~ Susan B. Anthony, Women’s Rights Leader (1820 – 1906)

When I first decided to take a firm stand against the war in Vietnam, I was subjected to the most bitter criticism, by the press, by individuals, and even by some fellow civil rights leaders. There were those who said that I should stay in my place, that these two issues did not mix and I should stick with civil rights. Well I had only one answer for that and it was simply the fact that I have struggled too long and too hard now to get rid of segregation in public accommodations to end up at this point in my life segregating my moral concerns." ~ Martin Luther King, Jr., Civil Rights Leader (1929 – 1968)

No face which we can give to a matter will stead us so well at last as the truth. This alone wears well…. Say what you have to say, not what you ought. Any truth is better than make-believe. ~ David Henry Thoreau, American Dissenter (1817 – 1862)

Because we have suffered, and we are not afraid to suffer in order to survive, we are ready to give up everything - even our lives - in our struggle for justice. ~ Cesar Chavez, Leader of the Farm Workers’ Civil Rights Movement (1927 – 1993)

The strongest reason why we ask for woman a voice in the government under which she lives… is because of her birthright to self-sovereignty; because, as an individual, she must rely on herself. ~ Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Women’s Rights Leader (1815 – 1902)

Liberty presses on the American mind.
A true American cannot be moved from his or her conviction about Liberty. No eloquent speaker, powerful force, mind-altering influence; no bribe, or set of tragic circumstances, no ideology can shake an American from the knowledge that Liberty is at the heart of America:

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. ~ Declaration of Independence 1776

Liberty caused these thoughts to be written when minds were shaped by an America present long before the Europeans walked upon our shores. Liberty presses on the American mind still: Let them all be free - black, brown, red, yellow, woman, child, plant and animal! Liberty stands firm on this. True Americans understand it.

Americans believe all people should know Liberty. A true American will not participate in or support anyone or anything that would deny Liberty to another human being. Americans look across the globe with the hope of Liberty’s promise for all. A true American is generous and long-suffering for just causes. Listen:

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.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…. ~ Declaration of Independence 1776

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it. ~ Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States (1809 – 1865)

He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself. ~ Thomas Paine, American Patriot (1737 – 1809)

Americans raise their flag to honor Liberty and burn their flag when Liberty is in jeopardy. Liberty for All is the creed of true Americans. They cannot be swayed. They have tasted her intoxicating liberation. No government, no religious doctrine or no person can deter true Americans from their pursuit of freedom. Liberty is their only religion, their only banner. True Americans are free to think and free to live.

Liberty whispers in their ears throughout the land. True Americans can hear her voice summoning them to act on her behalf.

This is the true American character.

by Susan Williams, Submitted to Vanity Fair in 2004

References and Permissions for Quotes
I. “Is there not something worthy of perpetuation in our Indian spirit of democracy, where Earth, our mother, was free to all, and no one sought to impoverish or enslave his neighbor?” ~ Ohiyesa (Charles Alexander Eastman)

Excerpted from 'The Wisdom of the Native Americans’ © 1999 BY Kent Nerburn. Reprinted with permission of New World Library. http://www.newworldlibrary.com/, per Marjorie Conte, Permissions Editor, in an E- mail communication, July 8, 2004.

II. “Yes, your honor, I have many things to say; for in your ordered verdict of guilty, you have trampled under foot every vital principle of our government. My natural rights, my civil rights, my political rights, my judicial rights, are all alike ignored.” ~ Susan B. Anthony

http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/anthony/sentencing.html%20Retrieved%20on%20July%208
Retrieved on July 8, 2004 Public Domain (Trial Record in the Case of United States vs. Susan B. Anthony on the Charge of Illegal Voting, June 17-18, 1873)

III. “When I first decided to take a firm stand against the war in Vietnam, I was subjected to the most bitter criticism, by the press, by individuals, and even by some fellow civil rights leaders. There were those who said that I should stay in my place, that these two issues did not mix and I should stick with civil rights. Well I had only one answer for that and it was simply the fact that I have struggled too long and too hard now to get rid of segregation in public accommodations to end up at this point in my life segregating my moral concerns." ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

From the speech “Domestic Impact of the War in America” given in November 1967 to the National Labor Leadership Assembly for Peace.
http://www.aavw.org/special_features/speeches_speech_king03.html Retrieved July 6, 2004

IV. “No face which we can give to a matter will stead us so well at last as the truth. This alone wears well…. Say what you have to say, not what you ought. Any truth is better than make-believe.” ~ David Henry Thoreau

From: Paul, Sherman (Ed.). (1960). Walden and Civil Disobedience. Riverside Editions A14. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. p 223. Permission to quote: July 8, 2004 E-mail communication from Monika Konwinska, Subsidiary Rights Assistant, Houghton Mifflin Company: Public Domain

V. “Because we have suffered, and we are not afraid to suffer in order to survive, we are ready to give up everything - even our lives - in our struggle for justice.” ~ Cesar Chavez

http://www.sfsu.edu/~cecipp/cesar_chavez/cesarquotes.htm%20Retrieved%20July%203
Retrieved on July 3, 2004 Public Domain

VI. “He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.” ~ Thomas Paine

http://www.quotationspage.com/search.php3?Author=Thomas+Paine&file=other. Retrieved on July 3, 2004 Public Domain

VII. “The strongest reason why we ask for woman a voice in the government under which she lives; in the religion she is asked to believe; equality in social life, where she is the chief factor; a place in the trades and professions, where she may earn her bread, is because of her birthright to self-sovereignty; because, as an individual, she must rely on herself.” ~ Elizabeth Cady Stanton from “The Solitude of Self”

http://www.pbs.org/stantonanthony/resources/index.html
Retrieved on July 5, 2004 Public Domain

VIII. “Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it.” ~ Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln in a Letter to Henry L. Pierce, April 6, 1859.
http://www.nps.gov/liho/slavery/al14.htm%20Retrieved%20on%20July%207Retrieved on July 7, 2004 Public Domain

Scene

"The museum sat low and snug in the gentle curve of the desert and its tan adobe walls and rock paths formed an extension of the sandy floor and surrounding mountains. Sunk in a sea of saguaros, the museum’s presence was subtle like the land, the only change at its boundaries marked by the rock outlines that formed outdoor exhibits for mountain lions and coyotes, and by a forest of little trees, lacey and green, and plump cacti in every shape and size.

At night in the moon tide the big brown bats swooped over its lush vegetation drinking with long tongues from the huge white saguaro blossoms, carrying sticky pollen from saguaro top to saguaro top, and some scooped up insects hovering over the beaver pond. Bobcats and coyotes hunted there too for rats and mice and snakes that roamed the museum grounds under the cool moon light. The rattlesnake and sidewinders plied the earth across the valley’s confines drawn by the warmth of breathing little bodies gathering seed. Swift and silent their belly scales seamlessly rowed them forward over rocky paths where they ruled the nighttime’s smaller kingdoms.

But at daybreak the night stalkers disappeared, confined to subterranean caves to rest through the heat of the day. The cactus wren, hummingbird, and human took their place in the sun tide of the desert sea."