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Freedom our heritage won for us
“A free society is a moral achievement,” the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks wrote in a book published just months before his passing. Freedom does not come from economic policies or political power, he observed. It requires morality, which Rabbi Sacks defined as “a concern for the welfare of others, an active commitment to justice and compassion, a willingness to ask not just what is good for me but what is good for ‘all of us together.’ It is about ‘Us,’ not ‘Me’; about ‘We,’ not ‘I.’”
Just as the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us to exercise an abundance of caution, we could also use an abundance of care and compassion during these troubling times. The world seems so polarised, so divided, yet our desires to pull together can be stronger than the forces that pull us apart. And they must be, because we need one another. The problems our world faces today will not be solved by individuals or isolated groups. We face these problems together, and we will find solutions together. To do this, we need to talk with one another, listen to one another, respect differences, and acknowledge our shared humanity.
Sometimes we think complex problems require complex solutions. But the key to building a moral, compassionate society is surprisingly simple. It involves applying some ancient wisdom that is still relevant in our modern world: Love one another. Treat all with dignity. Share your blessings with the less fortunate. And give special attention to those who are sick in body and spirit. We “do these things,” Rabbi Sacks noted, “because, being human, we are bound by a covenant of human solidarity, whatever our colour or culture, class or creed.”
It’s true that living in a free society gives us some independence. But we still depend on one another. Preserving our freedom will require our cooperation and our compassion. Each of us plays a part in making our society moral and free by our habits of heart, thought, speech, and action. It is, indeed, “a moral achievement” to do what is good for all of us together.
For generations, wise men and women have observed that “freedom is never free.” The price of freedom is hard work and sacrifice, faith and resolve, commitment to the principles of independence. And this is not a price we can pay just once. The bill comes due again with each successive generation.
On one Independence Day parade at independence square, a little girl turned to her father, sitting beside her, and asked, “Why do we have parades? Why do people wave flags? Why do soldiers wear uniforms?” Her father smiled and explained that they were celebrating freedom. He reminded the girl of the meaning of the colours of our national flag. Red meaning the blood and toil of our fathers. He further explained how many of our great great grandparents had died to gain our independence. The little girl waved her flag to the military band music and seemed to understand.
In the midst of our parades and celebrations, we might pause to ponder this child’s questions in our own heart. Why do we raise flags and hold parades? Because every time we see flags along city streets, every time patriotic music pours from marching bands, every time we whisper a prayer of thanks to those who safeguard our freedom, our hearts swell with loyalty and love for country. The brilliant parades, picnics, and parties all remind us of the freedoms we enjoy and the allegiance we pledge.
More than a passive appreciation, our loyalty to liberty activates within us a desire to protect, uphold the good name of Ghana and pass on principles of freedom to the next generation.
As Ronald Reagan warned, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We did not pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.”
Every boy and girl, every man and woman, can do his or her part to promote and protect freedom. And as we do, our hearts will swell with a loyalty to liberty.
God bless our home land and defend it with true love and respect for all.
By Samuel Enos Eghan
Email: samueleghan@gmail.com
One of the issues we have been grappling with as a nation is corruption, and it has had such a devastating effect on our national development. I have been convinced that until morality becomes the foundation upon which our governance system is built, we can never go forward as a nation.
Our traditional practices, which have shaped our cultural beliefs, have always espoused values that have kept us along the straight and the narrow and have preserved our societies since ancient times.
These are values that frown on negative habits like stealing, cheating, greediness, selfishness, etc. Our grandparents have told us stories of societies where stealing was regarded as so shameful that offenders, when caught, have on a number of instances committed suicide.
In fact, my mother told me of a story where a man who was living in the same village as her mother (my grandmother), after having been caught stealing a neighbour’s cockerel, out of shame committed suicide on a mango tree. Those were the days that shameful acts were an abomination.
Tegare worship, a traditional spiritual worship during which the spirit possesses the Tegare Priest and begins to reveal secrets, was one of the means by which the society upheld African values in the days of my grandmother and the early childhood days of my mother.
Those were the days when the fear of being killed by Tegare prevented people from engaging in anti-social vices. These days, people sleeping with other people’s wives are not uncommon.
These wrongful behaviour was not countenanced at all by Tegare. One was likely going to lose his life on days that Tegare operates, and so unhealthy habits like coveting your neighbour’s wife was a taboo.
Stealing of other people’s farm produce, for instance, could mean certain death or incapacitation of the whole or part of the body in the full glare of everybody. People realised that there were consequences for wrongdoing, and this went a long way to motivate the society to adhere to right values.
Imagine a President being sworn into office and whoever administers the oath says, “Please say this after me: I, Mr. …., do solemnly swear by God, the spirits of my ancestors and the spirits ruling in Ghana, that should I engage in corrupt acts, may I and my family become crippled, may madness become entrenched in my family, may incurable sicknesses and diseases be my portion and that of my family, both immediate and extended.”
Can you imagine a situation where a few weeks afterwards the President goes to engage in corrupt acts and we hear of his sudden demise or incapacitation and confessing that he engaged in corrupt acts before passing or before the incapacitation—and the effect it will have on his successor? I believe we have to critically examine this option to curb corruption.
My grandmother gave me an eyewitness account of one such encounter where a woman died instantly after the Tegare Priest had revealed a wrong attitude she had displayed during the performance on one of the days scheduled for Tegare spirit manifestation.
According to her story, the Priest, after he had been possessed by the spirit, declared that for what the woman had done, he would not forgive her and that he would kill. Instantly, according to my grandmother, the lady fell down suddenly and she died—just like what happened to Ananias and his wife Sapphira in Acts Chapter 5.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO
By Laud Kissi-Mensah
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BY ROBERT EKOW GRIMMOND-THOMPSON
