Category: freedom

Human Freedom Affirmation on July 4th

Of course, we Americans celebrate freedom on July 4th every year. It’s the day that marks the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

That document posited an idea that 245 years later Americans and humans across the planet see far too narrowly. It posited the idea that we humans are endowed, by our very being here, with certain freedoms that cannot be legitimately taken away from us by any earthly force.

While the words in that declaration are a seed and a starting place, it’s not the whole picture. Those freedoms are not limited to political considerations. In fact, taken the the ultimate extent, they mean that EVERY person walking the planet is a being free to explore and express the highest version of themselves possible.

No institution, no other person, and not even our own limiting beliefs should stand in the way of realizing that potential.Can you imagine a planet with seven billion people striving and being supported to strive for that potential? What a different world that would be from the one where so many suffer under repressions that start with their own mindsets and work their way out from there.

This affirmation a declaration of that kind of freedom. It’s a freedom that continues to exist for few, if any, humans on this planet. However, as I celebrate the inroads we’ve accomplished in human freedom today, my thoughts turn to that possible world and to doing all we can to make it, not only possible, but a reality.

Wherever you are on your journey today, remember that you ARE awesome!

Ray

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#RayQuote – Freedom and Happiness

Happiness and freedom are never attained by running away from something. They are possible only when you run whole-heartedly towards your dreams. They are not a change in place, but rather a change in heart.

Today you know you can find happiness and freedom. There is no secret. You already have the answers. Look to your heart, listen closely to its words and wisdom, and then run straight towards what it’s telling you.

Have a great day everyone. Just in case no one else has reminded you today, you ARE awesome!

Ray

Reach For The Stars!

REACH FOR THE STARS!

Hey, everyone

GOOD morning!

Hard as it may be to believe looking around you right now, all of this craziness is presenting us with OPPORTUNITIES for a FAR better world and a FAR more compassionate civilization that serves the needs of ordinary people.

Like all things in life, it’s a choice. We can seize these opportunities or we can be seized by a million possible dystopias that fill our minds.

When we do the latter, who wins? Not us.

I’m a FIRM believer that despite the human past and even the human present, we are a good species at heart. We have enormous potential. We are meant to reach for the stars literally, but first we must raise our faces out of the dirt and toward the sun.

We have 10,000 years of conditioning that mostly divides us, mostly makes us afraid to trust, compels us to hold on to our dogmas in ways that don’t even serve us.

We are better than that. You are better than that. I am better than that.

The inertia of our thinking pulls back into our divisions, back into our fears, back into our tribes.

Just like a rocket headed for space, we have to achieve escape velocity, if we are going to escape the gravity of the past.

It’s hard work. It’s easier just to fade back into “Us” and “Them” thinking. It’s easier to say I’ll do it tomorrow or next week or next year.

It’s tough to say it begins right here and with me.

People often say, “I’ve tried positive thinking and it doesn’t always work.”

It’s true positive thinking doesn’t always work, but it GREATLY increases your chances for happiness and success.

Sadly, negative thinking does nearly always work. No one who ever thought they couldn’t did. No one who ever doubted humanity contributed to its advancement.

In two days here in The United States, we are going to celebrate 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.”

That’s still the dream we ALL have. We all seek life. We all seek liberty. We all seek the freedom to pursue happiness.

We’ve all fallen short. You have. I have. Our “adversaries” have. The man who penned those words did.

Yet the principles embodied in that statement transcend all our failures to live up to it. Those words brought a change in law. It’s time for us, 244 years later, to finally make it a change in hearts.

We come into this world naked and crying. We all leave the same way. It’s the difference we make in between that matters. I know you came here to achieve something great. We all did.

Let’s get to it. If we all focused more on what we’re here to do and less on the hurdles. amazing things can and will happen.

Everyone stay safe. Everyone stay well. Everyone reach for a star today.

Ray

The Expand Free Speech to Social Media Search Engines Act

Hey, my friends. I am huge free speech advocate. It’s long been my belief that the freedom to think and to express those thoughts is a foundational principle for all other human freedoms.

In our modern age, the means of protecting that speech must change with the means available to us to express it. We’ve seen, in recent years, a dramatic shift the balance of power between public speech governed by the First Amendment to the US Constitution and privatized speech that is governed by the “terms of service” of private social media companies.

When the US Constitution was crafted, the greatest threat to free speech was the government literally pulling you out of the town square. Today it’s Silicon Valley executives arbitrarily deciding whose speech is protected and whose speech is not without any due process of law. To me and I hope to you, that is unacceptable.

I realize I have readers all over the world and what I’m proposing will not affect you in your country, but I have drafted legislation I plan to submit to my members of the US Congress. I’m sharing the draft of it here and I’d love your feedback.

Here is the proposed verbiage.

  • Because the freedom of speech is a sacred and foundational principle of a free society.
  • Because, as a practical matter, the “public square” has shifted from a physical place or the printed page to a digital world.
  • Because there is ample evidence that our freedom of speech is not in safe hands when it can be arbitrarily denied by private social media and search engine companies.
  • Because a very few companies hold massive monopolies in this space.
  • Because these companies have demonstrated a willingness to collude to deny free speech to American citizens without due process of law.
  • Because any legitimate measure of free speech in our modern world must include the freedom to express oneself on these platforms.
  • Because the modern definition of press has expanded to include citizen journalists which means these events threaten both individual freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
  • Because elected officials have “unofficially” used their regulatory power to threaten these companies into censorship, violating the spirit and the principle of the Constitutional guarantee that government shall not abridge free speech.
  • Because we cannot leave these freedoms up to the political whims of the moment.

Be it enacted by The Congress of The United States of America, that the protections on free speech in the public arena, guaranteed by the First Amendment, are hereby permanently expanded to include social media companies and search engine companies. Be it further enacted that these companies shall not abridge the free speech of any American citizen or citizen journalist without the due process of law subject existing US law and court precedents. Be it further enacted that online free speech, even on private digital platforms provided by private companies in the business of providing a means for information to be shared or disseminated, shall be indistinguishable in law to the free speech granted in the offline world.

I’d love to hear your feedback below. To me, this is of critical importance. Our ancestors fought – literally bled and died – for centuries to gain these rights. It would be, in my estimation, shameful for our generation to give them all back.

Stay inspired, my friends!

Ray

 

Freedom Affirmations and Original Quotes

Today’s Thought:

“Everything can be taken from a man or a woman but one thing: the last of human freedoms to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

~Viktor E. Frankl

Freedom is such an important concept and has many connotations. In our modern world, we often think of freedom in terms of political freedom or religious freedom. There are still far too many examples in our world where these freedoms are deficient or non-existent.

Yet, there is an even more profound freedom. That is the freedom to think, to be free from mental and emotional conditioning, and the fully express the person you came here to be. These kinds of freedoms are the province of the mind, not the purview of the state or the church.

These affirmations and original quotes focus on all kinds of freedom.

Affirmations

  1. Today I am the person I came to the planet to be!
  2. My freedom to choose is my freedom to change.
  3. I cherish my freedom! My freedom is the fertile soil where I plant, nourish, and harvest my dreams.
  4. Freedom powers my success in life! I always nourish freedom in my environment!
  5.  I am a free human being empowered to reject tyranny and oppression in all its guises.
  6. I am a free human being empowered to share this Earth peacefully with all life forms that live here with me!
  7.  I am a free human being empowered to speak mind and follow a path of my choosing!
  8.  I am a free human being empowered to explore the meaning of my existence for me.
  9. I practice freedom of speech.  I grant myself the freedom to be speak and act authentically in every situation.
  10. I hold these truths to be self-evident that all people are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
  11. My freedom flows not from government, religion, or other people. My freedom flows from the moment of my birth.
  12. My life and my thoughts are my responsibility. I refuse to cede them to any institution!
  13. I cherish my freedom! Freedom is the soil where I plant hopes and dreams. Today is planting day!
  14. Today I unchain my mind and walk consciously into the light of freedom.
  15. The only cage I live in is the one I choose for myself. Today I set myself free!
  16. Today I assert my freedom of speech and that every human being on this planet!
  17. Today I assert my freedom of thought and that every human being on this planet!
  18. Today I assert my freedom of non-harmful action and that every human being on this planet!
  19. I refuse to infringe the rights of others and I expect the same in return.
  20. Today I release my self-imposed chains and walk consciously into the light of freedom.
  21. Wherever tyranny chains hearts, I am the loudest voice for freedom!
  22. Today I choose an open heart over a narrow mind.
  23.  I believe in a protected Earth and a free Humanity. I refuse to sacrifice either! My life is a catalyst for both!

Original Quotes by Ray Davis

  1. Freedom and conformity cannot live in the same heart. Freedom and conformity cannot dwell in the same mind.
  2. Freedom is purely and simply oxygen to anyone seeking self-development, self-improvement, a sense of achievement, success, or enlightenment.
  3. Free societies are built on disagreement, compromise, and tolerance. If anyone of these is denied, the society ceases to be free.
  4. Free speech only for those who agree with you is no free speech at all.
  5. The individual, not the state, is the source of creativity, inspiration, and vision.
  6. Free hearts and open minds the world over are saying, “Enough” to top-down tyranny.
  7. We have spent hundreds of years battling political tyranny and ignoring monetary tyranny. They are inextricably linked.
  8. The world needs bottom-up genius, not top-down tyranny.
  9. Freedom and conformity cannot live in the same heart Freedom and conformity cannot dwell in the same mind.
  10. Freedom and justice for those who agree with us is no substitute for freedom and justice for all.
  11. Freedom and tolerance go hand in hand. You can have neither so long as you reserve them only for yourself.
  12. Freedom is a dish always served with a side of uncertainty. To have the one, you must accept the other.
  13. Freedom is a tsunami ready to permanently drown the nightmares of tyranny and dogma.
  14. Freedom is a process of eroding top-down control in favor of bottom-up empowerment.
  15. Refuse to be who others have conditioned you to be. Reset your factory settings.
  16. Freedom is an historical process of eroding top-down control in favor of bottom-up empowerment.
  17. Tyranny is always waiting in the wings, ready to restore order to freedom’s messiness.
  18. Tyranny is like an addictive drug. You always need a little more.
  19. Freedom is like a sharp blade. The wise use it to cut themselves loose. The unwise use it to injure themselves.
  20. Freedom is not a gift granted by government. Freedom is a truth declared by nature.
  21. Freedom is not conceived in a bomb, nor preserved by a bullet. Freedom is a choice in the heart.
  22. Freedom is the gentle rain and the warm sunshine that allows my dreams to grow and flourish.
  23. Freedom is the simple, but evolved, principle of live and let live.
  24. Freedom is the soil where dreams go to grow.
  25. Freedom is the sweet smell of possibility in the morning and the impulse to pursue it.
  26. Freedom of speech doesn’t protect popular speech. Its popularity does that Free speech protects unpopular speech.
  27. Freedom of speech is risky, denying it exponentially more risky.
  28. Freedom of thought is the foundation of all other freedoms. Practice it regularly.
  29. Freedom persists only where populations are informed. Us and Them are tyranny’s two favorite constituencies.
  30. Freedom with insecurity is a quantum leap beyond security with no freedom.
  31. We cannot be conditioned, helpless, and dependent upon government and expect to be free.
  32. Us vs. Them always conditions away half your thought process and half your options, leaving your mind divided and conquered.
  33. A conditioned mind is a conquered mind.
  34. A people polarized is not a free people. It forces you to tie half your brain behind your back.

Follow your bliss. Experience your bliss. Become your bliss.

Ray

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