In the middle of the Civil War on Jan. 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, granting freedom to all slaves held in the 10 Confederate states.  However, the proclamation was not put into effect until April 1865 when Confederate Gen. Robert E.Lee surrendered in Virginia.

On June 19, 1865, U.S. Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger delivered to the people of Galveston, Texas, General Order No. 3, which read, in part:

“The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor.”

It’s interesting how the theme of freedom stretches from the beginning of our country to the present day.  And while “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” are ingrained in our national consciousness, so, too, are the attempts to limit freedom.

The moral arm of the universe may be long and bends toward justice as the abolitionist preacher Theodore Parker said, but sometimes it takes longer than most wish while others seek to take away rights and move us backward.

“If the cruelties of slavery could not stop us, the opposition we now face will surely fail,” the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. said. “Because the goal of America is freedom, abused and scorned tho’ we may be, our destiny is tied up with America’s destiny.”

I remember once telling the story of the civil rights movement in which I played a small part, when a student asked an honest and great question: “Why would a white man support an African American movement?”

I don’t remember my words exactly, but I hope they were close to what I feel today.

Looking beyond the barriers that separate us, everyone is a member of the human race. Therefore, I am bound to others as part of that community.

Treating others as one wishes to be treated is an ethical principle of many spiritual traditions.

Removing cultural, political and religious barriers to freedom is a requirement for living ethically as an individual and society.

The words of the prophet Micah have always struck me as the basis for what is required to live an ethical life: “to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

John C. Morgan is an author and teacher. He can be reached at drjohncmorgan@yahoo.com. Information about June 19 is from Catherine Boeckmanm, senior digital editor of The Old Farmer’s Almanac.

This may be the most important question every human being should face.

It’s a question that people should ask, but many do not, sliding through the time given them without asking if where they are spending it has purpose beyond making it through the day. Many do not have the luxury of even asking the question as they face daily challenges to their very existence, as in Gaza or Ukraine these days or even in parts of the United States where the struggle to survive is measured daily.

Having time to think is a luxury few have or appreciate, sadly.  As the early Greek philosophers understood, it is the source of what it means to live fully.  “Know thyself” was the wisdom offered by the Oracle of Delphi and used by Socrates to explain the purpose of living.

A human being requires time to think, to reflect on one’s life — and few of us take or have the time to do so. Life flies by until we arrive near the end wondering what happened to the tiny amount of years we had been given. Did we spend them wisely with purpose, not just for ourselves but for others? Or did we waste time foolishly without much purpose?

I can’t answer what life asks of you. Only you can answer it. Life is a gift. How you use it is yours to answer.

The eminent practical philosopher Ben Franklin put it best: “Dost thou love life? Then do not squander Time; for that’s the Stuff Life is made of.”( Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1746)

In modern life these days we seem to be running out of time to think (at least that is what we believe).  But in order to lead a purposeful life taking time to take stock of ourselves — who we are and what we are doing — is precisely what is needed.

Thoreau had it right when he wrote: “You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”

You may think it’s not possible to change direction in life. It is. Life is not only a gift but an opportunity to change. Change is the one constant for individuals as well as nations. It takes courage to do so. But better that than to live a life of “quiet desperation.”

I’ve often thought the real heroes and heroines of life are not those who proclaim how great they are but rather those who quietly and without fanfare  give a gift back to life in ways that increase love, not hate.

John C. Morgan is an author and teacher. His latest book, “Everyday Wisdom,” is a collection of his columns over the years and is available on Amazon.  You can contact him at drjohncmorgan@yahoo.com. His columns appear weekly at readingeagle.com.

I don’t think you need a dictionary to understand character. You know and feel it when you see it. It’s the basic quality of a person — their essence, in other words.

Against the backdrop of what is called performance politics — candidates running for air time to fill their campaign coffers — it’s easier to focus on their bad rather than good character.

Face it, character seems to matter less than ever in the swirl of courtroom antics and nasty words hurled between people of differing political persuasions.

It’s a soap opera political world in which we watch an adult film star describe alleged sexual trysts with a former president, a somewhat insignificant congresswoman threatening to hold up legislative actions, and others dealing with alleged campaign finance corruption.

Once upon a time, being a person of character was important to politicians, character being those traditional inner qualities cherished like truth-telling, empathy, duty to the public good rather than private gain and style over substance.

Now we seem to witness more bad than good character in our leaders. Perhaps that’s because bad news draws more attention, while the slow, often unheralded work of building consensus or crafting legislation gets less.

Don’t get me wrong, there are good political leaders in our midst, people of character who put country above party and who try to live by their oaths of office, not deny them. But in all the noisy and confusing hoopla we sometimes fail to commend them.

In his farewell letter to “friends and citizens,” President George Washington focused on the need for unity in the emerging new republic and warned that the forces of geographical sectionalism, political factionalism, and interference by foreign powers in the nation’s domestic affairs threatened the stability of the republic. If these warnings sound familiar today, they should, given the partisan party politics in our midst.

Each year on Washington’s birthday a senator reads the first president’s farewell on the Senate floor, each party alternating taking turns. The House of Representatives has abandoned this practice since 1984,

Here are a few of Washington’s comments about the need for unity and the dangers of political factions:

“The unity of government which constitutes you as one people is also now dear to you. It is justly so, for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquility at home, your peace abroad; of your safety; of your prosperity; of that very liberty which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee that, from different causes and from different quarters, much pain will be taken, many artifices employed to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth…

“The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries, which result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of Public Liberty.”

John C. Morgan is an author and teacher.  His weekly columns appear at www.readingeagle.com. 

What does this mean?  I’ll try to be as clear as I can about this somewhat cryptic guidance.

Light and darkness are the twin, universal symbols of many world traditions. They are not necessarily opposites but complementary — held in tension, like the Taoist yin/yang symbol, each feeding off the other.

In the scientific world light is seen aselectromagnetic radiation visible to the human eye, traveling at nearly 200,000 miles per second.

Conversely, the ultimate scientific images of darkness are black holes where there is no light. These black holes comprise most of the known universe.

In creation myths the original force is light, not the so-called big bang. “Let there be light” is the first command, not “let there be noise.”

We are, therefore, creatures of the light, spun from the initial energy and carried through time and space by forces we don’t completely understand.

If light is the symbol of creativity and potential good, then leaning into it might be the best as opposed to leaning into the destructive energy of darkness. And if each one of us still retains some of that original force, then reaching deep within we can rediscover our ancient connection.

It doesn’t take an expert to understand what light and darkness are in ethical ways. Light implies such terms as compassion, empathy, fairness, love.  Darkness implies lack of empathy or compassion, injustice, hate.

By leaning into the light, we learn that ethically speaking love yields a better world than hate, even though sometimes the forces of darkness seem to be winning. In the long run evil feeds off itself and is consumed by its own self-destructive energy.Whenever I get discouraged when the forces of darkness seem in control, when lies rule and truth seems broken, I return to the lyrics and music of Leonard Cohen’s “Anthem” for hope:

“Ring the bells that still can ring.                Forget your perfect offering.                There’s a crack in everything.                That’s how the light gets in.”

 John C. Morgan is a writer and teacher whose columns appear weekly at readingeagle.com 

Take typos in an article or column, for example. I mean take them, please, before I spot them in print. They are the curse of the writing and editing class.

I’ve often thought that if I decide to have a tombstone, all I dread is to have my name misspelled with the caption: “Here lies John Morgen, still looking for typos in his final copy,” The irony is this typo in stone might last for centuries with no corrections possible.

Actually, I don’t want a tombstone. I want a used parking meter with the sign saying “expired.” And leave the slot where you put money in for people to place coins. Then every few weeks someone can collect the money and give it to charity, my end serving a greater purpose.

I realize that death usually is not often a humorous topic, but the words written on tombstones could be the last laugh — grave humor if you pardon the pun.

I’ve thought of a few I’d like considered for my final resting place.

Finally, got the last word.

No hits, no puns, no errors.

It ain’t ain’t over ‘til it’s over.

Meeting adjourned.

The doctor is in.

The final act.

And, borrowing filmmaker Billy Wilder’s epitaph, I really like these parting words: “I’m a writer but then nobody’s perfect.”

But i prefer these words on Ben Franklin’s tomb in Philadelphia:

“The Body of B. Franklin, Printer; like the Cover of an old Book, Its Contents torn out, And stript of its Lettering and Gilding, Lies here, Food for Worms. But the Work shall not be wholly lost; For it will, as he believ’d, appear once more, In a new & more perfect Edition, Corrected and amended By the Author.”

As a young man Franklin had composed this epitaph for himself, but it wasn’t put on his tombstone until later. Over the years people visiting the site began to throw pennies on it, hoping for good luck, remembering Franklin’s adage that a “penny saved is a penny earned.”  This is where I probably got my idea for a parking meter with the word “expired” showing where people could put money into the slot for future charity.

Of course, in our times, our epitaphs will be online, where they will disappear into the “cloud,” the modern version of heaven.

Perhaps, given artificial intelligence, one day we ourselves will return in a “new and more perfect edition, corrected and amended by the author.”

John C. Morgan is an author and teacher. His columns don’t appear on tombstones but can be found at www.readingeagle.com.

What I learned was that sometimes the so-called bastions of reason and dialogue could be every bit as parochial and illogical as some political discussions. When differences devolve into name-calling or physical threats, all semblance of an academic environment of reasoned dialogue departs. And when the same atmosphere permeates the halls of Congress, inaction is the rule rather than the exception.

I also learned how important it was to promote fair and free dialogue continuously over an academic year so that when crises occurred, good practices were in place, and members of the community had been taught how best to deal with emotionally charged issues.

Real dialogue is not only required in academic circles but in democracies. But alas it is often missing in each.

I’ve often contrasted what happens in the real world with the differences between discussion and dialogue. Discussion is throwing ideas at one another, as if engaging in a verbal tennis match. It’s interesting that the same root for “discussion” is also one for “concussion” and “percussion,” perhaps with the same impact on people. Dialogue means seeking meaning between ideas, with shared understanding being the hoped-for result.

Learning how to think is supposed to be a major goal of education.

When I was teaching philosophy I had students get into small groups and use a method of engaging in dialogue over often contentious issues, using a four-part process designed by Daniel Dennett, then philosophy professor at Tufts University in Massachusetts.

Here is what Dennett suggested for helping individuals in a small group learn to engage in dialogue.

1. You should attempt to re-express your target’s position so clearly, vividly and fairly that your target says, “Thanks, I wish I’d thought of putting it that way.”

2. You should list any points of agreement (especially if they are not matters of general or widespread agreement).

3. You should mention anything you have learned from your target.

4.  Only then are you permitted to say so much as a word of rebuttal or criticism.

This process did not always yield consensus, but it did increase a better understanding of the issue. And, over time, when used often enough, this approach yielded more appreciation of ideas different from one’s own and sometimes even consensus.

Obviously, such a process cannot be adopted in situations where millions of people are involved, but it could be a strong requirement of every institution of higher learning. It could be the major mission of every college and university, permeating the educational environment.

If a quarter of the money spent on sports or recreational facilities at the university were directed toward this mission, everyone would benefit, not just current students but future citizens as well.

Vanderbile University Chancellor Daniel Diermeier says: “The academy might be the last, best place where American citizens can learn to coexist, converse and cooperate with people whose views differ from their own.”

John C. Morgan is an author and former teacher. His columns appear weekly in the Reading Eagle and other newspapers.

Perhaps Thoreau might be guilty of exaggerating — I would certainly walk around the block to escape the world blowing up — but you get his point that sometimes the most marvelous realities are close at hand, the laughter of a child or the sight of spring’s first robin or daffodil — or even an eclipse in the sky.

What’s a miracle anyway but life itself in whatever form it makes itself known? Miracles don’t always require nature to suspend its own laws to get our attention; sometimes it only requires us to pay attention to the natural world.

Too often we miss the morning sun bursting through the overhead clouds or the first light of the moon as the sky dims. These are everyday miracles given us freely.

We find ourselves burdened with mindless realities — facts and figures, statistics (the curse of the poetic class), and dull pronouncements of politicians and prognosticators dragging us downward to blunt minds and hollow spirits.

Hundreds of years ago the poet Wordsworth could well have been speaking about us when he wrote:

“The world is too much with us; late and soon,Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;—Little we see in Nature that is ours,,,,For this, for everything, we are out of tune;”

The first cry of a poet or prophet seems to be: Wake up! Wake up to the mysteries of life within and around you. In this National Poetry Month we should stop, look and listen to life’s everyday miracles.

The first writing I ever tried was a poem in grade school. The words were stilted and often misspelled, but the emotion and excitement of expressing what I felt was clear. It was the beginning of a long journey of wrestling with words and feelings and seldom winning the match.

I was going to be skeptical, even sarcastic when watching so many people with strange glasses looking up to an eclipse. It seemed a great deal of hype for such a brief look

But then it struck me that each of us needs a moment or two of being amazed. That we were doing so together at the same time was nothing short of a miracle itself. Usually we are gazing down at our cellphones, too busy to look elsewhere.

The words of the poet Mary Oliver struck me as a poetic remedy for our plight: “Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.”

As the moon covered most of the sun and created darkness in the early afternoon, as Robert Frost wrote: “I am one acquainted with the night,” and if you are honest with yourself so are you.

But I was not left with the night but the ring of light surrounding the sun, brighter than the morning peering through my window slats and more comforting than all the darkness of the world.

The lyrics of Leonard Cohen express a daily miracle:

“There’s a crack, a crack in everything.That’s how the light gets in.”

Turn toward the light. Be grateful. Share the miracle.

John C. Morgan is an author of books, articles, and poems.  He can be reached at drjohncmorgan@yahoo.com. His column appears weekly at readingeagle.com.

Sometimes those of us who write opinion pieces or teach philosophy fail to follow this advice.  Complexity rules, and the results are chaos and confusion.

In our times it feels like we have lost sight of some basic truths of what is right or wrong — of historic, universal principles that have guided us through harsh times before.

Perhaps it’s time to get back to basics.

One of the great moral teachers of the past was the 18th-century philosopher Immanuel Kant, who sought to describe a rational, universal basis for ethics. Perhaps that’s why in this era when we don’t believe in universal truths, he is often neglected.

I believe he offers us a way out of our moral confusion — how to judge right from wrong — in a way so simple even children understand.

Kant’s ethical approach is called the categorical imperative — a way to understand ourselves that is breathtakingly simple but imminently practical. It has a number of categories, two of which help define what is right or wrong.

First is called the universal principle — so act that if your actions were realized they would be good for everyone.

Second is the requirement to treat people as ends, not means to something else.

I contend you can apply these two principles to your own behavior or that of others.

Here are the two basic questions to ask using the categorical imperative as a guide:

1.  Is what I or others are doing good for everyone, not just myself?

2.  Is what I or others are doing treating others as ends unto themselves or as a means to some other end?

I have myself failed Kant’s criteria for ethical behavior more often than I care to name. I sometimes have made selfish decisions to benefit myself, even when hurting others. I have also treated others as a means to some other end.

If some of Kant’s ethics feel like the Golden Rule, you would not be wrong in your assessment.

But here’s the catch. Everyone falls short and has failed in some ethical lapses, but the trick is admitting your shortcomings and asking forgiveness from those you have hurt. Without these, forgiveness and new beginnings are laden with guilt and incompleteness.

John C. Morgan taught ethics for many years and writes about it in columns, articles, and books.  He can be reached at drjohncmorgan@yahoo.com. His column appears weekly at readingeagle.com.

Along the way, I’ve learned a few lessons about how best to live, usually by trial and error. Here’s one life lesson that has taken me a long time to grasp and even longer to apply: Learn when to hold on and when to let go.

This is very practical guidance for how best to live, which is what ethics is supposed to be about. It’s a matter of priorities — what you most value and what you don’t.

Ethics isn’t usually about asking the big, often unanswerable queries such as how the universe began. I often think of the philosopher who was asked where God was before creation. “Making hell for people with questions like that,” he responded.

I’ve appreciated the final words of the poet Gertrude Stein when asked on her death bed, “Gertrude, Gertrude, what is the answer?” To which she responded: “What’s the question?”

A great deal of philosophy should begin with the most basic questions, since these will shape the answers. Or as a teacher of philosophy once said jokingly to a class, “We may not have all the answers, but we have a monopoly on the questions.”

My basic question seems simple: What’s the best way to live?

Some hold onto the past, not understanding they can’t change but.only learn from it. They end up frustrated and often resentful of what they don’t have. They move into the future looking in the rearview mirror.

Others face forward and live for the future, missing the present.  They end up feeling they’ve missed something. They have. They’ve missed their lives.

A few take the present as a gift. They reflect and learn from the past but face forward, hopeful for the future.

Most of us spend far too much time and energy holding on to things, thinking they define our worth. They don’t. As the saying goes, “You can’t take it with you.”

When I die I don’t want to be remembered for how much I have but how much I have given, nor for any newsworthy deeds but rather for the little, often unremembered acts only I remember.

At the end of the day or a life we realize what really matters are not things but people, those we love and those who love us. We need to hold on to this wisdom.

And then we need to accept what can and what can’t be changed.  We can’t change the past, but we can learn from it.

Hold on to what’s really important in your life and let go of what’s not. If we could practice living this way every day, our lives and those of the people around us would be better.

John C. Morgan is an author and teacher. His email is drjohncmorgan@yahoo.com

I’ve tried to adopt his guidance in everyday life, refraining from complaining while waiting in line for longer than necessary while the clerk chats with a friend for what seems like an eternity.  I don’t even yell at a driver who pulls ahead of me to take a parking spot I eyed long before him,

Every day there are dozens of events or people who will cause one to sweat the small stuff. In the corners of life where most of us live so-called small stuff is the rule, not the exception.

The problem I’m having these days is sweating the big stuff that keeps me awake at night and over which I have little control except writing or phoning those who do have some ability to do something about what bothers me.

According to a panel of international scientists we are 90 seconds to midnight on the famous Doomsday Clock, which measures how close we are as a species to extinction. Maintained by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists the clock is closer to midnight than it’s ever been in its more than 75-year history.

Take the issue of climate change.  We know it’s happening not only because of what reputable scientists tell us but what we are experiencing with its impact. We even know how to lessen the negative impact of climate change but seem unwilling to muster the will to temporarily reduce our needs to make long-lasting positive changes to save our planet.

And don’t mention wars to seize land by whatever means necessary. Russia is the prime culprit here, waging a war against the Ukrainian people using whatever means it can. I fear that unless stopped, Russia will try to take over other countries to reestablish its empire.

And when I hear people talking about the benefits of living in a dictatorship, that makes me wonder if they know what happens in countries where dictators rule — the suppression of individual rights, freedom and creativity, not to mention jail time or worse for dissenters..

There are other big  issues that weigh heavily on me.  For example, immigration, funding of political campaigns, the Supreme Court, voting rights, social media, etc., etc., etc. — to name only a few. I’m sure you can add others.

Perhaps the best we can do is roll up our sleeves and give time and resources to help those who are trying to work on addressing the big issues.

But it takes patience and a long-term commitment to see real change. Long ago I was involved in voter registration efforts, especially in the South, where numerous barriers were removed to enable greater access to vote, especially among minority groups. Now, decades later, these same rights are being denied.

Perhaps it’s the same old story told in Greek mythology and popularized in Albert Camus’ book “The Myth of Sisyphus,” in which Zeus forces the main character to push a boulder up a hill and when he nears the top the boulder rolls back and he is forced to start over again. That’s the human condition.

But Camus concludes that while frustrating, the act of trying is what makes us worthy of praise. We learn that within us is what Camus calls an “invincible summer” that gives strength and courage to seek what is good no matter how many times we fail.

Life is not always about winning, but how you play the game. And playing the game keeps things and us vibrant and alive to struggle another day on our quest to reach the rop.

John C. Morgan is an author and teacher whose columns may be found at www.readingeagle.com  He can be reached at drjohncmorgan@yahoo.com