Saturday, November 22, 2025 at 3:12 PM
Walter Isaacson’s new book titled, “The greatest sentence ever written,” deals with the writing of the United States Constitution, and that first sentence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
He wrote this book to celebrate the 250th anniversary of American independence next year, and he said that he hopes that readers will gain a fresh appreciation of how it was drafted to inspire unity, equality, and the enduring promise of America. This greatest sentence was drafted by Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, three of the founding fathers of this great experiment called American democracy. The book comes out this week; I can’t wait to read it.
There is some irony in all this because of the fact that Jefferson and Franklin owned slaves at the time that the document was written. Franklin later became an abolitionist and freed his slaves. Adams never owned slaves; he employed free blacks and was very vocal in his opposition to slavery.
But I want to return to the title of this column: the commons. I have been watching the excellent Ken Burns documentary about the American Revolution, and not being born in America, and being a black man, I found some very interesting information about America in the mid to late 18th century. I learned that the first person to die in the Revolution was a free black man named Crispus Attucks. I learned that a lot of free blacks were in the fight for the independence of a country that held most of their race in bondage, gave their lives for this country. That they fought without being conscripted. I learned that slaves in the 13 colonies, at least in the northern ones, were taught to read and write.
The “commons” refers to the common people, to common ground, to the common good, and that unless you are living in a monarchy or a dictatorship, every single person is entitled to that common good. The police, the fire department, the hospitals, property ownership, the right to choose your leaders, the right to prosper, and to go as far as you can in life —all common goods.
There was a time, in both Belize and in the United States, when the commons was a reality, when you owned your own property, when small businesses thrived, when community meant community. When a small farmer or rancher or fisherman, or grocer, could make enough money to live comfortably, to send their children to college, to live with honor and integrity and respect. Don’t get me wrong, you can still own your own property, but you have to fight hard to keep it these days. Taxes, predatory lending, and temptations of getting rich, have led to many losing their homes, their birthrights.
Today, Amazon and Walmart and Target and all the other major corporations, retailers, have driven most small businesses into bankruptcy or forced retirement. They cannot compete. The same with newspapers and television networks, with hospitals and the health industry in general, all owned by the oligarchs.
In Belize, small businesses have all but disappeared. The Chinese and Indians (East Indians) own most of the grocery stores, the supermarkets. Almost every business we rely on, is not owned by Belizeans, but by foreigners. Real estate is run by mostly Americans, tourism by foreigners; Belizean businesses are left to fight for the scraps that fall off the table. Wat a ting!
The commons might have been a well-intended concept, but has disappeared, everywhere. We are now living in a time of dog eat dog, and survival of the fittest. We are living in a time when one has to consider lowering their moral compass in order to be successful. Where you have to suffer the slings and arrows to just put food on the table to feed your children.
This is not a Belize or America problem; it is universal, no matter where you live. There are still some governments who try to make the commons a reality, but the tide is not in their favor. The powerful are merciless in their attempts to dominate, to make us their b*tches, make us their slaves. Their insatiable greed has made the commons a thing of the past, like VHS or Fotomat, or cash, or empathy, or law and order. That time is past; that time is no more!
The constitution, and the ideals of those flawed but visionary men, have been all watered down to the unrecognizable by the modern leaders and autocrats, replaced by greed and corruption and a belief in their invincibility, in my opinion.
“Living on free food ticket
Water in the milk from the holes in the roof when the rain came through
What can you do? Oh, oh, oh
Tears from your little sister
Crying ‘cause she doesn’t have a dress without a patch
For a party to go
What do you know? She’ll get by
For she’s living in the love of a common people.”
— John David Hurley/ Ronnie Stephen Wilkins
Glen
