From a single person to a corporation, we can celebrate independence because of our connections. Check out these five famous declarations that celebrate interdependence.

It’s summer 2021, Independence Day weekend, and many will emerge from 18-month quarantines to gather again within larger and larger communities. No longer confined to “pods,” we celebrate family, extended family, neighborhoods, whole zip codes and towns.

Maybe your town will send fireworks up and you’ll see the spark of so many smiles going off at once. Maybe hundreds. Maybe thousands. Remember collective smiling?

Why we’re celebrating Interdependence Day this year

If we’ve learned anything about our collective independence, it’s that it cannot exist outside of interdependence. And that deep knowledge is something to celebrate and build on.

Humans come together in so many ways, and what we do as individuals, families, friend groups, communities and businesses all matters—to ourselves and to others. The pandemic in your state, mattered in mine. And the global climate in the east matters in the west. Heat waves struck Oregon and Croatia. Flooding threatened Michigan and Moscow.

We’ve weathered many storms together, and we recommit this Indepence Day to a life and business with connection at the center.

Five declarations, for people, communities, and businesses

We know we are better together. And people have been saying so throughout history. From individuals like Fannie Lou Hamer and MLK, to groups of business leaders and nations, these speeches and declarations reinforce that none of us can be truly free without working mutually for the freedom of us all.

Happy reading! And Happy Interdependence Day!

For individual dignity and freedom

Dr. Martin Luther King, Letter from Birmingham Jail, 1963. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
Fannie Lou Hamer, Until I Am Free, You are Not Free Either, 1971. “These young people...are enabling us to determine some of our destiny. And is enabling us to stand up as human beings. Not to try to take the State of Mississippi, because tonight I figure if the State of Mississippi would become a hundred percent black, I would be on my way out. But to make it a state where all human beings will have a chance.”

For the environment

Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, 1972. “The protection and improvement of the human environment is a major issue which affects the well-being of peoples and economic development throughout the world; it is the urgent desire of the peoples of the whole world and the duty of all Governments.”

For sustainable business

The BCorp Declaration of Interdependence, 2006. “We envision a global economy that uses business as a force for good. This economy is comprised of a new type of corporation - the B Corporation -Which is purpose-driven and creates benefit for all stakeholders, not just shareholders.”
1% for the Planet, the Be 1% Better Initiative, 2021. “The climate crisis impacts everyone. It’s just as much about social justice as it is environmental justice. It’s just as much about food security as organic agriculture. It’s just as much about voting rights as air pollution. It’s just as much about a global pandemic as global warming. If this year has taught our world anything, it’s that we all can—and must—do more to create a better future.”

CoffeeSock is a proud partner of 1% for the Planet. You can read more about our contribution, here.

Five declarations of interdependence