"Fellow citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here today? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions! Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. For who is there so cold that a nation's sympathy could not warm him? Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? Who so stolid and selfish that would not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nation's jubilee, when the chains of servitude had been torn from his limbs? I am not that man. In a case like that the dumb might eloquently speak and the "lame man leap as an hart."
~~~Fredrick Douglas~~~~
Sorry America, I can't wish you Happy Birthday this year. I am still pissed off about Scooter, the Supremes, the war in Iraq, and a President who thinks that you only belong to him and his friends.
Oh yeah, and I still can't get Katrina out of my mind!
So maybe next year!
18 comments:
Amen!
Angie
That was a very fitting excerpt from Mr. Douglas. I really don't feel like celebrating shit this year. The foxes are watching the henhouse. I just keep thinking of people with names like "Scooter" and "Brownie". Man, that Brownie sure did a heck of job, didn't he? And that picture just breaks my heart.
Yeah I am pretty disappointed in America myself.
Sometimes I have to wonder why all those people would want to risk their lives coming here.
But hey, potentially, this is still the greatest experiment in true democracy on earth, so I guess you can't blame them.
Maybe we just need a change in leadership and someone with a new vision; cause the guy in the "big house" now is really f*****g things up!
"Big time"
No hurry Field. Patriotism is lost to those that defame it by calling it theirs and calling us out as traitors.
To that I say fuck them.
I am with you out here in the fields and not celebrating the fourth. I haven't for the last few years.
This speech by Douglas says so much, and sadly, as current as ever.
Thanks for stopping by as well.
-=t=-
D'douza is all ready having a field day with this one by attempting to show how our so called founding fathers didn't have a choice when it came to slavery. Geesh, sometimes I wish that man would get a life and worry about making better the state of his own people, the Untouchables, as opposed to being used by the right to justify white supremist ideology.
Field, looks like someone else was thinking along the same lines as you:
http://www.charlotte.com/409/story/182919.html
Thanks so much for posting this- we have to keep it in perspective. The rest of America sure ain't doing it!
I made an audio gift for America on this "holiday", to vent my feelings a bit too:
http://audioaddict.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=231928
This is not a day to celebrate.
~Dani
Great quote from Topper on the sidebar, btw. :-)
Having a hard time today myself. So, I choose to call it a Happy Belated Juneteenth.
wow. i never thought of it like this. thank you for opening my eyes. :)
Thanks for that link anon. I read that article from the Charlotte Observer, that dude was on point.
dani, I will check out your audio when I get a chance.
Peace.
Field,
I thought I was the only one that couldn't stand the Tom Joyner' show. I thought maybe because I have been around so long, that those jokes weren't funny anymore.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men [and women] 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 whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Cheney/Bush are “destructive of these ends” and it is the “Right of the People” to abolish these thugs. One, all empowering, word comes to mind.
Impeachment.
I didn't celebrate this year... having just returned to the Bay Area after a week in the flood plains of Texa - I could think of nothing other than Katrina... the oppressive heat, the ubiquitious water and the negligence of our government... I cannot shake the visceral horror of it all....
Saw a whole lot of "IMPEACH" signs on the Mall yesterday before DC's annual excuse to blow stuff up and call it celebrating our independence.
As you know, we didn't get our freedom until June 19th, 1865 - which goes to show how treacherous those in power are. They knew Lincoln signed that Emancipation Proclamation back in 1863 - boy, oh boy, if we'd even had the telephone back then, things would have been very different.
I quit looking for whites to do right by me; they're even treacherous to each other, so why would we look to them for anything when it's been proven they're no above slinging one of their own under the bus to protect themselves?
OT, but I thought you'd get a kick of this, Field. It's published under my given name.
http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=273&Itemid=33
I can understand not celebrating the current state of the country but why can't you celebrate the ideas it is supposed to represent?
"I can understand not celebrating the current state of the country but why can't you celebrate the ideas it is supposed to represent?"
Because my dear Woozie, that would be like celebrating a million dollar lottery ticket before it's in my hands. I like the thought of winning the lottery and what it represents--getting rich someday. But all of that doesn't mean squat if I don't have the right ticket with all the right numbers on it.
Right now America represents the wrong lottery ticket to me.
cool post, I really like the end.
Post a Comment