*stepping carefully up onto the soapbox*
Dear friends, I’m seeing a lot of people here saying that it’s a farce to celebrate the Fourth of July, given the current state of the government and its atrocities and the deplorable people who support them. It seems to me that this is exactly the wrong attitude for this holiday. Sure, the Fourth has become mostly about fireworks and weekend sales events and what’s on the grill. A day for flag-wavers and yahoos who enjoy loud noises and how many ways you can find to decorate with red-white-and-blue.
I propose that those of us who are feeling disgust with America look back to the original point of this holiday -- the reason for the season, if you will forgive me. This is Independence Day. The day we finally said we were mad as hell and not going to take it anymore. But what EXACTLY were we rebelling against? I realized I had only a vague idea, along the lines of “oppression bad, freedom pretty.”
So I thought I’d amble over to a history site and read the Declaration of Independence all the way through. Out loud. Everyone knows the second line (“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.”), but nowadays we tend to hear *record scratch* after “all men are created equal” and start arguing about slavery and other very bad things. There are flaws in this document and its intentions, for sure. Farther down, there are references to Native Americans that are painful to read, knowing what we know now.
And yet, setting those things to the side just for the moment, without disavowing their importance, I invite you to read the whole thing, aloud, and see if some of this doesn’t ring a liberty bell for us, right here, right now. I’ve pulled a few relevant bits, and just for fun, I changed the villain’s name. 
😎
😎
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The history of [President Trump] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. …
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
… He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither…
…He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people …
… cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us…
…In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A [president] whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
…And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
****
So let’s do that tomorrow. Let’s make July 4, 2018, our renewal of that mutual pledge to each other. Let’s be mindful of what the real America is. What it should be, what it can be. What it was meant to be. And let’s take it back.
🎆
🎇
🇺🇸️
🧙♀️
🧙♂️
So let’s do that tomorrow. Let’s make July 4, 2018, our renewal of that mutual pledge to each other. Let’s be mindful of what the real America is. What it should be, what it can be. What it was meant to be. And let’s take it back.
🎆🎇🇺🇸️🧙♀️🧙♂️
Thank you for your kind attention.
*stepping carefully off the soapbox*
Wow! That was inspired! And Lunaea is right. Trump's name fits so perfectly in there. The facts are the same and why isn't this being used to impeach the man?
ReplyDeleteI never really celebrate the 4th. Just like with religion- I did not get the gene for patriotism. But that does not mean that the country I was born into by complete and utter chance doesn't stand for something because it does. Freedom, yes, and equality for all. Have we ever met those standards? Nah. But dammit, we sure have tried, sometimes a lot harder than other times. And when the very tenets of our government, our way of life are being kicked out from underneath us, it is appropriate to remind ourselves of how this country was formed and how important it is to keep the spirit of revolution alive in times when it is called for.
And Lord, it's being called for now.
That's what I think.
Thanks for this post.
One of the replies on her post, made by a guy named Zach, gave me a lot to think of too:
Delete"Another thing to remember tomorrow: none of the people who signed that document knew at the time that they were going to win. In fact, given that the Americans had won exactly zero major engagements at that point, it seemed pretty likely that they wouldn't. And if they lost, there was a 100% chance that all of them would be tried and executed as traitors. It wasn't a wild fantasy. It was what they imagined the future probably held for them.
My point? History is never comforting when it's happening. More often than not, it's dark as hell. The ones who are brave in spite of it are the ones we remember."
Jennifer's quote is powerful
ReplyDeleteThanks John.
DeleteI hear you're soon to be sending him over to England.... watch your TV sets!
ReplyDeleteI'm sure he'll embarrass us...as usual!
DeleteThere will be huge protests, I hear.
DeleteA lot of food for thought there!
ReplyDeleteThere is, and it gives me a glimmer of hope when I remember what seemingly insurmountable obstacles the founders of this country faced, and the courage it took to face them.
DeleteSo I take it Lunaea didn't vote for him?
ReplyDeleteHaha. No.
DeleteWe have got to get through this but it seems more difficult with every day that passes.
ReplyDeleteI know, but we have to stick it out and get through this.
DeleteVery well done, but I still feel discouraged. I feel oppressed.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Janie
I understand completely.
Deletehttps://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/07/03/poll-55-percent-say-americas-best-days-are-ahead/
ReplyDeleteI hope that's true. Sometimes I nearly despair.
DeleteThanks for that! November is coming.
ReplyDeleteI imagine Ned Stark saying that! :) And indeed, November IS coming!
DeleteThis is an important election and we need to stand together and VOTE to start undoing some of the damage Trump has wrought. I know we're all tired, but now is not the time to get overwhelmed and to disengage. We need to go out purposefully, en masse, and vote the scoundrels who have supported and enabled Trump OUT!!!
An interesting post. I was going to wish my neighbour to the south a happy 4th on Facebook but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it this year.
ReplyDelete