Deep thoughts: celebrating the 4th

[mrspez07]

Thought I’d share this as a reflection today:

www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2021/7/1/22560124/july-fourth-civics/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1U6nA4H7Y51z_2deIFO-fbtSoPM7y3ed83xqVRa8xyuqVLem8j8vgdE1M_aem_DMUo1r9T6g_870fhoyGT8g#Echobox=1720033881-1

“Douglass’ admiration for parts of America’s founding, citing how he called the Declaration of Independence “the ring-bolt to the chain of your nation’s destiny ... The principles contained in that instrument are saving principles. Stand by those principles, be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost.” ‘

What are you doing to make peace with what today is supposed to stand for?

[basilosaurus]

Vote vote vote.



Mine doesn't particularly count as it's only included in the popular, not electoral, but I still want to add to overall numbers.



I'm still going to ship my ballot to the embassy where it will go in a diplomatic package to still be counted. It is hard to be inspired when it's more hoops to do this than most people, but my grandparents instilled that in me when I was 18. They helped a lot with college financially, and their only requirement was that I go register to vote and follow through.



Of course, my first presidential election was in 2000 as an absentee ballot in Florida, so it was likely never even counted. We just didn't know how utterly brazenly bullshit the bush v gore case was until later, so I maintained some optimism. It's hard, though, to maintain inspiration. But we cannot let those who want to destroy democracy to have any power!

[erbear]

This is almost exactly how I teach the Declaration of Independence. We talk a lot in my class about “freedom for whom?” and as we work through the document, we talk about the undertones and hidden lines. We read Douglass. I wrote this in 2020 on July 4:


Thomas Jefferson writes, “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal” (to which Angelica Schuyler adds “and when I meet Thomas Jefferson, I’m gonna compel him to include women in the sequel.”). Like Angelica, we all know that TJ doesn’t mean everyone…he means white, landowning men (like himself), many of who own enslaved people. From its founding documents, this nation supported white supremacy and the subjugation of non-white people, women, and the poor.

Jefferson goes on to write, “…that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness…” (here’s how we know the Jefferson does not include non-whites in this Declaration – one would assume the “unalienable rights” of life and liberty would not include enslavement and all of the atrocities that went along with it, and Jefferson, a man who bought, sold and worked many enslaved people on his plantation, a man who repeatedly raped at least one of these people – let’s be clear, the relationship between Sally Hemings and Jefferson is not a love match, no matter how white-washed history tries to present it – knows that).

So as we’re celebrating today, it’s on my mind that what we are celebrating is a white holiday. I like to think that the Declaration of Independence in 2020 applies to everyone, but we all know that, while all men are created equal, we haven’t even come close to that ideal. Law enforcement targets and kills Black men at a rate much higher than white men. Women still earned less than men for equal pay. Trans people are murdered every day in this country. And last night, the President held what was essentially a dog whistle rally at a spot in the Black Hills of South Dakota that the Supreme Court ruled in 1980 was illegally obtained from the Sioux.

In the preamble to the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson writes, “…That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --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…” So there’s the call. The government exists to protect the people’s rights. The government operates through the consent of the governed and responds to the will of the people. The people have the right to alter or abolish a government that is not meeting their needs.

There are 122 days until Election Day – I’m spending a lot of them trying to get people to vote. But it’s not enough to vote – that’s easy activism. A new president will not make the ills of society disappear. A new president will not automatically end the trend of police brutality. A new president will not means schools are suddenly equally funded, or that trans people will stop dying. That’s where we come in. In the words of Martin Luther King, Jr: “No one is free until we are all free.” We have to be the changemakers, through our votes and our money and our voices and our work.

By the way, this doesn't mean that I am not proud to be an American and that I won't celebrate this holiday. But it does mean that I understand when others are not and do not, and that I am willing to do the work to make it so everyone feels this way. America does not belong to our worst members.

[basilosaurus]

erbear did you listen to btb on tj?

[erbear]

Jul 5, 2024 11:07:23 GMT -5 basilosaurus said:

erbear did you listen to btb on tj?

I don't know what this means 

[basilosaurus]

Jul 5, 2024 12:40:09 GMT -5 erbear said:

Jul 5, 2024 11:07:23 GMT -5 basilosaurus said:

erbear did you listen to btb on tj?

I don't know what this means 

lol. Behind the bastards podcast on Thomas Jefferson. Sorry!

They just did a 4 part focusing on him and slavery, not his presidency