Thu Jul 01, 2010 at 10:25:41 AM EDT
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| Other than the opportunity to overeat at BBQs and getting a paid day off from work, I am not into celebrating the 4th of July. We all know the background story: Thomas Jefferson, wielding a pen, blows apart the relationship between Britain and its American colonies, eloquently extolling freedom and equality in the Declaration of Independence. Except that of course he owned slaves. And he had a long-term relationship with one of those slaves, Sally Hemings, with whom he had several children. And then those children were denied their heritage, not to mention remained stripped of their equal rights for many generations. |
| Suzanne Reisman :: Happy 2nd of July (the Real Day to Celebrate Liberty in America) |
What about independence from Britain changed the way that people of color and women were treated? At the Declaration of Independence, Abigail Adams implored her husband: I long to hear that you have declared an Independency - and by the way in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would Remember the ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors...If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we... will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation. Not only did our Founders not listen to Adams's wisdom, but they also screwed up royally (pun intended) by incorporating inequality and racism into our new Constitution. I trace a good portion of our nation's problems to the Three-Fifths Compromise, which made the United States possible, but in a way that verified that certain people were not really people while increasing the power of the those who denied them their rights as humans. Compromise on this issue indicates to me that we were no better than the tyrants we claimed choked us to death with taxes on stamps and tea. Really, our Founders were just tax cheats cloaking their selfishness in idealism that they could not live up to without sacrificing their lifestyles. Harumph. When I think about Sally Hemings and Abigail Adams, I wonder why I should celebrate the 4th of July. If we really want a day to celebrate freedom, we should look more closely at a date when the vast majority of Americans were finally recognized as equals: July 2. That is the day that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was only a start, but celebrating our nation by shooting off off fireworks and eating cheeseburgers on July 2, we are celebrating the first major steps America took to really implement the concept 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." Happy 2nd of July! |
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