What is the 4th of July for Me and Those to Whom I am Committed?

Over on my oldest son's Facebook page, he wrote this this morning. I have seen it before. Seems that he posts it on July 4 each year. 

"July 4, 1776: The Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Continental Congress.

July 4, 1837: The first Chickasaw removal party, forced from their lands by the Indian Removal Act of 1830, arrived at Memphis, Tennessee, and were ferried across the Mississippi River into Arkansas, never to see the land of their ancestors again.

July 4, 2023: As usual, I'm struck by the intense, biting irony. A day of celebration and a day of dispossession rolled into one."

Then we can add January 1, 1863. 

Then we can add June 19, 1865. 

Earlier this week I posted on my own Facebook page these words: 

"You are sending a message to your community when you close your office, church or otherwise, for July 4th, but not June 19th. Maybe more than one message." 

Many passed right on by, but a few resonated with the comment. 

And then, I could not help but recall Frederick Douglass' famous speech from July 5, 1853 in his adopted hometown of Rochester, New York, entitled, "What to the Slave Is the 4th of July?" The entirety of that short speech is found here. 

Here is one pithy statement in large print and bolded because it is important:  

"Fellow-citizens; above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions! whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, to-day, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them. If I do forget, if I do not faithfully remember those bleeding children of sorrow this day, “may my right hand forget her cunning, and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth!” To forget them, to pass lightly over their wrongs, and to chime in with the popular theme, would be treason most scandalous and shocking, and would make me a reproach before God and the world. My subject, then fellow-citizens, is American slavery. I shall see, this day, and its popular characteristics, from the slave’s point of view. Standing, there, identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine, I do not hesitate to declare, with all my soul, that the character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this 4th of July! Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. Standing with God and the crushed and bleeding slave on this occasion, I will, in the name of humanity which is outraged, in the name of liberty which is fettered, in the name of the constitution and the Bible, which are disregarded and trampled upon, dare to call in question and to denounce, with all the emphasis I can command, everything that serves to perpetuate slavery—the great sin and shame of America! “I will not equivocate; I will not excuse;” I will use the severest language I can command; and yet not one word shall escape me that any man, whose judgment is not blinded by prejudice, or who is not at heart a slaveholder, shall not confess to be fight and just. But I fancy I hear some one of my audience say, it is just in this circumstance that you and your brother abolitionists fail to make a favorable impression on the public mind. Would you argue more, and denounce less, would you persuade more, and rebuke less, your cause would be much more likely to succeed. But, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued. What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light? Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? That point is conceded already. Nobody doubts it. The slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. There are seventy-two crimes in the State of Virginia, which, if committed by a black man, (no matter how ignorant he be), subject him to the punishment of death; while only two of the same crimes will subject a white man to the like punishment. What is this but the acknowledgement that the slave is a moral, intellectual and responsible being? The manhood of the slave is conceded. It is admitted in the fact that Southern statute books are covered with enactments forbidding, under severe fines and penalties, the teaching of the slave to read or to write. When you can point to any such laws, in reference to the beasts of the field, then I may consent to argue the manhood of the slave. When the dogs in your streets, when the fowls of the air, when the cattle on your hills, when the fish of the sea, and the reptiles that crawl, shall be unable to distinguish the slave from a brute, their will I argue with you that the slave is a man!"

And then I wonder about today. I see all of the trappings of white American celebrating with BBQ cook outs, baseball games, and fireworks. 

I am left to wonder, how many of white American are reflecting upon America's call for freedom for all, all races, all genders, all colors, all creeds, all nationalities, or deep in our hearts do we assume that American is just for us, those of us who are anglo saxons, white, whatever color white actually is. 

Is today for whom? Is it also for those red-lined across town, those whose medical care is insufficient compared to mine, those who opt not to see an MD before it's too late, or those whose wages are inferior to mine despite similar levels of education? In short, is America, is July 4th, for those who pay the Black Tax to live in our country? 

Is the 4th of July for those who ancestors walked the Trail of Tears, who were relocated by the federal government to lands that looked nothing like their land? 

Is the 4th of July really for Black farmers of our land, those who have had their land stolen by the machinations and malfeasance of the USDA, those who have had white people lurking about looking to snag it at the lowest price? Remember Eddie and Dorothy Wise? They are two giants, legends, if you will, who typify what I'm talking about. Is the 4th of July for Black farmers who just want to work the land? Those who are holding on, those who are now 1.4% of American's farmers, those who hold some 4.5M acres when once they owned over 19M acres? 

The 4th of July is a complicated day. Some of us just walk on past it. Others of us stop and ponder. 

So, on this day, following a week in which the Supreme Court of the US, perhaps one of the most crooked courts ever in our country, some of whom ascended via affirmative action, have worked to deny others the same privilege. The same court that has decided that some get discriminated against and others don't. When is a cake a cake and when is a web page a web page a web page? When do people really get to make their own choices about medical care and who to love? 

Yes, there are many of us for whom July 4th is a day of conflict. Some of us celebrate all they way from June 19 to July 4th. May our Great God grant us wisdom and courage for the living of these days.