#semiquincentennial

In past years I posted excerpts from the Declaration of Independence on July 4. But I’m not feeling it this year.

I am old enough to remember the Bicentennial observations in 1976. There were celebrations and commemorative events around the country, not just in Washington. Most notable was the flotilla of tall ships sailing into New York’s harbor. There were historical programs, “Bicentennial minutes” on TV, and decorations on local public buildings and fixtures, right down to red-white-and-blue fire hydrants. At noon on July 4 we went out on the streets and rang bells.

The mood of the country is different now. There are fewer events for America’s 250th birthday and the crowds are smaller.

That’s not to say things were better in the United States 50 years ago. The divisions of the Vietnam War years had not healed. There were plenty of people who thought that some Americans should be second-class citizens based on the color of their skin or their gender. Gay, lesbian, and bisexual people could rarely live their lives publicly. Transsexuals (the term used at the time) were even more oppressed.

But in some important ways things are worse today. There are many who maintain that some Americans shouldn’t be Americans at all, based on where their ancestors came from, how they speak, or how they worship. The gains that racial minorities, women, and LGBT people have made since 1976 are uncertain and under threat. And there are still those who think their wealth buys them more privileges than everyone else.

When I quote from the Declaration, I have to omit the slur against the so-called savage Indians, which decries their cruelty in warfare, when in fact everyone is cruel in war. And I have to talk around the fact that many of the men who signed it were slaveholders and the rest condoned slavery. When they said that all men are created equal, they really meant free white men, primarily landowners. But they used broad, general terms for their stirring rhetoric. Later generations found inspiration in what they wrote that went beyond what they really thought at the time.

So this year I am quoting from a later and much shorter document, the Pledge of Allegiance. Its last line, “with liberty and justice for all,” has never been a true description of what we actually have in America. But it is a plainly stated, unqualified goal that we should strive for.

This coming July 4th is a special one as Americans celebrate 250 years of being Traitors to the Crown. Sadly, I can't take Nevis to the United States to celebrate that… or can I?

In Runnymede, UK, there is an acre of land that was given to the USA by her majesty Liz 2 after the assassination of John F Kennedy, where now stands this memorial. As the sign says, once you pass through the gate you are on American soil.

Okay, technically it is more complicated than that - if you committed a crime here you would be subject to British laws and not US ones - but it is good enough for me to declare that Nevis is now a jet setter. He is an international bird of mystery!

I think President Donald Trump should absolutely force this change through and fire anyone who gets in his way, but also, I do not have this country's best interests at heart.

What, to the Slave, Is the Fourth of July?

Fellow citizens, above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are today rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them.

Frederick Douglass, July 4, 1852

The Rights of Women of the United States

We deny that dogma of the centuries, incorporated in the codes of all nations, that woman was made for man. Her best interest, in all cases, to be sacrificed to his will. We ask of our rulers at this hour, no special favors, no special privileges, no special legislation. We ask justice. We ask equality. We ask that all the civil and political rights that belong to citizens of the United States be guaranteed to us and our daughters forever.

NYC Mayor Mamdani’s address for America’s 250th.

“The powerful have always known their answer. America, in their view, is an arena of supremacy, where only a select few are allowed freedom, where not all are created equal. America, if you ask them, becomes less the more people it welcomes. America, they will tell you, belongs only to those with the right accent or the right shade of skin. The rest of us, they insist, should be grateful for merely being allowed to visit.

How small they are, how weak, how unoriginal. At every moment in our past, those who led through exclusion and isolation have tried to win power and enrich themselves by turning us against one another. Division is the oldest trick in politics, and the cheapest. But time and again — including 250 years ago — those forces of division have been vanquished by the forces of progress.”