FROM 4TH OF JULY INDEPENDENCE DAY TO 4TH OF JULY INTERDEPENDENCE DAY, INTERNATIONAL DAY OF INTERDEPENDENCE, ANTHOLOGY #5,
July 4, 2023.
https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2023/07/omni-interdependence-day-5-july-4-2023.html
COMPILED BY Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and Ecology
#4 https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2021/07/omni-interdependence-day-july-4-2021.html
CONTENTS INTERDEPENDENCE DAY JULY 4, 2023 #5
Frederick Douglass. “What, to the slave, is the Fourth of July?”
Rabbi Arthur Waskow. “New 4th of July.”
Mark Charles. “The Dilemma Of The Fourth Of July.”
Margaret Kimberley. “The Terrible Origins Of July 4th.”
ACLU of Arkansas. “How many are not free?”
Google. 8 items on Interdependence Day
TEXTS INTERDEPENDENCE DAY JULY 4, 2023
FREDERICK DOUGLASS, “WHAT, TO THE SLAVE, IS THE FOURTH OF JULY?”
Frederick Douglass was invited to address the citizens of his hometown, Rochester, New York, on July 5, 1852. Whatever the expectations of his
audience on that 76th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Douglass used the speech to remind his listeners of America’s
continuing enslavement of millions of people. Read the full 10-page speech at the link:
Posted January 24, 2007 Contributed by BLACKPAST ~ BlackPast.org is a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization.
We print excerpts from his extraordinary 10-page speech. Numerals at the left are the paragraph locations in the speech.
P2 The fact is, ladies and gentlemen, the distance between this plat-
form and the slave plantation, from which I escaped, is considerable—
That I am here today is, to me, a matter of astonishment as well as of
gratitude.
P4 This, for the purpose of this celebration, is the 4th of July, the birth-
day of your National Independence, and your political freedom. This, to
you, is what the Passover was to the emancipated people of God. It car-
ries your minds back to the day, and to the act of your great deliverance;
and to the signs, and to the wonders, associated with that act, that day.
P13 On the second of July, 1776, the old Continental Congress, to the
dismay of the lovers of ease, and the worshipers of property, clothed
that dreadful idea with all the authority of national sanction. They did so
in the form of a resolution
P15 Citizens, your fathers made good that resolution. They succeeded;
and to-day you reap the fruits of their success.
P23 They were peace men; but they preferred revolution to peaceful
submission to bondage. They were quiet men; but they did not shrink
from agitating against oppression.
P28 I remember also that as a people Americans are remarkably famil-
iar with all facts which make in their own favor. This is esteemed by some
as a national trait—perhaps a national weakness. It is a fact, that what-
ever makes for the wealth or for the reputation of Americans, and can
be had cheap will be found by Americans.
P34 Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon
to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your
national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and
of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, ex-
tended to us?
P36 But, such is not the state of the case. The rich inheritance of justice,
liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is
shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought life and healing to
you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth of July is yours,
not mine.
P38 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. My subject, then fellow-citizens, is American slavery. I do not hes-
itate 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! 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 fet
tered, in the name of the constitution and the Bible, which are disre-
garded and trampled upon, dare to call in question and to denounce,
with all the emphasis I can command, everything that serves to perpet-
uate slavery—the great sin and shame of America! Must I undertake to
prove that the slave is a man? That point is conceded already. The slave-
holders 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 Vir-
ginia, 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 respon-
sible being? 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.
P39 Is it not astonishing that, while we are ploughing, planting and
reaping, using all kinds of mechanical tools, erecting houses, construct-
ing bridges, building ships, working in metals of brass, iron, copper, silver
and gold; that, while we are reading, writing and cyphering, acting as
clerks, merchants and secretaries, having among us lawyers, doctors,
ministers, poets, authors, editors, orators, teachers; that, while we are
engaged in all manner of enterprises common to other men, digging gold
in California, capturing the whale in the Pacific, feeding sheep and cattle
on the hill-side, living, moving, acting, thinking, planning, living in fami-
lies as husbands, wives and children, and, above all, confessing and wor-
shipping the Christian’s God, and looking hopefully for life and immor-
tality beyond the grave, we are called upon to prove that we are men!
P41 What, am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob
them of their liberty, to work them without wages, to keep them
ignorant of their relations to their fellow men, to beat them with sticks,
to flay their flesh with the lash, to load their limbs with irons, to hunt
them with dogs, to sell them at auction, to sunder their families, to knock
out their teeth, to bum their flesh, to starve them into obedience and
submission to their masters? Must I argue that a system thus marked
with blood and stained with pollution is wrong? No! I will not.
P43 For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower,
but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.
P44 What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day
Continued on page 6, Douglass
Bulletin of Thomas Paine Friends, vol. 23, no. 2, Summer 2022 5
Douglass, from page 5
that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross
injustice and cruelly to which he is the constant victim. To him, your
celebration is a sham, your boasted liberty, an unholy license, your
national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty
and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence;
your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and
hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade,
and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety,
and hypocrisy—a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a na-
tion of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices,
more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States,
at this very hour.
P45 For revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns
without a rival. Take the American slave-trade, which, we are told by the
papers, is especially prosperous just now. Ex-Senator Benton tells us that
the price of men was never higher than now. He mentions the fact to
show that slavery is in no danger. In several states, this trade is a chief
source of wealth.
P46 Behold the practical operation of this internal slave-trade, the
American slave-trade, sustained by American politics and America reli-
gion. Here you will see men and women reared like swine for the market.
You know what is a swine-drover? I will show you a man-drover. They
inhabit all our Southern States. They perambulate the country, and
crowd the highways of the nation, with droves of human stock. You will
see one of these human flesh-jobbers, armed with pistol, whip and
bowie-knife, driving a company of a hundred men, women, and children,
from the Potomac to the slave market at New Orleans. These wretched
people are to be sold singly, or in lots, to suit purchasers. They are food
for the cotton-field, and the deadly sugar-mill. Mark the sad procession,
as it moves wearily along, and the inhuman wretch who drives them.
Hear his savage yells and his blood-chilling oaths, as he hurries on his
affrighted captives! There, see the old man, with locks thinned and gray.
Cast one glance, if you please, upon that young mother, whose shoulders
are bare to the scorching sun, her
briny tears falling on the brow of the babe in her arms. See, too, that girl
of thirteen, weeping, yes! weeping, as she thinks of the mother from
whom she has been torn! The drove moves tardily.
Heat and sorrow have nearly consumed their strength; suddenly you
hear a quick snap, like the discharge of a rifle; the fetters clank, and the
chain rattles simultaneously; your ears are saluted with a scream, that
seems to have torn its way to the center of your soul! The crack you
heard, was the sound of the slave-whip; the scream you heard, was from
the woman you saw with the babe. Her speed had faltered under the
weight of her child and her chains! that gash on her shoulder tells her to
move on. Follow the drove to New Orleans. Attend the auction; see men
examined like horses; see the forms of women rudely and brutally ex-
posed to the shocking gaze of American slave-buyers. See this drove sold
and separated forever; and never forget the deep, sad sobs that arose
from that scattered multitude. Tell me citizens, where, under the sun,
you can witness a spectacle more fiendish and shocking. Yet this is but a
glance at the American slave-trade, as it exists, at this moment, in the
ruling part of the United States.
P46 Many a child has been snatched from the arms of its mother by
bargains arranged in a state of brutal drunkenness.
P50 By an act of the American Congress, not yet two years old, slavery
has been nationalized in its most horrible and revolting form. By that act,
Mason & Dixon’s line has been obliterated; New York has become as Vir-
ginia; and the power to hold, hunt, and sell men, women, and children
as slaves remains no longer a mere state institution, but is now an insti-
tution of the whole United States. The power is co-extensive with the
Star-Spangled Banner and American Christianity. Not fewer than forty
Americans have, within the past two years, been hunted down and, with-
out a moment’s warning, hurried away in chains, and consigned to slav-
ery and excruciating torture. Some of these have had wives and children,
dependent on them for bread; but of this, no account was made. For
black men there are neither law, justice, humanity, nor religion. The Fu-
gitive Slave Law makes mercy to them a crime; and bribes the judge who
tries them. An American judge gets ten dollars for every victim he con-
signs to slavery, The minister of American justice is bound by the law to
hear but one side; and that side is the side of the oppressor. Let this
damning fact be perpetually told. Let it be thundered around the world,
that, in tyrant-killing, king-hating, people-loving, democratic, Christian
America, the seats of justice are filled with judges, who hold their offices
under an open and palpable bribe, and are bound, in deciding in the case
of a man’s liberty, to hear only his accusers!
P53 Many of its most eloquent Divines. who stand as the very lights of
the church, have shamelessly given the sanction of religion and the Bible
to the whole slave system.
P55 The American church is guilty, when viewed in connection with
what it is doing to uphold slavery; but it is superlatively guilty when
viewed in connection with its ability to abolish slavery.
P56 Albert Barnes but uttered what the common sense of every man
at all observant of the actual state of the case will receive as truth, when
he declared that “There is no power out of the church that could sustain
slavery an hour, if it were not sustained in it.”
P61 Americans! your republican politics, not less than your republican
religion, are flagrantly inconsistent. You boast of your love of liberty,
your superior civilization, and your pure Christianity, while the whole po-
litical power of the nation (as embodied in the
two great political parties) is solemnly pledged to support and
perpetuate the enslavement of three millions of your countrymen.
P69 Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I
have this day presented of the state of the nation, I do not despair of
this country. There are forces in operation, which must inevitably work
the downfall of slavery. “The arm of the Lord is not shortened,” and the
doom of slavery is certain. I, therefore, leave off where I began, with
hope. While drawing encouragement from the Declaration of Independ-
ence, the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institu-
tions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age.
P70 The fiat of the Almighty, “Let there be Light,” has not yet spent its
force. No abuse, no outrage whether in taste, sport or avarice, can now
hide itself from the all-pervading light.
P72 God speed the day when human blood Shall cease to flow! In every
clime be understood, The claims of human brotherhood, And each re-
turn for evil, good, Not blow for blow; That day will come all feuds to
end. And change into a faithful friend each foe.
P73 God speed the hour, the glorious hour, When none on earth Shall
exercise a lordly power, Nor in a tyrant’s presence cower; But all to man-
hood’s stature tower, By equal birth! That hour will come, to each, to all,
And from his prison-house, the thrall Go forth.
| New 4th of JulyRabbi Arthur Waskow Awaskow@theshalomcenter.org via uark.onmicrosoft.com Jul 4, 2021, 9:14 AM (1 day ago)Web:Theshalomcenter.org 7-6-21 The Shalom ReportNew 4th of July [See Anthology #4for Waskow’s “A Guide for How Progressives Can Transform July 4th into Interdependence DayThe Trumpist Supreme Court celebrated the approach of the Fourth of July by telling the ugly truth about itself. This whole previous term, it had puzzled observers by avoiding straight-up decisions on the central power structures of American society, while supporting liberal steps on the edges of politics.. It OK’d Obamacare, said high-school students had the right to criticize their school.But when it came to race and the levers of power in America, it did what it was appointed for. It gutted the remaining anti-racist, pro-democratic provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the crowning achievement of the Black-led Freedom Movement.It left standing new anti-voting laws in Arizona (and indicated approval of similar laws already passed in other states) that had the clear effect of disfranchising Black, Latinx, and Native citizens when the Department of Justice could not prove the deliberate, out-front intention was racist. Those “new” laws were no different from the Jim Crow poll tax, that barred Black voters without ever needing to say so.So the Supreme Court joined the Senate and the Electoral College as not merely undemocratic but anti-democratic branches off the US government.We need a new Fourth of July, a new updating of those great words of Thomas Jefferson in his Preamble to the Declaration if we are ever to heal America from his actions as a slave-owner. We need a new Fourth of July if we are to save ourselves and the rest of Humankind and Earth from deadly disasters brought on by Hyper-wealth – the Corporate Pharaohs that would rather have plagues destroy us than honor American lives, human lives, the more-than-human lives of other life-forms.Hyper-wealth, hyper-profit — more important than the hundreds of elders who died of heatstroke in Oregon and British Columbia last week; more important than the dead of Surfside because real-estate “developers” paid no attention as the rising salt sea-waters ate away their building’s foundations; more important than those who died of cold when the Texas energy grid failed while the energy-selling corporations made a “killing” as they charged outrageous prices for the energy they bothered to deliver — more important than tens of thousands more in every climate-related catastrophe.And meanwhile, an Exxon Mobil lobbyist boasted on video how Exxon “owned” Joe Manchin, the Senate’s crucial supporter of the filibuster that is preventing passage of Green laws as part of the crippled infrastructure bill. When the video went viral, the lobbyist “apologized” — not for his company’s vile politics, but for his letting the stinking cat out of the velvet bag.See highlights of the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zjyUol2whkFor the whole story on NPR, https://www.npr.org/2021/07/01/1012138741/exxon-lobbyist-caught-on-video-talks-about-undermining-bidens-climate-pushWe need a new Fourth of July. We need something like my suggestions below– and then not just a Declaration but action to bring real democracy, real salvation of our common home, wounded Planet Earth. Our common home, ready to collapse into rubble and kill us because our Corporate Pharaohs would rather make billions than heal our planetary foundations. A New Fourth of JulyWe hold these truths to be self-evident, growing from the life-experience of all Humanity:That all men and women and those beyond the binary are created equal, as distinctive strands of the great Web of life intertwined, and are through that interdependence endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights and responsibilities. That among these are –· Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,· The sharing of Beloved Community throughout our planet, growing through responsible relationships that embody, heal, and uphold that sacred web of life;· Peace among all peoples;· A life-sustaining, health-sustaining share of Earth’s abundance;· Honorable work with livable income, based on livable hours of work;· A rhythm of work and rest that frees time for family, neighborhood, citizenly involvement, and the spirit;· Self-government in political, economic, and cultural life, including public support for grass-roots co-ops, democratic elections to govern large corporations, and legislatures not controlled by wealth.Governments, corporations, and other institutions that have a major impact on the lives of the people are founded solely to secure these rights and uphold these responsibilities, deriving their just powers from the consent of those they govern and whose lives they shape.Whenever any of these forms of government fails to protect these rights and carry out these responsibilities, it is the right of the people – indeed, it is our duty — to alter or abolish it, providing new forms of government to carry out these responsibilities. In the midst of the greatest crisis of our history since the Civil War — and because Earth itself is in crisis, perhaps the worst — the Supreme Court is anti-democratic; the Senate is not only undemocratic but anti-democratic; the Presidency because it depends on the undemocratic Electoral College hangs by a democratic hair; and the most powerful corporations in the world are anti-democratic.Because our present forms of government do not protect our crucial rights, do not uphold these crucial responsibilities, the American people is obligated to undertake nonviolent action for needed change through elections, lobbying, free speech, free press, and free assembly in marches, strikes, boycotts, sit-ins, teach-ins, rallies, vigils, and prayer.To the achievement of these goals, with the help of the Holy Interbreathing Spirit of all life, and through our covenant with each other, we pledge our commitment, our nonviolent action, and our sacred honor. The Shalom Center 6711 Lincoln Drive Philadelphia, PA 19119 |
The Dilemma Of The Fourth Of July
By Mark Charles, Native News Online. Popular Resistance.org (7-5-22). This is the dilemma that Native ‘Americans’ face every day. The foundations of the United States of America are blatantly unjust. This land was stolen. Native peoples, Africans and many other minority communities have long been recipients of systemic racism. And the roots of it are right there for the entire world to see, printed in many of our founding documents; like the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and United States Supreme Court case rulings. We announce it. We flaunt it. We celebrate it.. As a nation we embrace this history because we are largely ignorant of the true nature of our… -more-
The Terrible Origins Of July 4th
By Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report. Popular Resistance (7-4-22). The July 4 holiday in the United States commemorates the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Anyone educated in this country has been propagandized with lies about patriotic colonists seeking freedom from a tyrannical British monarch. Our minds were filled with tales of Paul Revere and Betsy Ross which erase the role that indigenous and Black people played as they attempted to end true tyranny over their lives. The present day traditions of enjoying cookouts, vacations, and fireworks should not obscure the true meaning of this date. -more-
How many are not free?
| ACLU of Arkansas July 4, 2021 | Jul 4, 2021, 3:06 PM (17 hours ago) | ||
| to me | |||
| Friends –When the Continental Congress approved the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, their proclamation of freedom and equality for all was not true. As its inspiring words were read outside Independence Hall in Philadelphia, tens of thousands of people were in bondage and millions more would become enslaved in the years that followed.Freedom as America has defined and implemented it has never included everyone, and the impact of centuries of chattel slavery followed by decades of racial terror and Jim Crow segregation continues to be lived and felt here in Arkansas to this day. From our increasingly segregated public education system, to mass incarceration and police violence, racism and white supremacy continue to take a devastating toll on Black communities across Arkansas.That’s why the Fourth of July should be a day not only for celebration, but also a moment to recommit to making true the promise broken the day the Declaration of Independence was signed.Now more than ever, we cannot build a more just and equitable future without repairing the harms of our past.Reparations for slavery are long overdue. We have the power to make them a reality, but it’s going to take all of us. Will you send a message to your US Representative to show your support for reparations?Confronting our past is the first step towards building a more just and equitable future for all.But simply reckoning with systemic injustices is not enough. Informed action is required too. That’s why we strongly support reparatory justice.This Fourth of July, will you join us in the fight for reparations? Send a message to your US Representative today.Thank you, ACLU of ArkansasGoogle 2021, 8 items on Interdependence Day. Why we need an Interdependence Day to restore … – USA Today https://www.usatoday.com › opinion › 2021/07/03 › ho… 1 day ago — American Interdependence Day would be a celebration of the “us” in … and our ranking on the 2021 Global Peace Index has fallen to 122nd … This year, Independence Day is also Interdependence Day …https://www.bostonglobe.com › 2021/06/29 › opinion › t…Here’s a sample from my thank-you list. Who’s on yours? By Eric S. LanderUpdated June 29, 2021, 2:58 p.m.. Globe staff illustration/Adobe. With COVID-19 … Sermon: “Interdependence Day,” July 4, 2021 – YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com › watch 2 hours ago — July 4, 2021The Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time/Proper 9The Rev. Dr. Jack Sullivan, Jr. Preaching“Interdependence Day” “Interdependence Day” July 4, 2021 – YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com › watch 31This video is the Unitarian Universalist of Greater Lansing Worship for July 4, 2021Order of WorshipPrelude … 8 hours ago · Uploaded by UU Church Greater Lansing January 4th: Happy Interdependence Day – LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com › pulse › january-4th-happy-int…Jan 4, 2021 — July 4th celebrates one pole of America’s magnetic leadership from the past; January 4th will celebrate the other for the future, balancing … America’s Interdependence Day – Parag Khannahttps://www.paragkhanna.com › americas-interdepende…In the age of globalisation, isolation is impossible. 12 September is an apt way to symbolise the transition, one that is occurring globally in a myriad of contexts, … Opinion/Commentary: Is it time to celebrate Interdependence …https://dailyprogress.com › opinion › columnists › opinio…15 hours ago — Broadly speaking, the meaning of American independence refers to … She had recorded it just a couple of days before her tragic death, and it climbed to No. … about what freedom means in 2021 America, those desolate lines … ICYMI: The Boston Globe (Op-Ed): This Year, Independence …https://www.whitehouse.gov › ostp › 2021/06/30 › icy…ICYMI: The Boston Globe (Op-Ed): This Year, Independence Day is also Interdependence Day. June 30, 2021 • OSTP Blog. By: White … We’re eager to celebrate our independence from the coronavirus and get back to normal life. But before … |
END INTERDEPENDENCE DAY ANTHOLOGY #5, JULY 4, 2023