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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAmy Goodman: This Independence Day, Thank a Protester
from truthdig:
This Independence Day, Thank a Protester
Posted on Jul 3, 2013
By Amy Goodman
More than 160 years ago, the greatest abolitionist in U.S. history, the escaped slave Frederick Douglass, addressed the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Society. Douglass asked those gathered, What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? His words bear repeating this Independence Day, as the United States asserts unprecedented authority to wage war globally, to spy on everyone, everywhere. Independence Day should serve not as a blind celebration of the government, but as a moment to reflect on the central place in our history of grass-roots democracy movements, which have preserved and expanded the rights proclaimed in the opening lines of the Declaration of Independence: Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Douglass answered his question about the Fourth of July, to those gathered abolitionists: 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 hypocrisya thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation 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.
Douglass not only denounced the hypocrisy of slavery in a democracy, but worked diligently to build the abolitionist movement. He fought for womens suffrage as well. These were movements that have shaped the United States. The civil-rights movement of the 1950s and 60s set a permanent example of what can be achieved by grass-roots action, even in the face of systemic, violent repression.
Today, movements continue to shape our society. The trial of George Zimmerman, accused of murdering Trayvon Martin, would not be happening now in Florida were it not for a mass movement. Sparked by the seeming official indifference to the shooting death of yet another young, African-American male, nationwide protests erupted, leading to the appointment of a special prosecutor. A month and a half after Martin was killed, Zimmerman was charged with second-degree murder. ...................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/this_independence_day_thank_a_protester_20130703/
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Amy Goodman: This Independence Day, Thank a Protester (Original Post)
marmar
Jul 2013
OP
There have been few greater assaults on our liberty than what we've seen the last 12 years
Downtown Hound
Jul 2013
#2
I would rather Thank a U.S. Combat Veteran, who if no one else knows that the cost of Freedom is hardly 'Free'. Happy 4th people.
Downtown Hound
(12,618 posts)2. There have been few greater assaults on our liberty than what we've seen the last 12 years
all done under the guise of "protecting freedom." I'll thank a U.S. combat veteran for my freedom when they actually fight for it for a change instead of propping up those that seek to take it away.
Occupy Wall Street, the Iraq War protesters, gay marriage protesters, those are who will be getting my thanks for standing up for freedom this 4th of July.