And on July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, declaring: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, 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."
Remarkable, with all we’ve endured since 2016, I approach my 64th birthday this month a far less cynical person than I was in ‘75 when I graduated from high school. Why? I’ve been moved by the intelligence, commitment, and character of my countrymen in this fight: Sally Yates, the House Impeachment Managers all, Anthony Fauci, Alexander Vindman, Fiona Hill, Stacey Abrams, Pres. Biden, Marc E. Elias, and you Dr. Richardson. Thank you and happy Independence Day.
Thank you for naming people of integrity and substance. I am so tired of reading and hearing the names of people who lack such qualities. We all know who they are.
Fern, your adding names of those who inspire you is welcome. Your being negative and criticizing, not so much. ADAM SCHIFF, ADAM SCHIFF, ADAM SCHIFF. Is everyone good now? (and FYI, I contribute regularly to him).
R David, I intended no criticism of you, simply responding to the interest of MaryB in seeing Schiff's name, and I added Raskin's, too. I am sorry that you saw my replies in a negative light. As indicated that was not my intention.
One more point, the use of 'say his name' in my reply concerning Adam Schiff was mimicking the call in the demonstrations on behalf of George Floyd and others to 'say his name'. It would have been clearer for me to have used quotation marks. That phrase was not written to find fault with your comment. I hope that my explanations can satisfy your dissatisfaction.
Thank you David. I feel better having read your words and to realize that a glass can be half full and we need to look toward inspiring individuals and not fixate on those who seek to diminish others to burnish themselves. Happy 4th to you and yours.
So let's get to work refilling it, then making and filling more glasses (all the same size) and making sure that people who don't even have a glass get a nice full one.
Great point. I will call this to mind when I am feeling hopeless or cynical. We still have many, many good people in this country who believe in the founding aspirations, and that good will prevail.
I am very glad about that Fern. He has amazing ability to process a great amount of information and sort it appropriately. I also was very impressed with Stacey E Plaskett, rep from US Virgin Islands during impeachment hearing. She can speak an argument very well.
I did wave at noon. Hope you were free as a bird today. Ran into some bad, territorial humor. Explaining made matters worse. Thanks for winking in my direction.
The moment of Amanda (at the inaugural) seemed to me to personify perfectly what artistry can capture to make the words "created equal" live. She inspired me to write this:
"Of a Poet"
I thought of a poet,
{on a day of poetry}
oddly, on display;
as if emerging,
from shackles shared...
suppressed
in our hearts
a hidden truth
{ echoes of: Guthrie:Simone:Lincoln:Seamus}
and
Amanda,
a rising Oshun
a risen sun
a red band cradles the mind on a woman who shatters our
That, would be remarkable. I'm not sure how to do that...Ah, AndreaH, all my life I've been given an extra vowel, no worries! It's from Haydn the composer.
Your words captured and expressed EXACTLY what I saw, heard and felt. Thank you! I copied her poem and added it to my art journal, with a little red ribbon as that "band" you describe. But the "dancing hands" and "lilting melody a voice surely not of this world" could not be as well placed into a visual memory.
Christine, I’m humbled. Thank you. And of course you can share. It is not published. It was such a moving moment. She made me feel —-hope—-as I had not felt for so long.
I know. I felt the same, Haydn. It is the vision that I hold of our young people in this country. They are so progressive and unapologetic of it. I believe they will be the force that lead us to victory in the fight to keep our Democracy and our Earth vibrant.
From my own 4th of July post over at That's Another Fine Mess:
Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, when they sat down and argued what to say in the Declaration of Independence, may have had a much different understanding their words and goal when they said “all men are created equal,” but the moment it was said, the moment it was written, it was never going to be limited to white males of property. Every person who ever read it or heard it said “Yeah, that’s for me” And that’s why for the past 245 years people have come here, and why people have striven to make that true. This is the only country founded on a revolutionary ideal, the ideal of equality of all. There are those who say the French and Russian Revolutions were more “authentic” revolutions, but millions of people didn’t risk everything after those events to go to the land of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, or the land where the workers of the world had nothing to lose but their chains. They’ve come here, and by their coming every year, they keep the dream alive, because they arrive with it in their hearts.
On June 24, 1826, the 50th year of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, former President and author of the Declaration, 83 year old Thomas Jefferson, was asked by Roger Weightman to come to Washington D.C. to participate in the celebration of the anniversary. He was in declining health (he and John Adams would both die 10 days later on that day of days), and wrote to apologize for not being able to accept the offer. Fifty years later, he had come to see some of the larger meaning of the words he and John Adams and the other members of the committee who had been charged to write the Delaration had put to paper.
He wrote:
“May it be to the world, what I believe it will be, (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all,) the Signal of arousing men to burst the chains, under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings & security of self-government. That form which we have substituted, restores the free right to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion. All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of god. These are grounds of hope for others. For ourselves, let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them.”
So far, we have been able - with many delays and detours - to stick to that path. The greatest threat to that revolutionary dream stands tall around us today, which makes this Fourth of July one of the most important since the day the words “all men are created equal” were first heard. It’s our belief in that revolutionary dream that is why we are involved politically and socially as we are. We may not have achieved the ideal, we may never completely do so, but if we fail to stand for it now, it will be lost, possibly forever.
I did, and the whole piece is well worth the time. This is the antithesis of the entropy that CynthiaW discussed and will be the future of the country if enough of us actively live and support that dream.
Beautiful, TC. Thanks for sharing this. I especially liked what you wrote about how “they’ve come here, and by their coming every year, they keep the dream alive, because they arrive with it in their hearts.” Today is an emotional one for me.
Thank you. This one sentence will bolster me through the dark times: "They’ve come here, and by their coming every year, they keep the dream alive, because they arrive with it in their hearts." I don't know what led my own ancestors here, but it is clear that they did arrive with a dream in their hearts and I'm here because of it and them.
The U.S. immigration and border control department in the early 1900s classified people by Race of Irish, French, etc. Look for immigration records for your ancestors.
I was born in 1943 and grew up in what was then rural New Jersey. This was before the interstate highways and the 55 miles to New York took two and a half hours. New Jersey was almost as segregated as Mississippi with unwritten "rules" about where "colored" could eat or sit. The proposition of equality for women and those of different races and non-Christians was indeed open to question; one that would be decided upon on a case-by-case basis depending upon the way we "fit in" and met the expectations of our places in society. Could we strive and succeed financially? Yes, if we were careful. Could we join the golf club or swim in the public pool? No, that was asking too much but there was a lake down the road and a tree behind which one could change one's clothes. Things have changed, mostly for the better. As Dr. King said, "the arch of history bends towards justice." We are now in the midst of an American silly season. Here's to the hope that in the next year or two we will all be too busy and will ignore the grifter in chief and his henchmen.
I too was born in 1943, and fully recall what you've described. I am Black and in the 60's, joined in the various protests on the then status quo of things: war, racism, poverty, general unfairness. The past four plus years brought me to near hopelessness and deep anger. However, millions of people rose to say "No!" to that period, and to assert that the principles of equality, fairness, access and diversity, across the spectrum, are still the values we'll fight for. And so, I'll continue marching on in this peculiar challenge that must be overcome.
Howard, I was born a generation later and also grew up in NJ, in a new (at the time) suburban community full of people, many at first military families whose dads were being shipped from Ft Dix and Maguire AFB to Vietnam, who were breaking out of the urban messes of Camden and Trenton for the first time. So I suspect roughly the same part of Jersey. I witnessed the slow transformation of the state from one that was split into three parts--the urban communities, the rural farmlands and Pine Barrens, and the coastal region--into a throbbing megalopolis linking NYC to Philadelphia. My great-grandfather, an immigrant who fled the pogroms of what is now Ukraine (it was the Russian Empire then), built the first big suburbs across the river from NYC--the "Oranges"--in the 1920s. Although he started as a bricklayer (a real mason!), with very little English and no real education, he pushed hard to create a career and fortune for himself and a future for his family, one that would have been impossible in Russia. His sons fought in the war, and one died on D-Day. At no time was this Jewish family welcomed by the WASP elite. He drank with his Irish and Italian employees, welcomed my father, a Greek-American, into the family (he, too, was shunned in college by the WASP elites and found friends in the Jewish fraternities and organizations), got the cold shoulder from the wannabe leaders of the synagogue he helped to build because he was too "ethnic" and too liberal in his politics.
What a lovely tribute to your father. The last part of it makes me sad while it makes me realize that even among those that are disallowed from "whitestream" society the discriminated against go on and discrimimnate against others. We see that in appalling clarity as the Israeli government does to the Palestinians what was done to them in WW2.
Linda, your story sounds like mine. I grew up on Long Island, New York. My grandfather was also a bricklayer, (a real mason). He came to the US in 1913. He and my grandmother built a life that, according to my grandfather, they never could have had in Italy. They sent three of their five sons to fight in WWII, and their youngest son to Korea. They were proud to be citizens of this country, and said so frequently. Their grandchildren were successful. I’ve always been so proud of them.
Is it human nature to chose an enemy to fight and someone to dismiss? Groups that should be united to protect each other and blossom, break into splinters of wannabe winners.
One of those groups lined up with Vlad who wants to destroy us from the inside out, the other group just wants peace and love for everyone. The ones choosing peace and love just want Vlad’s group to stop obstructing progress towards peace and love and a verdant life with their lies and thievery
An apt time to reprise the entire quote which, being a theologian, Dr. King used and which is attributed to him. They are the words of the humanist theologian Theodore Parker:
"I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways; I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice."
A century later, attributed to Martin Luther King Jr.
Is this the same Theodore Parker who said, “Southern Slavery is an institution that is in earnest. Northern Freedom is an institution that is not in earnest.”? This to me is the most provocative quote of the pre-civil war era.
Yes - he was an abolitionist, transcendentalist and all-around brilliant, fascinating man. Abraham Lincoln used his "of the people, by the people, for the people." Parker was one of the first women's suffragists and the first to name God father and mother.
I am not familiar with T. Parker, but I think he was pointing to the Southern willingness to kill and die to have free. forced labor forever. The Northern conscience was not as firm about eliminating free, forced labor because the profit margin looked better without wages.
Again, I suggest reading about Theodore Parker. He was an abolitionist and much more. He also held Christian exceptionalism up to a critical light, for example.
"the profit margin looked better without wages." Um...wasn't that the whole reason the South wanted slavery forever? Their entire economy was based on it. The Northern economy wasn't.
Why confused? Just look up Theodore Parker. He was a theologian and an abolitionist who had a profound influence on the future path of the Unitarian Universalist church. His critique of church in general led him to disavow the institution as Christianity was/is seen. If you happen to be around West Roxbury, Mass, you can visit the Theodore Parker Unitarian Church.
Spend 7 minutes with descendants of Frederick Douglass on the Fourth of July:
“At a time like this, scorching irony not convincing argument is needed. Oh, had I, the ability, and could I reach the nation’s ear, I would today pour out a fiery steam of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire. It is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm. The feeling of the nation must be quickened. And the conscience of the nation must be roused. The propriety of the nation must be startled. The hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed and its crimes against God and man must be denounced.”
Mr. Douglass spoke at rallies just a few miles from where we live. I take folks on URR tours due to so many locations that were stations on the URR hosted by area Quakers. Possibly over 2,000 self-emancipated people passed through here. Yet, it's so important to read William Still's book, "The Underground Railroad: Authentic Narratives and First-Hand Accounts" to understand that Black folks assisted way more self-emancipated people than did the Quakers. The Society of Friends (Quakers) did own human beings early on, yet they decided it was so wrong that they changed their ways. They visited fellow Quakers who still enslaved people and some were made to leave the Society over that. It always makes me think of Maya Angelou's often quoted saying that when they knew better, they did better. May we all be like that.
Thanks, Ellie. Pennsylvania which surrounds us with history. The State legislature is controlled by Republicans, but we do have Governor Wolf who is a Democrat and the admirable Lt. Gov. John Fetterman. Lots of work ahead of us.
Perfect, just perfect, Ellie. Thank you for this. I listened to The Rachel Maddow show the other day about how Frederick Douglas was sent to Mount Misery (the property that Donald Rumsfeld bought later on), a place singularly designed to “break” slaves. Douglas was sent there by his “owner”for a year, I believe, because he had too much spirit. He was whipped and tortured and worked nearly to death, and in his writings he speaks about being, indeed, nearly broken mentally and physically, his soul tormented. But he miraculously survived intact and went on to become one of our most distinguished leaders. What he endured and what he modeled for us, with his eloquent and stirring words, are the perfect allegory for us today. In a way, it feels as if we, as a nation, are in a kind of slumber and need to be awakened, and quick. We need a Frederick Douglas to travel the country, speaking and rousing us to action. His impassioned words are just as relevant and must be heeded in this moment.
Thank you, Pam. I did not know about Mount Misery and Frederick Douglass' suffering and endurance there that was beyond the "normal" experience of enslaved people.
Frederick Douglass does continue to speak as we relay his writings and experience via social media.
Thank you, Ellie, for sharing this. Seeing and hearing these young Black people read from their many times grandfather's very meaningful speech brings tears to my eyes.
In 1964, my middle school history teacher had all 30 of us students memorize the Gettysburg address (your letter today contained almost all of it!) … then we each had to recite it… clearly … slowly … took over a week of class time … never knew what the big deal was til I started reading your LETTERS, Prof Richardson. Thank you so very much, Mr Gillette for putting that hand grenade in my head.
Happy Fourth of July! I can proudly announce that my distant paternal grandfather, Smith Turner, fought in The American Revolutionary War with the Virginia 9th Regiment at Brandywine and Germantown. He was a private in Washington's Army, discharged out of Valley Forge.
I always enjoy reading Heather's commentaries. Today's "4th" article, for me, emphasizes how our great Republic resides in a constant state of tension; a battle, it seems, between good and evil, goodness and badness. As a white male who grew up very Middle Class, I have yet after seven-plus decades of life to understand the reluctance to share our world with people who are non-white, non-heterosexual and non-Christian. That last one really "gets me going", because as a graduate, ordained Seminarian I see those "Christians'' as being not even close to the reality.
I love our country, for which I stood proud and tall as a young USAF Staff Sergeant in my very early twenties. I did not then feel the sadness and shame I feel today. "Who will wrest us from these talons of evil?" I continue to ask myself. How will "independence" grace the lives of so many who still remain nearly second-class, their lives graced with prejudice by addled old white men; and, in some cases, women? Yet, that voice within me continues to nag, "Keep the faith! Never give up. Never give in! Soldier on!"
As I proudly salute Old Glory, tears still well up. We are better than this current moment. I pray to Almighty God, or whatever "god" you might pray to, that we embrace the goodness that is found in most of us, as we peel away the darkness that continues to unsettle us and attempts to deter us from our greater good.
Well said, Kinsman. I have served my country (through my community) for 35 years in various positions (mostly as a deputy sheriff patrolling rural lane county, the last 8 doing courthouse security part time). I proudly fly the US Flag on one side of my house and the "real" blue line flag on the other to honor fallen law enforcement officers. I tear up when I play the National Anthem (which I will be doing in about 3 plus hours). I, too, feel that sadness and shame at what we have become as a nation, and where my profession has fallen to. I shall take your words to heart and keep the faith, refuse to give up, and never give in. I shall "soldier on!"
Thank you for your kind words! Years ago I saw a bumper sticker, "If the people will lead, the leaders will follow." Leadership in its authentic form is in short supply these days.
Your message fell on very sympathetic ears here! Like you, one side of my family goes waaaay back to the beginnings of this country and accounts for my deep-seeded love for this country. My mom's late sister was an avid genealogist starting in the '40s even, and she did exhaustive research on a variety of lines on my mom's side. This was in the era before computers had really taken hold, but she started using computers early on (she passed away in ’98). She began sending my mom pages and pages of her findings a couple of times a month starting the ‘80s because she believed there should be somebody in the family with another copy of her work. We have 6-7 big notebooks full of information. It is nothing short of amazing! Some of the stuff…and it just scratches the surface:
My mom’s family, one of the First Families of North Carolina, has a long and proud history. Early on in my mom’s life and in my life we were brought up appreciating our heritage—it does kinda tend to be a Southern “thang”!—that stretched back to our McCauley forbears (my mom’s dad’s family), who arrived in this country in the 1740s. There were 2 brothers who emigrated from Northern Ireland—family lore said our ancestor stowed away in a “hog’s-head” barrel on the same ship his brother was on, supposedly trying to escape taxes he owed!), the McCauleys having settled near Belfast in the 17th century after England opened up Northern Ireland. The McCauley, or McAuley, or McAuly, etc. clan stretched way back in Scotland and were from the highlands west/southwest of Glasgow. VERY proud Scot here! There were other lines in the family that came here even earlier—one line was on the 17th century “Ark & Dove” expedition from England that settled in what is now the Tidewater/Chesapeake area of Maryland. Our other main branch, the Neville family, came here from England as part of the 3rd settlement at Jamestown in 1612. (The Nevilles are a fairly illustrious family in English history…my aunt traced them back to Normandy in France (from “Neu Ville”) before William the Conqueror). And on and on and ON it goes…
My great-great-great-great grandfather McCauley became a very successful farmer and owned huge tracts of land in and around Chapel Hill, NC. He fought in the Revolutionary War and enlisted in 1776 as soon as volunteers were called up. He rose to the rank of Captain and after the war eventually gave a massive parcel of land that was used to found the University of NC—there was even a statue of him in Chapel Hill (we have a copy of a newspaper clipping of the unveiling), and there’s still a McCauley Street in downtown Chapel Hill that was where the family home was and a dry goods store they had. His offspring had enormous families (7-12 children was common) and were all over the area around Orange county and Chapel Hill in NC. Still are! They were very prosperous and my great-grandfather McCauley, born in 1847, lied about his age in 1862 (he was 15 and needed to be 16) to enlist in the Confederate Army. He fought for the South and was wounded by some shrapnel in his hip and walked with a cane for the rest of his life (died in 1930, we have the gold-topped cane here). Etc. etc. etc.
So THIS patriot has ancestors that fought on all sides! My roots in this country stretch back really far and I’m a proud Scots/Irish/English/Welsh/Manx MUTT! My mom was, of course, Presbyterian, and I ended up an Anglican, so we have the British Isles and Ireland pretty well covered! This is all to say that the rich tapestry that is this country is bred into me, so likewise, I tear up at the National Anthem (though I wish it was “America the Beautiful, but I digress…) and in things that I am proud of my country for. But, I believe that being a “patriot” is also recognizing my country’s shortcomings and calling it out when it does something wrong. (Dan Rather just yesterday wrote an amazing, revelatory piece on the differences between “patriotism” and “nationalism”. We don’t want to be the latter, but “they” have conscripted the word “patriot” and turned it into something it is not. Like you, I fret about the direction this country can seem to be headed at times, but I also hold out hope for our people that we’ll see the wrongs and do our damnedest to fix them. Perilous times, indeed, but together we can do this!!
Sorry for the length…too much time and too much caffeine…
Thank you so much for sharing! No worries about the length of your commentary. It shows how much appreciation and love you have for your history. You likely know that the Scots and Scots-Irish built the cornerstone of our great Republic. I like your "conscripted" the word Patriot, just as so many evangelicals have conscripted God and the name of Christ Jesus. I too am Anglican, Anglo-Catholic ordained in the Episcopal Rite but not in the Church. I grew up Lutheran in on a small farm surronded by very large farms in Howard Country, Maryland. My dad was Scots-Irish to the very marrow of his bone, and if you know anything about the Scots-Irish you know his temperament. Discipline ruled! But, I would not have it any other way as I see the spawn that has grown in our Republic over the last two generations. Thank you again for sharing. We who are true to Lady Liberty have our work cut out for us.
Inspiring, Vince. The “reluctance to share” is simply based on fear that there is not enough to go around. If a person’s abundance is based on what I believe was the original download from the Creator, “We are all in this together. There is enough to go around.”, then the human race is centered in Love, which has no opposite.
From the Course in Miracles…
“1. This is a course in miracles. It is a required course. Only the time you take it is voluntary. Free will does not mean that you can establish the curriculum. It means only that you can elect what you want to take at a given time. The course does not aim at teaching the meaning of love, for that is beyond what can be taught. It does aim, however, at removing the blocks to the awareness of love’s presence, which is your natural inheritance. The opposite of love is fear, but what is all-encompassing can have no opposite.
2. This course can therefore be summed up very simply in this way: Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists.
Thank you for your very thoughtful response! "Free Will" also does not mean each of us can do as we full-well please. During graduate study at Seminary, we discussed free will. It is "God's" willingness to allow us to be our own engine and pilot as we navigate the turbulent waters of simply living. "Love" is both divine and amorphous. as it speaks to love in the sense of agape. "Self" gets in the way of true, authentic love.
Happy Fourth, Vince! I see you fly the flags of Bonnie Scotland, too. We must be related. On my paternal Grandfathers' side, George Smith was Washinton's (troops horses') blacksmith. Much of our thinking is similar.
The Turners arrived along the shores of what is now known as The Chesapeake in the 1600s. We have traced our arrival to Snow Hill in Maryland. Then, on into Virginia where Smith Turner joined the Virginia 9th Regiment. We are what I call "dirt people", farmers in its most authentic sense. The Turners are, as you guessed!, Scots-Irish. My mother's side, we believe (no genealogy was done) was Welsh and Scot. I feel an inexplicable kinship and connection with the Celts; and, the Vikings who settled in Scotland.
You have spoken so eloquently, Vince, for so many of us. I thank you for these words and the feeling behind them. It amazes me how far we've come, and yet how far we've fallen. Yesterday after vigil Mass, our choir played and sang the National Anthem. I found myself also with tears in my eyes, longing for the real values of America to show up and inspire us again.
Thank you so much, Annette. Your words do inspire me! As I read the various posts here, I keep thinking about the Pipers Piping, and how they raise me to tears. A clergy colleague remarked how it, "Must be in your blood because my wife does the same thing!" Having just turned 77, I have lived a wonderful albeit trialsome life at times. I cannot begin to fathom the toxicity that has gripped our nation. Sadly, that poison is fueled by Congress and corporations. They have undermined the goodness of the people. The insurrectionists and seditionists have shamed and sullied our great Republic, all the while taking pride in their tyranny.
Morning, all!! Morning, Dr. R!! And a shout out to all of us who think it worthy to keep striving for that more perfect union!
On a personal note, I discovered I was blocked by substack and therefore could not access today's Letter. I went over to FB only to find it there. So with all the IT prowess I could muster, I am here now to say...I persevered! But for those couple of hours, I can't tell you how disconnected I felt. No offense to FB, but it simply wasn't the same without all of you!
I am glad that you made it back Ms Lynell. Awhile back I read an article about privacy, security, etc on the internet and one of the points it made was when at all possible when given the choice of whether to connect via your email, facebook, etc always choose to connect via your email. That FB can do whatever goon squad things it wants and you go on with your life uninterrupted.
I love connecting with all of you here and sharing the various ways we view Dr Richardson's letters.
Morning, Lynell! Glad you persevered, and have come to roost on this day of celebration. I have occasionally been "missed" by Substack, and have never faced being blocked by them (even after my payment card had expired and there was a glitch in paying for my subscription, I was still "on board." Sounds like your experience was much more harrowing.
This community is my morning ritual/routine. I learn so much here (both from the Professor and from other members) and hope I can offer something in return in various ways.
I know…I do understand however, once I get ‘involved’, it’s a commitment for the day and often beyond! Links I have to open, the responses people share, it’s like watching a think tank working through a vital issue… (which is exactly what it is!) But there is always a thread of hope, a welcome to our sense of humor, and a collective sense of respect and tolerance for opposing views. Despite the occasional disruptive visitors, following Heather’s lead, we have maintained our incredible ‘club’ and keep learning and solidifying our determination to get a hold on the truth and work to help the lessons lead us forward….
LFAA comments are quite addictive--a healthy addiction, though, to still struggle to keep in balance so as not to interfere with general functioning! When pressed for time, I try to stick with the "top" comment and/or not go to deep down the threads.
I understand, Cynthia, about the involvement with this community. But, I have learned so much here, and have such respect and admiration for Heather and this group.I might admit to an addiction here!
As we see in the horrible decision of the judge to extend Britney Spears's involuntary servitude to her "conservators," in the SCOTUS decisions to welcome even more dark money into politics and allow states to restrict voting on the basis that voting is something people should have to struggle to do (my takeaway from Alito's appalling majority decision), especially if they are not privileged and white, the fallout of the failures of the creators of the Declaration are still with us. Indeed, the 19th century was a real century of new oppressions: of the working classes in the industrialization of the West, in the further scraping away of women's rights to property and autonomy, in the expansion of imperialism and the racist pseudo science used to justify it. All this dynamism to further enrobe the white privileged classes in more privilege.
Sorry for the downer folks. It's been that kind of morning.
Not really wanting to be an apologist for “Jefferson & Co.” but we have to remember their world of the 18th Century. It was a given that women were subservient to men, said so in the Holy Bible. Slavery also had its roots in that ancient sacrosanct text, and while white men of European extraction were now considered superior in intellect, (forget that the ancient Romans had some black citizens owning white slaves) black ppl were considered some lost tribe to be subjugated and there was racist pseudo-science, such as phrenology to justify it. While white Europeans were moving away from this mindset in the late 18th Century, the colonies perpetuated it. (A blind eye for economic reasons)
I once found a small book titled “Jefferson’s Letters” where he was writing to his gentlemen acquaintances in France and had to admit that seeing the finer abilities of the free black men who lived there disproved his prejudiced mindset. He did anguish over the error of slavery, but what could he do in the established system of the day? (Could I convince the majority of ppl in the 21st Century that worshiping a Zeus type deity who meddles in the affairs of mortals is pure mythology?)
I have donated that book to the National Museum of African American History & Culture in D.C. but did transcribe some passages. Here is one example:
Prejudice Past
To M. Henri Gregoire, Bishop and Senator, Paris.
Washington, February 25, 1809
“Sir, - I have received the favor of your letter of August 17th, and with it the volume you were so kind as to send me on the ‘Literature of Negroes.’ Be assured that no person living wishes more sincerely than I do, to see a complete refutation of the doubts I have myself entertained and expressed on the grade of understanding allotted to them by nature, and to find that in this respect they are on a par with ourselves. My doubts were the result of personal observation on the limited sphere of my own State, where the opportunities of the development of their genius were not favorable, and those of exercising it still less so. I expressed them therefore with great hesitation; but whatever be their degree of talent it is no measure of their rights. Because Sir Isaac Newton was superior to others in understanding, he was not therefore lord of the person or property of others. On this subject they are gaining daily in the opinions of nations, and hopeful advances are making towards their re-establishment on an equal footing with the other colors of the human family. I pray you therefore to accept my thanks for the many instances you have enabled me to observe of respectable intelligence in that race of men, which cannot fail to have effect in hastening the day of their relief.”
This is fascinating, but it doesn't surprise me. It is important to judge people within the context of their times. Lincoln, himself, thought blacks inferior right up until Frederick Douglass visited him in the White House.
Until Douglass visited him in the White House, Lincoln thought of blacks as inferior. It's not surprising given that the general opinion about them was pretty poor, and Lincoln grew up in the boondocks--whereas had he grown up or lived as an adult in Boston, where there were a number of prominent abolitionists, he might have been exposed to more advanced thinking. Douglass was such a thoughtful, brilliant man that being exposed to him gave Lincoln a whole new perspective.
Hindsight is 20/20 and our armchair quarterbacking is easy. However, the founding fathers were grounded in philosophy, were critical thinkers of their time, were being challenged to extend their thinking and declaration farther (e.g. by Jane Adams to include women and by Edward Rutledge calling out the Northerners on slavery). Today we have the job of setting the government on a more equitable path of liberty and justice for all--really all of us.
Every white person in Jefferson's time did not see people of African descent as inferior, and did not justify enslavement. Every white person didn’t use the Bible to justify enslavement. Justifying enslavement as a product of the times seems an excuse, not fact-based.
Every person in our time does not believe in some sky wizard, and yet we have to endure “in god we trust” on every piece of currency and have to argue with judges and deposing attorneys that we will not say “so help me god” on an oath. Justifying a religious test is inexcusable but still a product of the times that some of us endure. That is fact-based.
I suspect that in Jefferson's time most Americans saw people of African descent as inferior. And I can tell you, as a far left Democrat with views on one or two subjects that differ from the prevailing orthodoxy, it's not easy to go against that orthodoxy.
Linda, I don't read this as a downer, but as a sign of our reality on this "Independence Day". Signs of equality are less today than in any of my 73 years celebrating the 4th. As a gay woman, I don't feel I'm treated as equal. My skin is white which allows me "cover", but not total. I'm finding this 4th a sad time for all the reasons you mention and more.
This is so very true. Unfortunately there is no limit to the inequality and prejudice that still exists in our country. Last night we watched "In the Heights". It was such a well told story that showed the disrespect and vile actions of "white folk" towards immigrants, women and others they deemed below them. They say "a picture is worth a thousand words" and this story does that masterfully.
Each generation is limited in ways related to their knowledge and understanding. We are can understand that, without allowing the laws based on limitations to continue.
Ah, The SCOTUS. The brakes applied to the inevitable changes in who becomes leadership and thusly writes the history at large of how the natural rights of the majority were once systematically suppressed in the interest of the few unwilling to share privilege or power. That arch of justice Dr King reminds us is not controlled by laws nor a SCOTUS but through the will of a people suppressed who are risen to attain rights and justice intended. This is why I celebrate the Future of the Republic on this 4th of July, Linda.
Happy 4th to you and yours. Remembering Miss Hodges' 1959-60 12th Grade Government Class. One of her memorable warnings was, "Every day you have to fight to keep/maintain our democracy." What (is)/was so hard won, can be lost to those who want to control our government for power and personal gain not life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness of every American. Miss Hodges' explained the unique provision in the Constitution of a free press to insure our democracy, and it was the responsibility of every citizen to inform him/herself, to vote and to be active in their local, state and federal governments. We learned the power of the Constitution through the creation of a federal government, within our class of over 40 (the 1942 WWII war babies large class size). Miss Hodges, I learned later, was a practicing member of the Society of Friends, thought to be related to my maternal Grandmother in some way. My parents, particularly my Dad encouraged us to question everyone and everything. "I'm not raising sheep, I'm raising intelligent, questioning kids!" he reminded us They modeled reading and conversation (not bullying) where another point of view was seen as your constitutional right and responsibility. Through my ancestry research, I have come to realize hundreds of my ancestors (except for one great grandfather in the 1860s) immigrated to all but 3 of the colonies from 1618 thru the 1700s and their descendants, fought to establish the new nation (even some of my Quakers ancestors). On July 4th, 2021 I honor the birth of my beloved paternal grandfather, John Kenneth Merrell (1898-1962); I am thankful for the health of my family and friends; and I realize there is no resting place in the affairs of humans. So tired, but I will fight on for our democracy and our Constitution, honoring those whose DNA I carry and the opportunity for my descendants to participate and contribute to the grand experiment.
Miss Hodges must have done a lot of good, but she could not have forseen (nor could anyone else, I guess) how nefarious people could use the freedom of their part of a compartmentalized press to inspire the epistemologically challenged to enthusiastically participate or at least endorse insurrection against our government.
Wishing all my American friends a happy and peaceful 4th July. May your hamburgers be perfectly cooked, the fireworks beautiful. Dear HCR, thank you for your clarity and calm in such politically frightening times. One day, surely, we will be able to celebrate that "equality for all".
And a very happy Independence Day to you, dear Prof. HCR!
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, 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."
I had these words memorized, at least, thirty years before I came to live in these United States. I revered them because they represented the truths and values of life, irrespective of who you are, what you believe, or the color of your skin. They formed the foundation of my beliefs long before I became a US citizen, long before I was interested in politics, long before I understood that life isn't perfect and that "unalienable rights" aren't bequeathed to all men, women, genders, and peoples, regardless of race, gender, creed, and ideology.
The truth is that these principles have never been upheld, respected nor internally validated except by a few choice individuals who have been subsequently, tortured, imprisoned, and censored for speaking truth to power -- to white power.
And yet, as you so correctly state, Prof. HCR, today, we face a group of white people who refuse to share their liberties with our BIPOC populations. I will be unable to celebrate this July fourth with the same fervor as in years passed, but celebrate, I will, for I profoundly believe in and stand by these words. For I "hold these truths to be self-evident, 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."
We have to continue the battle for the freedom of those who are oppressed. We have so many hundreds of thousands of fellow citizens who don't even know they are oppressed. It is a sad state of affairs that is bordering on tragic. "In a world that had been dominated by a small class of rich men for so long that most people simply accepted that they should be forever tied to their status at birth, a group of upstart legislators clinging to the edge of a continent declared that no man was born better than any other. America was founded on the radical idea that all men are created equal."
Let us continue to fight for the freedom of one and all.
Remarkable, with all we’ve endured since 2016, I approach my 64th birthday this month a far less cynical person than I was in ‘75 when I graduated from high school. Why? I’ve been moved by the intelligence, commitment, and character of my countrymen in this fight: Sally Yates, the House Impeachment Managers all, Anthony Fauci, Alexander Vindman, Fiona Hill, Stacey Abrams, Pres. Biden, Marc E. Elias, and you Dr. Richardson. Thank you and happy Independence Day.
Thank you for naming people of integrity and substance. I am so tired of reading and hearing the names of people who lack such qualities. We all know who they are.
"We all know who they are." Did I land in Germany in 1933?
Add my congressman, Adam Schiff, to the list.
He’s already in there. He was an Impeachment Manager. I was thinking of him when I said that.
I read it too quickly, David. Happy 4th to you!
but R David, didn't say his name, ADAM SCHIFF, also a member of the Commission to investigate January 6th insurrection.
Write your own post.
Are you objecting to me adding a note or two to yours? It is not uncommon to reply in that manner.
Fern, your adding names of those who inspire you is welcome. Your being negative and criticizing, not so much. ADAM SCHIFF, ADAM SCHIFF, ADAM SCHIFF. Is everyone good now? (and FYI, I contribute regularly to him).
R David, I intended no criticism of you, simply responding to the interest of MaryB in seeing Schiff's name, and I added Raskin's, too. I am sorry that you saw my replies in a negative light. As indicated that was not my intention.
One more point, the use of 'say his name' in my reply concerning Adam Schiff was mimicking the call in the demonstrations on behalf of George Floyd and others to 'say his name'. It would have been clearer for me to have used quotation marks. That phrase was not written to find fault with your comment. I hope that my explanations can satisfy your dissatisfaction.
Say hi to the Gamble House for me. Huge Arts and Crafts movement fan here.
Thank you David. I feel better having read your words and to realize that a glass can be half full and we need to look toward inspiring individuals and not fixate on those who seek to diminish others to burnish themselves. Happy 4th to you and yours.
Whenever I hear that expression, I am moved to wonder if the glass is the wrong size.
I’m loving today’s comments.
Mara, seen on a tee shirt - "Those who think the glass is half empty miss the point. The glass is refillable."
So let's get to work refilling it, then making and filling more glasses (all the same size) and making sure that people who don't even have a glass get a nice full one.
Now thats a great tee shirt!!
Love it! Here's a link, followed by a snarky version!
https://pin.it/70P1kNE
https://pin.it/316LHOu
Great point. I will call this to mind when I am feeling hopeless or cynical. We still have many, many good people in this country who believe in the founding aspirations, and that good will prevail.
100%!
I’m the same age and feel the same as you express here.
Impeachment Manager, Rep. Jamie Raskin, Representative for Maryland’s 8th District also on the Commission to investigate January 6th insurrection.
I am very glad about that Fern. He has amazing ability to process a great amount of information and sort it appropriately. I also was very impressed with Stacey E Plaskett, rep from US Virgin Islands during impeachment hearing. She can speak an argument very well.
I did wave at noon. Hope you were free as a bird today. Ran into some bad, territorial humor. Explaining made matters worse. Thanks for winking in my direction.
I did feel free today. 😉
and your spirit flies...
Grateful for every one of them!
We need to speak these names as often as possible. Thank you.
“For there is always light, if we are only brave enough to see it. If only we are brave enough to be it.”
The Hill We Climb
by Amanda Gorman.
From the Inaugural poem for the inauguration of President Joe Biden. “A skinny black girl descended from slaves…”
Today is a perfect day to reflect once again on the words written and recited by Amanda Gorman.
Text
http://contentmanager.med.uvm.edu/docs/the_hill_we_climb/vccyf-documents/the_hill_we_climb.pdf?sfvrsn=44a33335_2
Video
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz4YuEvJ3y4
Thank you, she was at the top of my mind to spray as well, in the “hope is here” section.
Spray? Sorry, need to read first, post second.
Yes.
The moment of Amanda (at the inaugural) seemed to me to personify perfectly what artistry can capture to make the words "created equal" live. She inspired me to write this:
"Of a Poet"
I thought of a poet,
{on a day of poetry}
oddly, on display;
as if emerging,
from shackles shared...
suppressed
in our hearts
a hidden truth
{ echoes of: Guthrie:Simone:Lincoln:Seamus}
and
Amanda,
a rising Oshun
a risen sun
a red band cradles the mind on a woman who shatters our
quiet convention
with elegance...
her dancing hands
a lilting melody
a voice surely
not of this world,
but, of THIS moment,
celestial
transcendent
present...
made me think,
of the power
of a poet.
Thank you for your art and for opening your heart, Haydn.
I believe that Amanda Gorman would appreciate receiving a copy of your poem, Hayden.
That, would be remarkable. I'm not sure how to do that...Ah, AndreaH, all my life I've been given an extra vowel, no worries! It's from Haydn the composer.
Haydn...sorry
Your words captured and expressed EXACTLY what I saw, heard and felt. Thank you! I copied her poem and added it to my art journal, with a little red ribbon as that "band" you describe. But the "dancing hands" and "lilting melody a voice surely not of this world" could not be as well placed into a visual memory.
Nice, Haydn!
May we share Hayden? Is it published somewhere? Such a tribute to poetry.
Christine, I’m humbled. Thank you. And of course you can share. It is not published. It was such a moving moment. She made me feel —-hope—-as I had not felt for so long.
I know. I felt the same, Haydn. It is the vision that I hold of our young people in this country. They are so progressive and unapologetic of it. I believe they will be the force that lead us to victory in the fight to keep our Democracy and our Earth vibrant.
WE are all humbled.
Thank you Haydn
Just beautiful….thank you
beautifu, thank you!l
So true, and inspiring
Such emotion here. Thank you, Haydn.
YES! ty.
Great post, Heather. Thanks.
From my own 4th of July post over at That's Another Fine Mess:
Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, when they sat down and argued what to say in the Declaration of Independence, may have had a much different understanding their words and goal when they said “all men are created equal,” but the moment it was said, the moment it was written, it was never going to be limited to white males of property. Every person who ever read it or heard it said “Yeah, that’s for me” And that’s why for the past 245 years people have come here, and why people have striven to make that true. This is the only country founded on a revolutionary ideal, the ideal of equality of all. There are those who say the French and Russian Revolutions were more “authentic” revolutions, but millions of people didn’t risk everything after those events to go to the land of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, or the land where the workers of the world had nothing to lose but their chains. They’ve come here, and by their coming every year, they keep the dream alive, because they arrive with it in their hearts.
On June 24, 1826, the 50th year of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, former President and author of the Declaration, 83 year old Thomas Jefferson, was asked by Roger Weightman to come to Washington D.C. to participate in the celebration of the anniversary. He was in declining health (he and John Adams would both die 10 days later on that day of days), and wrote to apologize for not being able to accept the offer. Fifty years later, he had come to see some of the larger meaning of the words he and John Adams and the other members of the committee who had been charged to write the Delaration had put to paper.
He wrote:
“May it be to the world, what I believe it will be, (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all,) the Signal of arousing men to burst the chains, under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings & security of self-government. That form which we have substituted, restores the free right to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion. All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of god. These are grounds of hope for others. For ourselves, let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them.”
So far, we have been able - with many delays and detours - to stick to that path. The greatest threat to that revolutionary dream stands tall around us today, which makes this Fourth of July one of the most important since the day the words “all men are created equal” were first heard. It’s our belief in that revolutionary dream that is why we are involved politically and socially as we are. We may not have achieved the ideal, we may never completely do so, but if we fail to stand for it now, it will be lost, possibly forever.
Since the excerpt got such a nice respobnse (Thank you, thank you!) you could - if you want - read the whole thing (and some other things I've put up) over at: https://tcinla757.substack.com/p/the-revolutionary-dream
TC has the pen in hand again! Love revival of his blog on Substack. It’s a complement to LFAA and a compliment to fine minds on this forum. Thank TC!
Happy 4th.
TC Groupie heading on over to AFM!
I did, and the whole piece is well worth the time. This is the antithesis of the entropy that CynthiaW discussed and will be the future of the country if enough of us actively live and support that dream.
TC, thanks for sharing this. It is beautifully written, and says so, so much.
Beautiful, TC. Thanks for sharing this. I especially liked what you wrote about how “they’ve come here, and by their coming every year, they keep the dream alive, because they arrive with it in their hearts.” Today is an emotional one for me.
Thank you. This one sentence will bolster me through the dark times: "They’ve come here, and by their coming every year, they keep the dream alive, because they arrive with it in their hearts." I don't know what led my own ancestors here, but it is clear that they did arrive with a dream in their hearts and I'm here because of it and them.
Really well done, thanks.
https://wordsanddeedsblog.com/july-fourth-the-declaration-of-independence-wasnt-just-complaining-about-king-george/
Morning, TC!! And thank you.
So true and very well said.
https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/politics/a12014607/white-liberals-response-white-supremacy/
Try this, then. https://tcinla757.substack.com/p/how-white-privilege-works-even-when
https://www.npr.org/2017/05/03/526655831/a-forgotten-history-of-how-the-u-s-government-segregated-america
Yep.
Rhetoric. How many humans did Jefferson enslave. How many did he grant free before his death? In his will?
Thank YOU TC!!!💕💓 And Happy Independence Day😊
Perhaps you might want to re-read the first paragraph of my post.
The U.S. immigration and border control department in the early 1900s classified people by Race of Irish, French, etc. Look for immigration records for your ancestors.
Because not everyone is "with the program" now, any more than they were then.
I was born in 1943 and grew up in what was then rural New Jersey. This was before the interstate highways and the 55 miles to New York took two and a half hours. New Jersey was almost as segregated as Mississippi with unwritten "rules" about where "colored" could eat or sit. The proposition of equality for women and those of different races and non-Christians was indeed open to question; one that would be decided upon on a case-by-case basis depending upon the way we "fit in" and met the expectations of our places in society. Could we strive and succeed financially? Yes, if we were careful. Could we join the golf club or swim in the public pool? No, that was asking too much but there was a lake down the road and a tree behind which one could change one's clothes. Things have changed, mostly for the better. As Dr. King said, "the arch of history bends towards justice." We are now in the midst of an American silly season. Here's to the hope that in the next year or two we will all be too busy and will ignore the grifter in chief and his henchmen.
I too was born in 1943, and fully recall what you've described. I am Black and in the 60's, joined in the various protests on the then status quo of things: war, racism, poverty, general unfairness. The past four plus years brought me to near hopelessness and deep anger. However, millions of people rose to say "No!" to that period, and to assert that the principles of equality, fairness, access and diversity, across the spectrum, are still the values we'll fight for. And so, I'll continue marching on in this peculiar challenge that must be overcome.
God bless you and keep you and your loved ones safe and well.
Howard, I was born a generation later and also grew up in NJ, in a new (at the time) suburban community full of people, many at first military families whose dads were being shipped from Ft Dix and Maguire AFB to Vietnam, who were breaking out of the urban messes of Camden and Trenton for the first time. So I suspect roughly the same part of Jersey. I witnessed the slow transformation of the state from one that was split into three parts--the urban communities, the rural farmlands and Pine Barrens, and the coastal region--into a throbbing megalopolis linking NYC to Philadelphia. My great-grandfather, an immigrant who fled the pogroms of what is now Ukraine (it was the Russian Empire then), built the first big suburbs across the river from NYC--the "Oranges"--in the 1920s. Although he started as a bricklayer (a real mason!), with very little English and no real education, he pushed hard to create a career and fortune for himself and a future for his family, one that would have been impossible in Russia. His sons fought in the war, and one died on D-Day. At no time was this Jewish family welcomed by the WASP elite. He drank with his Irish and Italian employees, welcomed my father, a Greek-American, into the family (he, too, was shunned in college by the WASP elites and found friends in the Jewish fraternities and organizations), got the cold shoulder from the wannabe leaders of the synagogue he helped to build because he was too "ethnic" and too liberal in his politics.
So the fight goes on.
What a lovely tribute to your father. The last part of it makes me sad while it makes me realize that even among those that are disallowed from "whitestream" society the discriminated against go on and discrimimnate against others. We see that in appalling clarity as the Israeli government does to the Palestinians what was done to them in WW2.
That’s a lovely vignette of your father and your family’s story, Linda. A lot to be proud of, and such rich history there!
Linda, your story sounds like mine. I grew up on Long Island, New York. My grandfather was also a bricklayer, (a real mason). He came to the US in 1913. He and my grandmother built a life that, according to my grandfather, they never could have had in Italy. They sent three of their five sons to fight in WWII, and their youngest son to Korea. They were proud to be citizens of this country, and said so frequently. Their grandchildren were successful. I’ve always been so proud of them.
Linda and Howard: You know it's said that "you can take someone out of Jersey, but you can't take the Jersey out of them."
Is it human nature to chose an enemy to fight and someone to dismiss? Groups that should be united to protect each other and blossom, break into splinters of wannabe winners.
Some of us didn't get to choose our enemies. They chose us.
One of those groups lined up with Vlad who wants to destroy us from the inside out, the other group just wants peace and love for everyone. The ones choosing peace and love just want Vlad’s group to stop obstructing progress towards peace and love and a verdant life with their lies and thievery
This is the wealth, the richness of America.
An apt time to reprise the entire quote which, being a theologian, Dr. King used and which is attributed to him. They are the words of the humanist theologian Theodore Parker:
"I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways; I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice."
A century later, attributed to Martin Luther King Jr.
I also appreciate Eric Holder's amendment to Theodore Parker's quote:
"the arc...only bends toward justice because people pull it towards justice."
Is this the same Theodore Parker who said, “Southern Slavery is an institution that is in earnest. Northern Freedom is an institution that is not in earnest.”? This to me is the most provocative quote of the pre-civil war era.
Yes - he was an abolitionist, transcendentalist and all-around brilliant, fascinating man. Abraham Lincoln used his "of the people, by the people, for the people." Parker was one of the first women's suffragists and the first to name God father and mother.
I am not familiar with T. Parker, but I think he was pointing to the Southern willingness to kill and die to have free. forced labor forever. The Northern conscience was not as firm about eliminating free, forced labor because the profit margin looked better without wages.
Again, I suggest reading about Theodore Parker. He was an abolitionist and much more. He also held Christian exceptionalism up to a critical light, for example.
An interesting and courageous, if complex, character (but then, simple characters tend to be signs of simple minds, IMO): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Parker
"the profit margin looked better without wages." Um...wasn't that the whole reason the South wanted slavery forever? Their entire economy was based on it. The Northern economy wasn't.
I’m so confused?
Why confused? Just look up Theodore Parker. He was a theologian and an abolitionist who had a profound influence on the future path of the Unitarian Universalist church. His critique of church in general led him to disavow the institution as Christianity was/is seen. If you happen to be around West Roxbury, Mass, you can visit the Theodore Parker Unitarian Church.
Spend 7 minutes with descendants of Frederick Douglass on the Fourth of July:
“At a time like this, scorching irony not convincing argument is needed. Oh, had I, the ability, and could I reach the nation’s ear, I would today pour out a fiery steam of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire. It is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm. The feeling of the nation must be quickened. And the conscience of the nation must be roused. The propriety of the nation must be startled. The hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed and its crimes against God and man must be denounced.”
https://www.npr.org/2020/07/03/884832594/video-frederick-douglass-descendants-read-his-fourth-of-july-speech
and you can read it for yourself:
https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/what-to-the-slave-is-the-4th-of-july-speech-transcript-by-frederick-douglass
Mr. Douglass spoke at rallies just a few miles from where we live. I take folks on URR tours due to so many locations that were stations on the URR hosted by area Quakers. Possibly over 2,000 self-emancipated people passed through here. Yet, it's so important to read William Still's book, "The Underground Railroad: Authentic Narratives and First-Hand Accounts" to understand that Black folks assisted way more self-emancipated people than did the Quakers. The Society of Friends (Quakers) did own human beings early on, yet they decided it was so wrong that they changed their ways. They visited fellow Quakers who still enslaved people and some were made to leave the Society over that. It always makes me think of Maya Angelou's often quoted saying that when they knew better, they did better. May we all be like that.
Carla, what good work you are doing. In what state?
Thanks, Ellie. Pennsylvania which surrounds us with history. The State legislature is controlled by Republicans, but we do have Governor Wolf who is a Democrat and the admirable Lt. Gov. John Fetterman. Lots of work ahead of us.
Yes, Ellie, more clearly stated than I did above. Thank you, and all those who persist.
Cathy Mc., IMHO you are too humble!
Perfect, just perfect, Ellie. Thank you for this. I listened to The Rachel Maddow show the other day about how Frederick Douglas was sent to Mount Misery (the property that Donald Rumsfeld bought later on), a place singularly designed to “break” slaves. Douglas was sent there by his “owner”for a year, I believe, because he had too much spirit. He was whipped and tortured and worked nearly to death, and in his writings he speaks about being, indeed, nearly broken mentally and physically, his soul tormented. But he miraculously survived intact and went on to become one of our most distinguished leaders. What he endured and what he modeled for us, with his eloquent and stirring words, are the perfect allegory for us today. In a way, it feels as if we, as a nation, are in a kind of slumber and need to be awakened, and quick. We need a Frederick Douglas to travel the country, speaking and rousing us to action. His impassioned words are just as relevant and must be heeded in this moment.
And, once again, there is so much history and relevance about our Black brothers and sisters that we know little about.
"We need a Frederick Douglas to travel the country, speaking and rousing us to action."
"We" could be Frederick Douglass, and work toward the change we want to see and be.
Those who did not survive Mount Misery and similar insitutions and practices mentally, physically, or spiritually, deserve commemoration.
Thank you, Pam. I did not know about Mount Misery and Frederick Douglass' suffering and endurance there that was beyond the "normal" experience of enslaved people.
Frederick Douglass does continue to speak as we relay his writings and experience via social media.
Thank you, Ellie, for sharing this. Seeing and hearing these young Black people read from their many times grandfather's very meaningful speech brings tears to my eyes.
Thank you Ellie. Amaze.
Thank you, Ellie, for sharing the video.
"It is not light but fire......" Love this.
In 1964, my middle school history teacher had all 30 of us students memorize the Gettysburg address (your letter today contained almost all of it!) … then we each had to recite it… clearly … slowly … took over a week of class time … never knew what the big deal was til I started reading your LETTERS, Prof Richardson. Thank you so very much, Mr Gillette for putting that hand grenade in my head.
For me it was 8th grade back in 1951.
For me it was 8th grade in 1963.
Happy Fourth of July! I can proudly announce that my distant paternal grandfather, Smith Turner, fought in The American Revolutionary War with the Virginia 9th Regiment at Brandywine and Germantown. He was a private in Washington's Army, discharged out of Valley Forge.
I always enjoy reading Heather's commentaries. Today's "4th" article, for me, emphasizes how our great Republic resides in a constant state of tension; a battle, it seems, between good and evil, goodness and badness. As a white male who grew up very Middle Class, I have yet after seven-plus decades of life to understand the reluctance to share our world with people who are non-white, non-heterosexual and non-Christian. That last one really "gets me going", because as a graduate, ordained Seminarian I see those "Christians'' as being not even close to the reality.
I love our country, for which I stood proud and tall as a young USAF Staff Sergeant in my very early twenties. I did not then feel the sadness and shame I feel today. "Who will wrest us from these talons of evil?" I continue to ask myself. How will "independence" grace the lives of so many who still remain nearly second-class, their lives graced with prejudice by addled old white men; and, in some cases, women? Yet, that voice within me continues to nag, "Keep the faith! Never give up. Never give in! Soldier on!"
As I proudly salute Old Glory, tears still well up. We are better than this current moment. I pray to Almighty God, or whatever "god" you might pray to, that we embrace the goodness that is found in most of us, as we peel away the darkness that continues to unsettle us and attempts to deter us from our greater good.
Well said, Kinsman. I have served my country (through my community) for 35 years in various positions (mostly as a deputy sheriff patrolling rural lane county, the last 8 doing courthouse security part time). I proudly fly the US Flag on one side of my house and the "real" blue line flag on the other to honor fallen law enforcement officers. I tear up when I play the National Anthem (which I will be doing in about 3 plus hours). I, too, feel that sadness and shame at what we have become as a nation, and where my profession has fallen to. I shall take your words to heart and keep the faith, refuse to give up, and never give in. I shall "soldier on!"
Thank you for your kind words! Years ago I saw a bumper sticker, "If the people will lead, the leaders will follow." Leadership in its authentic form is in short supply these days.
Got a link for you on "When people lead, leaders follow."
https://pin.it/4FUQlJC
Thank you! In fact, I deal through/with Etsy quite often. 😊
Your message fell on very sympathetic ears here! Like you, one side of my family goes waaaay back to the beginnings of this country and accounts for my deep-seeded love for this country. My mom's late sister was an avid genealogist starting in the '40s even, and she did exhaustive research on a variety of lines on my mom's side. This was in the era before computers had really taken hold, but she started using computers early on (she passed away in ’98). She began sending my mom pages and pages of her findings a couple of times a month starting the ‘80s because she believed there should be somebody in the family with another copy of her work. We have 6-7 big notebooks full of information. It is nothing short of amazing! Some of the stuff…and it just scratches the surface:
My mom’s family, one of the First Families of North Carolina, has a long and proud history. Early on in my mom’s life and in my life we were brought up appreciating our heritage—it does kinda tend to be a Southern “thang”!—that stretched back to our McCauley forbears (my mom’s dad’s family), who arrived in this country in the 1740s. There were 2 brothers who emigrated from Northern Ireland—family lore said our ancestor stowed away in a “hog’s-head” barrel on the same ship his brother was on, supposedly trying to escape taxes he owed!), the McCauleys having settled near Belfast in the 17th century after England opened up Northern Ireland. The McCauley, or McAuley, or McAuly, etc. clan stretched way back in Scotland and were from the highlands west/southwest of Glasgow. VERY proud Scot here! There were other lines in the family that came here even earlier—one line was on the 17th century “Ark & Dove” expedition from England that settled in what is now the Tidewater/Chesapeake area of Maryland. Our other main branch, the Neville family, came here from England as part of the 3rd settlement at Jamestown in 1612. (The Nevilles are a fairly illustrious family in English history…my aunt traced them back to Normandy in France (from “Neu Ville”) before William the Conqueror). And on and on and ON it goes…
My great-great-great-great grandfather McCauley became a very successful farmer and owned huge tracts of land in and around Chapel Hill, NC. He fought in the Revolutionary War and enlisted in 1776 as soon as volunteers were called up. He rose to the rank of Captain and after the war eventually gave a massive parcel of land that was used to found the University of NC—there was even a statue of him in Chapel Hill (we have a copy of a newspaper clipping of the unveiling), and there’s still a McCauley Street in downtown Chapel Hill that was where the family home was and a dry goods store they had. His offspring had enormous families (7-12 children was common) and were all over the area around Orange county and Chapel Hill in NC. Still are! They were very prosperous and my great-grandfather McCauley, born in 1847, lied about his age in 1862 (he was 15 and needed to be 16) to enlist in the Confederate Army. He fought for the South and was wounded by some shrapnel in his hip and walked with a cane for the rest of his life (died in 1930, we have the gold-topped cane here). Etc. etc. etc.
So THIS patriot has ancestors that fought on all sides! My roots in this country stretch back really far and I’m a proud Scots/Irish/English/Welsh/Manx MUTT! My mom was, of course, Presbyterian, and I ended up an Anglican, so we have the British Isles and Ireland pretty well covered! This is all to say that the rich tapestry that is this country is bred into me, so likewise, I tear up at the National Anthem (though I wish it was “America the Beautiful, but I digress…) and in things that I am proud of my country for. But, I believe that being a “patriot” is also recognizing my country’s shortcomings and calling it out when it does something wrong. (Dan Rather just yesterday wrote an amazing, revelatory piece on the differences between “patriotism” and “nationalism”. We don’t want to be the latter, but “they” have conscripted the word “patriot” and turned it into something it is not. Like you, I fret about the direction this country can seem to be headed at times, but I also hold out hope for our people that we’ll see the wrongs and do our damnedest to fix them. Perilous times, indeed, but together we can do this!!
Sorry for the length…too much time and too much caffeine…
Thank you so much for sharing! No worries about the length of your commentary. It shows how much appreciation and love you have for your history. You likely know that the Scots and Scots-Irish built the cornerstone of our great Republic. I like your "conscripted" the word Patriot, just as so many evangelicals have conscripted God and the name of Christ Jesus. I too am Anglican, Anglo-Catholic ordained in the Episcopal Rite but not in the Church. I grew up Lutheran in on a small farm surronded by very large farms in Howard Country, Maryland. My dad was Scots-Irish to the very marrow of his bone, and if you know anything about the Scots-Irish you know his temperament. Discipline ruled! But, I would not have it any other way as I see the spawn that has grown in our Republic over the last two generations. Thank you again for sharing. We who are true to Lady Liberty have our work cut out for us.
Have you read this excellent article in the NY Times about patriotism and the flag being co-opted by the right and how the Democrats are trying to take it back?: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/03/nyregion/american-flag-politics-polarization.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage
My ancestry is similar some of yours. “Taxes” back then were sometimes really tithes required by the church.
Inspiring, Vince. The “reluctance to share” is simply based on fear that there is not enough to go around. If a person’s abundance is based on what I believe was the original download from the Creator, “We are all in this together. There is enough to go around.”, then the human race is centered in Love, which has no opposite.
From the Course in Miracles…
“1. This is a course in miracles. It is a required course. Only the time you take it is voluntary. Free will does not mean that you can establish the curriculum. It means only that you can elect what you want to take at a given time. The course does not aim at teaching the meaning of love, for that is beyond what can be taught. It does aim, however, at removing the blocks to the awareness of love’s presence, which is your natural inheritance. The opposite of love is fear, but what is all-encompassing can have no opposite.
2. This course can therefore be summed up very simply in this way: Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists.
Herein lies the peace of God.”
This is the North Star of my humanness.
Thank you for your very thoughtful response! "Free Will" also does not mean each of us can do as we full-well please. During graduate study at Seminary, we discussed free will. It is "God's" willingness to allow us to be our own engine and pilot as we navigate the turbulent waters of simply living. "Love" is both divine and amorphous. as it speaks to love in the sense of agape. "Self" gets in the way of true, authentic love.
Happy Fourth, Vince! I see you fly the flags of Bonnie Scotland, too. We must be related. On my paternal Grandfathers' side, George Smith was Washinton's (troops horses') blacksmith. Much of our thinking is similar.
The Turners arrived along the shores of what is now known as The Chesapeake in the 1600s. We have traced our arrival to Snow Hill in Maryland. Then, on into Virginia where Smith Turner joined the Virginia 9th Regiment. We are what I call "dirt people", farmers in its most authentic sense. The Turners are, as you guessed!, Scots-Irish. My mother's side, we believe (no genealogy was done) was Welsh and Scot. I feel an inexplicable kinship and connection with the Celts; and, the Vikings who settled in Scotland.
We are probably related. My maternal family, being Flemings and Turners, who settled that area as well.
It is quite possible. I would have to go through our charts, which I have not looked at in ages.
have you done ancestry.com?
No, but my ancestry in Maryland and Virginia is well documented from the early 17th century
You have spoken so eloquently, Vince, for so many of us. I thank you for these words and the feeling behind them. It amazes me how far we've come, and yet how far we've fallen. Yesterday after vigil Mass, our choir played and sang the National Anthem. I found myself also with tears in my eyes, longing for the real values of America to show up and inspire us again.
Thank you so much, Annette. Your words do inspire me! As I read the various posts here, I keep thinking about the Pipers Piping, and how they raise me to tears. A clergy colleague remarked how it, "Must be in your blood because my wife does the same thing!" Having just turned 77, I have lived a wonderful albeit trialsome life at times. I cannot begin to fathom the toxicity that has gripped our nation. Sadly, that poison is fueled by Congress and corporations. They have undermined the goodness of the people. The insurrectionists and seditionists have shamed and sullied our great Republic, all the while taking pride in their tyranny.
Poverty is toxic!
Today, Biden is our Lincoln. May our government of the people, by the people, for the people, again not perish from the earth.
Morning, all!! Morning, Dr. R!! And a shout out to all of us who think it worthy to keep striving for that more perfect union!
On a personal note, I discovered I was blocked by substack and therefore could not access today's Letter. I went over to FB only to find it there. So with all the IT prowess I could muster, I am here now to say...I persevered! But for those couple of hours, I can't tell you how disconnected I felt. No offense to FB, but it simply wasn't the same without all of you!
I am glad that you made it back Ms Lynell. Awhile back I read an article about privacy, security, etc on the internet and one of the points it made was when at all possible when given the choice of whether to connect via your email, facebook, etc always choose to connect via your email. That FB can do whatever goon squad things it wants and you go on with your life uninterrupted.
I love connecting with all of you here and sharing the various ways we view Dr Richardson's letters.
I agree. I do not trust FB to limit that permission only to signing in so always choose email.
Morning, Pamela!! Thank you. I didn't know about email v. FB, but am not surprised to hear. Thanks for sharing this.
Morning, Lynell! Glad you persevered, and have come to roost on this day of celebration. I have occasionally been "missed" by Substack, and have never faced being blocked by them (even after my payment card had expired and there was a glitch in paying for my subscription, I was still "on board." Sounds like your experience was much more harrowing.
This community is my morning ritual/routine. I learn so much here (both from the Professor and from other members) and hope I can offer something in return in various ways.
Morning, Ally!! Absolutely, your offerings are not insubstantial as far as I'm concerned.
As to being blocked, my first thought was "What did I do?" Still don't know but am just glad to be back here.
So true! Glad you could get back.
Lynell, I understand that lost feeling, that feeling of disconnect if I can't get to the daily LFAA and all friends here.
I know…I do understand however, once I get ‘involved’, it’s a commitment for the day and often beyond! Links I have to open, the responses people share, it’s like watching a think tank working through a vital issue… (which is exactly what it is!) But there is always a thread of hope, a welcome to our sense of humor, and a collective sense of respect and tolerance for opposing views. Despite the occasional disruptive visitors, following Heather’s lead, we have maintained our incredible ‘club’ and keep learning and solidifying our determination to get a hold on the truth and work to help the lessons lead us forward….
LFAA comments are quite addictive--a healthy addiction, though, to still struggle to keep in balance so as not to interfere with general functioning! When pressed for time, I try to stick with the "top" comment and/or not go to deep down the threads.
I understand, Cynthia, about the involvement with this community. But, I have learned so much here, and have such respect and admiration for Heather and this group.I might admit to an addiction here!
Yes! Exactly : )
Well said, Cynthia. Morning!!
And to you as well! Happy 4th of July!
Oh, wow, yes, Pam!!
Morning Lynell! Happy you found a way to connect!
Morning, Carla; and thanks!!
Perseverance is so cool to me. I simply love that quality. In itself, a reward bestowed. Happy 4th, Lynell!
Welcome back Lynell and of course you persisted! Happy 4th to you.
And you, too, Linda...thank you!
Oh dear. Good to know that might happen and there's a workaround!
Darn algorithms! Could this be a clue?
"message INFO: National Voting Rights Museum and Institute, Selma, AL was marked as spam"
That's it, Ellie!
Good morning all! I appreciate this letter, HCR, but I also am having a bit of trouble with the idea of letting Jefferson and Co off the hook for failing utterly to do what they claimed they were setting out to do. I have never been one who could ignore the hypocrisy and double-dealing of the originators of the USA. And they knew they were being hypocrites: this was not a case of ignorance at all. As John Adams wrote to his wife, Abigail, when she charged him to "remember the ladies," he and his collaborators would never nullify their "masculine systems." https://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/archive/doc?id=L17760331aa https://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/archive/doc?id=L17760414ja&rec=sheet&archive=&hi=&numRecs=&query=&queryid=&start=&tag=&num=10&bc=
As we see in the horrible decision of the judge to extend Britney Spears's involuntary servitude to her "conservators," in the SCOTUS decisions to welcome even more dark money into politics and allow states to restrict voting on the basis that voting is something people should have to struggle to do (my takeaway from Alito's appalling majority decision), especially if they are not privileged and white, the fallout of the failures of the creators of the Declaration are still with us. Indeed, the 19th century was a real century of new oppressions: of the working classes in the industrialization of the West, in the further scraping away of women's rights to property and autonomy, in the expansion of imperialism and the racist pseudo science used to justify it. All this dynamism to further enrobe the white privileged classes in more privilege.
Sorry for the downer folks. It's been that kind of morning.
Not really wanting to be an apologist for “Jefferson & Co.” but we have to remember their world of the 18th Century. It was a given that women were subservient to men, said so in the Holy Bible. Slavery also had its roots in that ancient sacrosanct text, and while white men of European extraction were now considered superior in intellect, (forget that the ancient Romans had some black citizens owning white slaves) black ppl were considered some lost tribe to be subjugated and there was racist pseudo-science, such as phrenology to justify it. While white Europeans were moving away from this mindset in the late 18th Century, the colonies perpetuated it. (A blind eye for economic reasons)
I once found a small book titled “Jefferson’s Letters” where he was writing to his gentlemen acquaintances in France and had to admit that seeing the finer abilities of the free black men who lived there disproved his prejudiced mindset. He did anguish over the error of slavery, but what could he do in the established system of the day? (Could I convince the majority of ppl in the 21st Century that worshiping a Zeus type deity who meddles in the affairs of mortals is pure mythology?)
I have donated that book to the National Museum of African American History & Culture in D.C. but did transcribe some passages. Here is one example:
Prejudice Past
To M. Henri Gregoire, Bishop and Senator, Paris.
Washington, February 25, 1809
“Sir, - I have received the favor of your letter of August 17th, and with it the volume you were so kind as to send me on the ‘Literature of Negroes.’ Be assured that no person living wishes more sincerely than I do, to see a complete refutation of the doubts I have myself entertained and expressed on the grade of understanding allotted to them by nature, and to find that in this respect they are on a par with ourselves. My doubts were the result of personal observation on the limited sphere of my own State, where the opportunities of the development of their genius were not favorable, and those of exercising it still less so. I expressed them therefore with great hesitation; but whatever be their degree of talent it is no measure of their rights. Because Sir Isaac Newton was superior to others in understanding, he was not therefore lord of the person or property of others. On this subject they are gaining daily in the opinions of nations, and hopeful advances are making towards their re-establishment on an equal footing with the other colors of the human family. I pray you therefore to accept my thanks for the many instances you have enabled me to observe of respectable intelligence in that race of men, which cannot fail to have effect in hastening the day of their relief.”
Fascinating! Thanks for posting this. Excellent points and very well said.
Wow. Thank you, Rob. Power of the pen.
This is fascinating, but it doesn't surprise me. It is important to judge people within the context of their times. Lincoln, himself, thought blacks inferior right up until Frederick Douglass visited him in the White House.
Did Lincoln think differently of people of African descent, or of Douglass? Lincoln 's racism seemed firmly ingrained.
Until Douglass visited him in the White House, Lincoln thought of blacks as inferior. It's not surprising given that the general opinion about them was pretty poor, and Lincoln grew up in the boondocks--whereas had he grown up or lived as an adult in Boston, where there were a number of prominent abolitionists, he might have been exposed to more advanced thinking. Douglass was such a thoughtful, brilliant man that being exposed to him gave Lincoln a whole new perspective.
Lincoln did not think anything justified enslavement.
Hindsight is 20/20 and our armchair quarterbacking is easy. However, the founding fathers were grounded in philosophy, were critical thinkers of their time, were being challenged to extend their thinking and declaration farther (e.g. by Jane Adams to include women and by Edward Rutledge calling out the Northerners on slavery). Today we have the job of setting the government on a more equitable path of liberty and justice for all--really all of us.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=IeuaTpH6Ck0&vidve=5727&autoplay=1
Every white person in Jefferson's time did not see people of African descent as inferior, and did not justify enslavement. Every white person didn’t use the Bible to justify enslavement. Justifying enslavement as a product of the times seems an excuse, not fact-based.
Every person in our time does not believe in some sky wizard, and yet we have to endure “in god we trust” on every piece of currency and have to argue with judges and deposing attorneys that we will not say “so help me god” on an oath. Justifying a religious test is inexcusable but still a product of the times that some of us endure. That is fact-based.
I suspect that in Jefferson's time most Americans saw people of African descent as inferior. And I can tell you, as a far left Democrat with views on one or two subjects that differ from the prevailing orthodoxy, it's not easy to go against that orthodoxy.
Linda, I don't read this as a downer, but as a sign of our reality on this "Independence Day". Signs of equality are less today than in any of my 73 years celebrating the 4th. As a gay woman, I don't feel I'm treated as equal. My skin is white which allows me "cover", but not total. I'm finding this 4th a sad time for all the reasons you mention and more.
This is so very true. Unfortunately there is no limit to the inequality and prejudice that still exists in our country. Last night we watched "In the Heights". It was such a well told story that showed the disrespect and vile actions of "white folk" towards immigrants, women and others they deemed below them. They say "a picture is worth a thousand words" and this story does that masterfully.
Each generation is limited in ways related to their knowledge and understanding. We are can understand that, without allowing the laws based on limitations to continue.
You said that so well. Not a downer, it’s the reality we must face, and correct.
Ah, The SCOTUS. The brakes applied to the inevitable changes in who becomes leadership and thusly writes the history at large of how the natural rights of the majority were once systematically suppressed in the interest of the few unwilling to share privilege or power. That arch of justice Dr King reminds us is not controlled by laws nor a SCOTUS but through the will of a people suppressed who are risen to attain rights and justice intended. This is why I celebrate the Future of the Republic on this 4th of July, Linda.
Happy 4th to you and yours. Remembering Miss Hodges' 1959-60 12th Grade Government Class. One of her memorable warnings was, "Every day you have to fight to keep/maintain our democracy." What (is)/was so hard won, can be lost to those who want to control our government for power and personal gain not life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness of every American. Miss Hodges' explained the unique provision in the Constitution of a free press to insure our democracy, and it was the responsibility of every citizen to inform him/herself, to vote and to be active in their local, state and federal governments. We learned the power of the Constitution through the creation of a federal government, within our class of over 40 (the 1942 WWII war babies large class size). Miss Hodges, I learned later, was a practicing member of the Society of Friends, thought to be related to my maternal Grandmother in some way. My parents, particularly my Dad encouraged us to question everyone and everything. "I'm not raising sheep, I'm raising intelligent, questioning kids!" he reminded us They modeled reading and conversation (not bullying) where another point of view was seen as your constitutional right and responsibility. Through my ancestry research, I have come to realize hundreds of my ancestors (except for one great grandfather in the 1860s) immigrated to all but 3 of the colonies from 1618 thru the 1700s and their descendants, fought to establish the new nation (even some of my Quakers ancestors). On July 4th, 2021 I honor the birth of my beloved paternal grandfather, John Kenneth Merrell (1898-1962); I am thankful for the health of my family and friends; and I realize there is no resting place in the affairs of humans. So tired, but I will fight on for our democracy and our Constitution, honoring those whose DNA I carry and the opportunity for my descendants to participate and contribute to the grand experiment.
I have ‘Mrs. Hodges envy’!
Same here!
Miss Hodges was wise.
What a fabulous teacher and father you had! We need so many more of these.
Miss Hodges must have done a lot of good, but she could not have forseen (nor could anyone else, I guess) how nefarious people could use the freedom of their part of a compartmentalized press to inspire the epistemologically challenged to enthusiastically participate or at least endorse insurrection against our government.
Miss Hodges affirmed a principle that helped guide her students through unforeseen events.
Wishing all my American friends a happy and peaceful 4th July. May your hamburgers be perfectly cooked, the fireworks beautiful. Dear HCR, thank you for your clarity and calm in such politically frightening times. One day, surely, we will be able to celebrate that "equality for all".
And a very happy Independence Day to you, dear Prof. HCR!
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, 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."
I had these words memorized, at least, thirty years before I came to live in these United States. I revered them because they represented the truths and values of life, irrespective of who you are, what you believe, or the color of your skin. They formed the foundation of my beliefs long before I became a US citizen, long before I was interested in politics, long before I understood that life isn't perfect and that "unalienable rights" aren't bequeathed to all men, women, genders, and peoples, regardless of race, gender, creed, and ideology.
The truth is that these principles have never been upheld, respected nor internally validated except by a few choice individuals who have been subsequently, tortured, imprisoned, and censored for speaking truth to power -- to white power.
And yet, as you so correctly state, Prof. HCR, today, we face a group of white people who refuse to share their liberties with our BIPOC populations. I will be unable to celebrate this July fourth with the same fervor as in years passed, but celebrate, I will, for I profoundly believe in and stand by these words. For I "hold these truths to be self-evident, 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."
Dr. Richardson, thank you for being you!
We have to continue the battle for the freedom of those who are oppressed. We have so many hundreds of thousands of fellow citizens who don't even know they are oppressed. It is a sad state of affairs that is bordering on tragic. "In a world that had been dominated by a small class of rich men for so long that most people simply accepted that they should be forever tied to their status at birth, a group of upstart legislators clinging to the edge of a continent declared that no man was born better than any other. America was founded on the radical idea that all men are created equal."
Let us continue to fight for the freedom of one and all.
Nevermore so, in the past 160 years, has Independence Day been so important, so pertinent, and yet so fragile.