I have always loved celebrating the 4th of July. The parades, the fireworks and barbeques. But this year I am conflicted. I am PROUD to be an American, yet, I have never been more disappointed in my country.
What happened to the principles of freedom that we were founded on? 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. Now you don’t have to tell me these were written by white men about landed white men. But for most of my life I have felt we were moving to true freedom. Civil rights, women’s rights, LGBTQI rights – all moving forward. But now we seemed to have stopped in our tracks and are now moving backward. WHY?
William Faulkner wrote – “We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it.”
It’s because we took our eyes off the prize – that prize of freedom for all! All of us who were activists have not been working hard enough to keep that forward movement. We stopped to rest on our laurels and look what happened. It’s seems as though now it’s OK to be racist or homophobic and for some reason we can separate families who are seeking freedom.
So perhaps today we should celebrate our freedom (?) by making it a goal to work to make sure everyone is free. To work toward true equality and freedom. Here are a couple of suggestions about things we can do TODAY.
Help get out the vote – http://www.rochestervoteralliance.org/
Fight Homophobia – http://www.gayalliance.org/
Fight Racism – http://standagainstracism.org/
Protect a woman’s right to choose: https://www.plannedparenthood.org
Help with local refugees – https://www.rochesterrefugeenetwork.org/rrrs/
Perhaps if we use this 4th of July to practice freedom, next year we will have more to celebrate.
The World According to Laura 