Posted on 07/03/2014 7:22:45 PM PDT by Drango
Celebrating Independence Day on July Fourth is as American as burgers and dogs on the grill, lemonade in plastic cups, apple pie on paper plates, baseball, fireworks and Sousa marches.
Except for those Americans who don't celebrate it at all.
Like William H. Lamar IV. Last year the African-American preacher from Hyattsville, Md., wrote an essay that was carried by In it he asked: "How can I celebrate liberty with bondage — economic bondage, educational bondage, political bondage, health care bondage, and religious bondage — all around me?"
On the Fourth of July, he continued, "I will reflect on America as it was and as it is. And I will affirm my allegiance to my ancestors whose fight lives on in me."
The pastor is one of a strain of Americans who, throughout the country's history, have chosen to express their independence on Independence Day by not celebrating Independence. Forgoing the Fourth. Here is a trio of other examples:
1) Witnesses To History. More than 11,000 Jehovah's Witnesses convened in Tacoma, Wash., on July 4 weekend 2009, according to the Tribune Business News. "The convention continues today on Independence Day," the reporter wrote, "with another full schedule of speakers and singing. But don't expect any fireworks or flag waving. Witnesses don't celebrate the Fourth of July. They consider flags objects of worship."
2) Gourd Clan Ceremonies. Beginning in the late 19th century, Dennis Zotigh of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Washington , the U.S. government outlawed tribal dances, feasts and other American Indian ceremonial expressions. Native Americans were encouraged to celebrate American holidays instead. In the 20th century, those indigenous festivities slowly returned. Today "the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma holds Gourd Clan ceremonies on the Fourth of July," he writes, "because the holiday coincides with their Sun Dance, which once took place during the hottest part of the year. The Lakota of South Dakota and Cheyenne of Oklahoma continue to have some of their annual Sun Dances on the weekends closest to the Fourth of July to coincide with the celebration of their New Year. Some American Indians do not celebrate the Fourth of July because of the negative consequences to Indian people throughout history, while others simply get together with family and have cookouts, like many non-Native American citizens."
3) Days Of Slavery. Born a slave, social reformer Frederick Douglass was asked to deliver an oration — — at an Independence Day gathering at Corinthian Hall in Rochester, N.Y., in 1852. "What, to the American slave," he asked the crowd, "is your Fourth of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy — a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour." Douglass' speech informed and influenced future Americans — including William H. Lamar IV.
“. Last year the African-American preacher from Hyattsville, Md., wrote an essay that was carried by In it he asked: “How can I celebrate liberty with bondage —
economic bondage, (Free everything for your people)
educational bondage, (Free schooling for your people)
political bondage, (No Uncle Tom’s allowed)
health care bondage, (Free health care for your people)
and religious bondage (This one has me stumped)
— all around me?”
“Freedom To NOT Celebrate Independence Day”
So who was FORCING him to celebrate the 4th?
bump
The good news is that if you go to the original source of the Lamar piece, the Huffington Post, you’ll see a lot of comments telling this guy to get over it and move on to something more productive.
I’m sure that NPR will do a similar piece on not celebrating MLK day...
What will they say when August 4th becomes End of Ramadan and Baraq Hussein Obama Birthday?
Everything formerly good is distorted, perverted, backwards, upside down, or otherwise unappreciated now.
cause of black folk bondage in modern America:
Highest rate of birth among young women.
Highest rate of absence of fathers in the home.
Youth culture which spurns education and welcomes music which encourages sex, gangster life-style, and debases women.
Highest rate of incarceration.
Highest rate of unemployment.
Welfare mind set.
Excellent post.
For some reason (hmmmm?) the MSM never seems to make the correlation between the War on Poverty, destruction of the black family, and the horrible outcome.
But they do have their 96% solid voting bloc.
another issue for the list
constantly voting for democrats who perpetuate the welfare culture and victim model
“* I give a pass to the Jehovah Witnesses crowd. Their objection is a matter of faith.”
I don’t. Anyone not wanting to be Americans and our fellow countrymen can just leave, and that includes the Amish.
“As Cassius Clay once famously said, sort of...”
Unfortunately, he didn’t include us all in HIS boat: He was a draft dodging racists. He even renounced his parent’s name as “Cassius Clay is my slave name” and declared, “My enemy is the white people, not the Vietcong”.
“Cassius Clay is my slave name.”
What a crock. I found out after moving to Kentucky that there was another famous famous person named Cassius Clay. He was an important Kentucky politician in the mid-19th century, President Andrew Johnson’s ambassador to Russia — and an Abolitionist.
Well the United States gives you the freedom to express your hatred of it.
Isn’t that something to be celebrate?
I support your right to be intolerant of religions other than your own.
“I support your right to be intolerant of religions other than your own.”
Any religion intolerant of this country can leave it. So can you.
You are right on. Clay hates the USA.
He WAS correct in saying we are all in the same boat.
He has already seen the Asians pass them by.
Maybe, when the Aztecs pass them by, he (they) will get it.
I would not bet on the Africans.
I choose to celebrate my independence by not funding NPR.
I wonder if moonbats like the Amish, the Mennonites, the J. Witnesses, the Wiccans, the Unitarian Universalists, the Buddhists, and other religions of convenience/laziness would be so adamant about being conscientious objectors when their homeland is being burned down or they’re being forced to submit to Sharia Law. People who refuse to serve their military for idiotic reasons like that should not be allowed to vote, and should not receive exclusive protection from the military under any circumstance.
Geez. How long before the Statue of Liberty is renamed the Statue of Social Justice, Diversity, and Inclusion?
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