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.
Freedom to not celebrate diversity.
Not allowed.
Have you ever seen Ali on the plane in Zaire? He was so excited to be on a plane with black pilots.
I wish he were lucid today, so we could get some comments from him about the current state of Zaire (sorry, the name was changed back to Congo).
“NPR just can’t accept their irrelevancy; they have to try and gin up hate and discontent. Reminds one of the One.”
William H. Lamar IV can’t accept his irrelevance either.
Zinn’s revisionist historical accounts have succeeded through indoctrination in our schools and counter cultural community...
We can thank the purveyors of this false historical account(s) from people like Alinsky and his co-conspirators/protégés like Ayers, Clinton (Hillary), and other notable liberal/Fabian Socialists...
Its all part of the “plan”...You know...THE PLAN!!!
;-)
A noble sentiment from a different time; libs can;t have it both ways. My whole life libs have preached civil disobedience, racial strife, and distrusst of government. They shouldn’t be shocked that those sentiments prevail even when their token is in office.
While watching a World Cup game last week, my wife was annoyed that my sons didn’t know the national anthem. I thought it was amusing, especially since she hasn’t bothered to take American citizenship (she is a “replacement American” imported decades ago). These noble concepts of patriotism died when the underlying beliefs were marginalized; now we pay our way (and then some) to live here, but that’s about the extent of it. Flame away; the country is reaping what it has sown.
Send a DVD to a leftist friend of family member. No return address required. 8-)
This may be the most depressing July, 4th ever.
If it’s that bad then friggin’ move. There’s nobody holding a gun to his head making him stay here and collect welfare while he sits around on his ass complaining bout everything.
“This may be the most depressing July, 4th ever.”
Yes, the economic death spiral has led to a string of “most depressing (insert occasions)” ever.
Incredible that Obama won re-election with these conditions; the media did a masterful job of convincing Americans that the feces they were being fed was actually caviar.
Of course these folks are free to not celebrate the 4th. Just as atheists are free to not celebrate Christmas. In both cases, I think the non-patriots and the atheists should prove their sincerity to their cause by going to work at their jobs instead of taking those days off and allowing the rest of us to enjoy these holidays without their complaining. Somehow, I don’t think they’ll take up my suggestion.
If they don’t like America, that’s fine. They’re entitled to their opinion.
They’re welcome to leave at any time. I’ll even help them pack.
You don't. You celebrate the founding of the United States of America.
What would this world be like without America?
~John Adams
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I hear you brother! The black citizen is in BONDAGE! There is NO freedom in this here United states! Let us help our fellow blacks who are in BONDAGE!!
Oprah Winfrey - Net Worth: $2.9 billion
OPPRESSED BY THE WHITE MAN!
Dr. Dre - Net worth: $780 million
OPPRESSED BY THE WHITE MAN!
Michael Jordan - Net worth $1 bllion
OPPRESSED BY THE WHITE MAN!
P. Diddy - Net Worth: $780 million
OPPRESSED BY THE WHITE MAN!
But they'll only say so if the religion in question does not include the sacrament of beheading unreformed Infidels.
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