What a day we celebrate in a year during which our Republic is once again in jeopardy and we are in fear of all of the gains made by those who went before being trashed. And – we have only ourselves to blame.
To celebrate the Fourth of July with Donald Trump as president of these United States seems a sacrilege. He has worked very hard to trash everything this country’s founders put in place. And he has been way too successful!
Why? Because the United States of America elected and re-elected an African American as president – twice!!!! And that jeopardized his identity as better than and the identities of those who he has gathered around him as above all others.
All of the racist and sexist structures that Barack Obama took down during his presidency, or which influenced others to work to take down the racist/sexist infrastructure of these United States are being reconstructed by Donald Trump and his followers. In the name of white supremacy – white privilege – Trump and those who are working with and for him are doing everything they can to tear down and then reconstitute this country into a stronger model of the racist and sexist institution from which it has struggled to be free.
Adolph Hitler played god in Germany and the people suffered. Donald Trump is playing god in the United States of America and the people are suffering. Only God is God! To attempt to become a god and force others to acknowledge and honor and pay obeisance to you is one of the greatest sins and we have Donald Trump and his followers doing just that. Forgive them, O God. Show them the error of their ways before it is too late for their redemption. Many are in Church this Sunday praying to their god to give them the strength to continue the work started by Donald Trump. How bright is the light they are trying to subdue. How manifest to others are their sins. How blind to their own sins have they become that they can kneel at your altar and call on you to support their chosen god.
Last year, we published Frederick Douglas’ speech given on July 4th. We commend it to you https://www.bettina-network.com/blog/archives/2560
There are several paragraphs which can make you weep and take you into that place where no one should have to go –
“Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the Old World, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me, that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival….
400 years of slavery – 25 to 35 million Africans robbed of their freedom; taken from their country and put into slavery for 400 plus years – first by the Arabs and then by Europeans and Americans….
Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. They were great men, too-great enough to give frame to a great age. It does not often happen to a nation to raise, at one time, such a number of truly great men. The point from which I am compelled to view them is not, certainly, the most favorable; and yet I cannot contemplate their great deeds with less than admiration. They were statesmen, patriots and heroes, and for the good they did, and the principles they contended for, I will unite with you to honor their memory….
They loved their country better than their own private interests; and, though this is not the highest form of human excellence, all will concede that it is a rare virtue, and that when it is exhibited it ought to command respect. He who will, intelligently, lay down his life for his country is a man whom it is not in human nature to despise. Your fathers staked their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor, on the cause of their country. In their admiration of liberty, they lost sight of all other interests….
They were peace men; but they preferred revolution to peaceful submission to bondage. They were quiet men; but they did not shrink from agitating against oppression. They showed forbearance; but that they knew its limits. They believed in order; but not in the order of tyranny. With them, nothing was “settIed” that was not right. With them, justice, liberty and humanity were “final”; not slavery and oppression. You may well cherish the memory of such men. They were great in their day and generation. Their solid manhood stands out the more as we contrast it with these degenerate times….
“By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yea! we wept when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there, they that carried us away captive, required of us a song; and they who wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.”……
May we always remember – may we always celebrate this holiday in truth and not in hypocrisy, trying to hide our history and our sins – may we be able to accept our humanity while attempting to right our wrongs – may we never accept the tyranny of those like Donald Trump, who refuses to accept his own humanity trying to force others to accept him as perfect in every aspect – god walking this earth – infallible – the only one who can achieve and accomplish what this country needs. Forgive him, O God, and walk with us as we travel through this very dark valley. There is light at the end of this journey, but we can’t see it, only you know its outcome and why. The forces of evil have gathered and are strong. They have taken over our new businesses and infused them with bigotry. We have worked hard to remove and replace the kind of bigotry they refuse to live without. Help us to identify each and everyone of them and help us work to bring good where they have and are sowing evil. Amen!
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