Meteor Blades and his remarkable show and tell about one of America's greatest citizens and biggest thinkers, Frederick Douglass
Despite his flaws, my No. 1 personal hero is—and has been since I was introduced at age 14 to his autobiography—Frederick Douglass, the runaway slave whose persistent eloquence was one of the leading factors persuading Abraham Lincoln to bring black soldiers into the Union Army. Without those 180,000 men who ultimately fought, quite literally, for freedom, it is uncertain that the Union would have survived.
shanikka and this searing and insightful peer through the
Looking Glass of race.
Each Fourth of July, I see as if for the first time the beauty of our flag, and the universality of the love for our country that far too many Americans show far too infrequently. And, without fail, I re-read the extraordinary beautiful prose of our America's Declaration of Independence.
And each year, I cry.
Mine is a bittersweet cry, born from love of country, and from rage against country.
To cope with my reverent pain, in the face of reading the literary and philosophical dream that is the Constitution of our great country, each Fourth of July I let myself dream a little dream.
I dream of what our nation would have been, could have been, should have been, had all the grievances against King George III that our Founding Fathers been aired in indeliable print with that same brave collective voice that demanded, as divine right, "Liberty or Death!":
I'm an atheist, anyone around here who knows anything about me knows this, by now. It's one of the reasons why Independence Day has always held a special place for me. As an atheist, I stopped participating in the religiously-affiliated holidays a long time ago. So in my household there are no christmas trees or easter baskets.
I prefer to celebrate the holidays of my secular nation, instead of those which celebrate things which I believe are based on fairy tales for grownups, so I don't participate in them. Which shocked and angered some of my family a number of years ago. After all, in my twenties when I was already a loud, proud atheist, I put up a tree and lights and exchanged gifts and hosted holiday parties between the corporate cash cow Christmas Eve and New Years Day. A good time was had by most at these events, including me.
But as I got older, I realized that although my kids and family seemed to get something special from these holiday get-togethers, I was missing out on it entirely. After a number of years of thinking about it I realized that was was missing, on my part, was simply faith. Only my youngest daughter is an agnostic, the rest are believers. So I stopped participating in all religious holidays. I secretly miss Easter, but only for the chocolate bunnies.
But that leaves a big whole in my life. There are so few truly momentous things which atheists can celebrate with the world, much less their fellow countrymen, other than annual religious events. Thanksgiving? It's become a reminder to me of some of the worst things my nation ever did - nearly eliminated the entire Native American population of North America. They did a lot of that shit on purpose. Pox-infested blankets were lobbed into camps like dirty bombs, killing with a vengeance which should never be unleashed upon even the guilty, much less the innocent. Slaughter for the sheer reason that they could, without a single moment's concern for reprisal. After all, they were just dirty Indians.
The People of my children and their father's family. Yeah, so, not so much anymore. Meh, it's a meal. We have turkey year round.
Which leaves me, at the half-century mark, with just one Holiday in which to invest my love and energy. Independence Day. The day which marks the birth of the first nation since Rome to literally invest the power of the Government in The People (except for when Rome went all Ceasar-crazy and changed their internal power structure).
Today, America is the oldest living Democracy. You can read that statement all over the internet and a whole lot of people believe it. But we aren't. A big D democracy, that is.
We are a democratic Republic. What the hell does that mean?
When the Constitution was fresh and unadulterated by pesky Amendments, it meant how we elect our President, and Congress.
The People White men who owned real property were granted the Right to cast a ballot for the Representative of their choice to (The People's) US House of Representatives. That right there is the sum total of your DEMOCRACY as originally designed by the Founding Fathers.
Article I, Section II:
The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several states, and the electors in each state shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the state legislature.
The REPUBLIC part? That's what our amalgamation of Sovereign States is, a Republic of States which retain their individual identity, physical boundaries and ability to make Laws (subject only to their ALSO being legal under the supreme law of the nation, the Constitution) - AND also are legally bound together to form a country.
US Senators were originally nominated and elected by ONLY the legislatures of the various States.
Article I, Section III
The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each state, chosen by the legislature thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote.
That is NOT democracy by any stretch of the imagination, which in the 20th century resulted in the 17th Amendment in 1913:
U.S. Constitution › 17th Amendment
The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each state, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each state shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the state legislatures.
When vacancies happen in the representation of any state in the Senate, the executive authority of such state shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, that the legislature of any state may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.
This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election or term of any Senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution.
[emphasis added]
So, here I sit, with my 21st century ass in a much more
perfeckt Union than the one occupied by my antecedents. Men AND Women of any color now have access to their
natural born Right to Vote. Racism, sexism, homophobia and a whole host of social evils are still alive and well in America - but at least in today's America there are many, many white people who understand and are fighting together with the still
subjugated in many ways minorities which have suffered so dearly under previous eras in America and who suffer still.
In 21st century America.
But damn it.
I need a holiday to celebrate.
So, here's the deal. When you guys write these staggeringly memorable and moving bits of prose, I will read them and reflect on them. I will share them with the wider world. I will continue to do what is possible to help change minds and move our nation #forward into a better future for OUR posterity.
But I can't do it on the 4th of July. I don't want to watch the fireworks with tears in my eyes and sorrow in my heart over the actual history that brought us to this point in history. Really, it's the one day of the year in which I WILL BE AN IDIOT and reject reality.
Just for the day.
But on July 5th and the 363 other days of the year? I'm your gal.
Those two diaries, Meteor Blades and shanikka?
They deserve to be read by every single person who calls themselves American
Once a year. Just as a reminder of who we really were and what it cost so very, very many people to get us from THERE to HERE... and beyond...