I wrote this several years ago, I think it was in 2019 and I am very sorry to report it is still relevant.
What a depressing day! I went downtown to attend the annual reading of the Declaration of Independence at the Old South Church, wearing my usual black armband. It always astonishes me that so few people seem to get how much the complaints set forth in that document speak of our current situation. But I’ve been befuddled by it since Bush 2. However, now we have children living in kennels, people in what amounts to concentration camps, a revisiting of the Third Reich. Seven children have died needlessly having been stolen from those who cared for them, those who loved them.
And yet and still….All those people, waving flags, wearing them, carrying their children to this event as though children were not being tortured, murdered, trafficked by our government. It’s not my children so why should I care, not said, but definitely heard. They’re singing America the Beautiful and I’m thinking of the Portrait of Dorian Gray. Amerika is that kind of beautiful. What are we celebrating? There were so many people.
Where were they when we stood at the Holocaust Memorial three days ago protesting the concentration camps in Amerika? Never Again, the signs said Today the body language just said “whatevah”. (Of course 2024 is now a new day and it is more the trend to see Palestine as victim. Personally, I have as hard a time deciding between Israel and Palestine as to which is the lesser of two evils as I do with the two aged and very two-dimensional, completely inappropriate candidates who seem to be the best that either party can come up with, proving that both parties are defunct and should have a decent burial, not because they deserve one, but just to ensure that neither is able to come up for air one last time.)
There were people on the street handing out cheap little made in China American flags. They even gave them to the homeless men in almost every doorway. No food or housing, but at least they get a free flag. I was offered one but said there’s no point in me taking one. I didn’t have any matches. You might say America the Beautiful is really America the Sleeping Beauty. And it’s way past time to wake up.
So now it is America’s Declaration of Independence birthday. We’ve made it to 248 years, and only 231 of those years spent fighting others, stealing their land and their resources. Perhaps one day we will make it to 18 years of not beating up the world. But the Declaration of Independence does need to be updated. I would like to see a revision from “All men are created equal” to “All Earth’s creatures have an equal right to a healthy and self-directed life” My hope is for a future Independence Day celebrating our independence from criminal authoritarian gangster government.
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