Frederick Douglass: ‘What Is July 4th to the Negro?’

        Frederick Douglass: ‘What Is July 4th to the Negro?’

By UrbanFaith Staff July 4, 2012 

The legendary abolitionist’s speech ‘The Meaning of July 4th for the Negro’ became his most famous statement on America’s struggle to live up to its own ideals.

In the nineteenth century, many American communities and cities celebrated Independence Day with a ceremonial reading of the Declaration of Independence, which was usually followed by an oral address or speech dedicated to the celebration of independence and the heritage of the American Revolution and the Founding Fathers. On July 5, 1852, the Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society of Rochester, New York, invited the Black abolitionist and civil rights leader Frederick Douglass to be the keynote speaker for their Independence Day celebration. The Fourth of July Speech, scheduled for Rochester’s Corinthian Hall, attracted an audience of 600. The meeting opened with a prayer and was followed by a reading of the Declaration of Independence. When Douglass finally came to the platform to deliver his speech, the event took a jarring turn. Douglass told his audience, “This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn.” And he asked them, “Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day?”

Within Douglass’ now-legendary address is what historian Philip S. Foner has called “probably the most moving passage in all of Douglass’ speeches.”

What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelly 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 denunciations 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 these United States, at this very hour.

On this and every July 4th, Americans might do well to re-read and reflect on Douglass’ famous message. It challenges us to move beyond the biases and blind spots of our own cultural privileges and consider those around us for whom, as Langston Hughes said, “America has never been America.”

             Danny Glover Reads Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass

Patriotism, July 4, 2012 

NationofChange / Op-Ed - Published: Wednesday 4 July 2012 

Robert Reich 

Our system of government is America’s most precious and fragile possession, the means we have of joining together as a nation for the common good. It requires not only our loyalty but ongoing vigilance to keep it working well. 

     In the last two weeks, the Supreme Court has allowed police in Arizona to demand proof of citizenship from people they stop on other grounds (while throwing out the rest of Arizona's immigration law), and has allowed the federal government to require everyone buy health insurance – even younger and healthier people – or pay a penalty.


      What do these decisions — and the national conversations they’ve engendered — have to do with patriotism? A great deal. Because underlying them are two different versions of American patriotism.  The Arizona law is aimed at securing the nation from outsiders. 


     The purpose of the heatlhcare law is to join together to provide affordable health care for all.  The first version of patriotism is protecting America from people beyond our borders who might otherwise overrun us — whether immigrants coming here illegally or foreign powers threatening us with aggression.  The second version of patriotism is joining together for the common good. That might mean contributing to a bake sale to raise money for a local school or volunteering in a homeless shelter. It also means paying our fair share of taxes so our community or nation has enough resources to meet all our needs, and preserving and protecting our system of government.  


       This second meaning of patriotism recognizes our responsibilities to one another as citizens of the same society. It requires collaboration, teamwork, tolerance, and selflessness.  The Affordable Care Act isn’t perfect, but in requiring younger and healthier people to buy insurance that will help pay for the healthcare needs of older and sicker people, it summons the second version of patriotism.  Too often these days we don’t recognize and don’t practice this second version. 


       We’re shouting at each other rather than coming together — conservative versus liberal, Democrat versus Republican, native-born versus foreign born, non-unionized versus unionized, religious versus secular.  Our politics has grown nastier and meaner. Negative advertising is filling the airwaves this election year. We’re learning more about why we shouldn’t vote for someone than why we should. As I’ve said before, some elected officials have substituted partisanship for patriotism, placing party loyalty above loyalty to America. 

 
       Just after the 2010 election, the Senate minority leader was asked about his party’s highest priority for the next two years. You might have expected him to say it was to get the economy going and reduce unemployment, or control the budge deficit, or achieve peace and stability in the Middle East. But he said the highest priority would be to make sure the President did not get a second term of office. Our system of government is America’s most precious and fragile possession, the means we have of joining together as a nation for the common good. It requires not only our loyalty but ongoing vigilance to keep it working well. 


       Yet some of our elected representatives act as if they don’t care what happens to it as long as they achieve their partisan aims.  The filibuster used to be rarely used. But over the last decade the threat of a filibuster has become standard operating procedure, virtually shutting down the Senate for periods of time.  Meanwhile, some members of the House have been willing to shut down the entire government in order to get their way.


        Last summer they were even willing to risk the full faith and credit of the United States in order to achieve their goals.  In 2010 the Supreme Court opened the floodgates to unlimited money from billionaires and corporations overwhelming our democracy, on the bizarre theory that corporations are people under the First Amendment. Congress won’t even pass legislation requiring their names be disclosed.  Some members of Congress have signed a pledge — not of allegiance to the United States but of allegiance to a man named Grover Norquist, who has never been elected by anyone.


        Norquist’s “no-tax” pledge is interpreted only by Norquist, who says closing a tax loophole is tantamount to raising taxes and therefore violates the pledge.  True patriots don’t hate the government of the United States. They’re proud of it. Generations of Americans have risked their lives to preserve and protect it. They may not like everything it does, and they justifiably worry then special interests gain too much power over it. 


       But true patriots work to improve the U.S. government, not destroy it.  But these days some Americans loathe the government, and are doing everything they can to paralyze it, starve it, and make the public so cynical about it that it’s no longer capable of doing much of anything. Norquist says he wants to shrink it down to a size it can be “drowned in a bathtub.” When arguing against paying their fair share of taxes, some wealthy Americans claim “it’s my money.” 


       They forget it’s their nation, too. And unless they pay their fair share of taxes, American can’t meet the basic needs of our people. True patriotism means paying for America.  So when you hear people talk about patriotism, be warned. They may mean securing the nation’s borders, not securing our society. Within those borders, each of us is on our own. These people don’t want a government that actively works for all our citizens.  Yet true patriotism isn’t mainly about excluding outsiders seen as our common adversaries. It’s about coming together for the common good. 

This article was originally posted on Robert Reich's blog.

ABOUT  ROBERT B. REICH
Robert Reich, one  of the nation’s leading experts on work and the economy, is Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton. Time Magazine has named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the last century. He has written thirteen books, including his latest best-seller, “Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future;” “The Work of Nations,” which has been translated into 22 languages; and his newest, an e-book, “Beyond Outrage.” His syndicated columns, television appearances, and public radio commentaries reach millions of people each week. He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine, and Chairman of the citizen’s group Common Cause. His widely-read blog can be found at www.robertreich.org.

OWS activist: 'Police treated humans like animals'

Supreme Court’s Plutocratic Political Hacks Rule Against the People in Montana  

NationofChange / Op-Ed - Published: Wednesday 4 July 2012 By Jim Hightower 

In his majority decision, Supreme joker Kennedy drew from his deep well of political ignorance and judicial arrogance to declare that these gushers of special interest money “do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption.” "Two wrongs don't make a right," as my old Texas momma used to instruct my brothers and me. But apparently, five of the justices on our Supreme Court didn't have mommas with such ethical sensibilities — or perhaps they're just ignoring their mommas' wisdom now in order to impose their extremist political agenda on you and me.

That agenda became startlingly clear in 2010, when the black-robed cabal of Sam Alito, Anthony Kennedy, John Roberts, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas hung their infamous Citizens United edict around America's neck. It allowed unlimited sums of corporate cash to spew into our elections, effectively legalizing the wholesale purchase of America's elected officials. In his majority decision, Supreme joker Kennedy drew from his deep well of political ignorance and judicial arrogance to declare that these gushers of special interest money "do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption." Is he on the court — or in a comedy club?

Not only were Kennedy and his fellow corporatists wrong on the substance of their decree, but also ridiculously wrong on the politics. You don't need a law degree to see that CEOs are presently flooding this year's presidential and congressional races with hundreds of millions of corporate campaign dollars, gleefully perverting the political process to buy government policy for their own gain. That not only gives the appearance of corruption, it is corrupt. And now the same five judicial extremists have added a third egregious wrong to their agenda of turning The People's rights over to soulless corporations.

On June 25, they struck down a century-old Montana law (enacted directly by the people through a 1912 initiative vote) that banned corporate money from corrupting that state's elections. Join NationofChange today by making a generous tax-deductible contribution and take a stand against the status quo. These five are not mere "judicial activists" — they're dangerous political hacks, fronting for corporate powers that are openly attempting a plutocratic coup on America.

As a Montana newspaper editorial succinctly put it: "The greatest living issue confronting us today is whether the corporations shall control the people or the people shall control the corporations." That was written in 1906, as Montanans were rising up in outrage against the "copper kings" — giant, out-of-state mining corporations that were grossly exploiting Montana's workforce, extracting its public resources, and routinely extending bribes to control its government. A populist rebellion culminated 100 years ago in the passage of a citizens initiative, called the Corrupt Practices Act. With that, Montana's people outlawed direct corporate expenditures in elections for state offices.

Their law worked, breaking the copper kings' legislative chokehold. A century later, the law was still working, for the lack of corporate cash allowed people politics to supplant money politics, opening up a more democratic electoral process. Even today, the average cost of state senate races stands at only $17,000 in Montana. Rather than blitzing the airwaves with ads, candidates go town-to-town and door-to-door, having actual discussions with everyday folks about their needs and concerns.

Because of this, Montana has one of America's highest rates of voter turnout. How positive — a model of democracy in action! Until an out-of-state corporate front group rode in like copper kings from hell to sue the state. With a pack of high-dollar lawyers and a bundle of corporate funding, the group wailed that Montana's anti-corruption law discriminates against poor corporations, denying them their First Amendment "right" to have the biggest voice in government that money can buy.

On June 25, in a terse, unsigned ruling, the five corporate hacks now controlling the Supreme Court ratified the ridiculous argument of the front group, imperiously shoving Montana's law into the ditch and re-imposing the rule of special interest money on the people's will.To stop this court's collusion in the corporate coup against our democracy, We The People must pass a constitutional amendment overturning these decisions.

To help, go to: www.United4ThePeople.org NationofChange

 ABOUT Jim Hightower National radio commentator, writer, public speaker, and author of the book, Swim Against The Current: Even A Dead Fish Can Go With The Flow, Jim Hightower has spent three decades battling the Powers That Be on behalf of the Powers That Ought To Be - consumers, working families, environmentalists, small businesses, and just-plain-folks.

July 4, 2012 - Occupy National Gathering in Philadelphia As American as mom and apple pie. 

  

#occupywallstreet 

 From June 30th to July 4th, 2012, Occupy movement activists and supporters will gather in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for the first Occupy National Gathering. This event is the culmination of months of organizing and consensus-building by countless activists from across the country. It has been endorsed by Occupy General Assemblies from Wall Street to Sacramento, and Austin to Kalamazoo, providing a clear example of the movement’s disparate chapters collaborating on a massive scale.

 Occupy Philadelphia and the National Gathering Working Group, which initially proposed the event, invite all people to gather on Independence Mall for five days of community and movement building culminating in a massive outdoor gathering on July 4th. The main goals of the event are to strengthen our internal bonds, join together in direct actions, and engage in a transparent democratic process reflecting the values of the movement. 

 

 Activities will include: Four days of discussions, teach-ins, political theater, and community bonding. Protests and direct actions with Occupiers from across the movement. Collectively crafting a Vision for a Democratic Future on July 4th. All people of good conscience who are fed up and ready to stand up for economic and social justice are invited to join us at Independence Mall. 

We will send the message that injustice of any kind is unacceptable. No government or corporation can ignore the will of the people any longer. We can build a better world together. Associated Press / NBC 10 Philadelphia National 'Occupy' to Descends on Philly July 4A group of protesters affiliated with the Occupy Wall Street movement plans to elect 876 “delegates” from around the country and hold a national “general assembly” in Philadelphia over the Fourth of July as part of ongoing protests over corporate excess and economic inequality. 

 

The group, dubbed the 99% Declaration Working Group, said Wednesday delegates would be selected during a secure online election in early June from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories. In a nod to their First Amendment rights, delegates will meet in Philadelphia to draft and ratify a “petition for a redress of grievances,” convening during the week of July 2 and holding a news conference in front of Independence Hall on the Fourth of July. Facebook posters, pics, comments: 

   

"NO BOMBS - NO JAILS - WE'LL BURN YOUR ***** BANKS" now that's what I call a chant! NOW @ OCCUPY NATGAT Marching Philadelphia 

 

 

July 2, 2012 Philadelphia NOW @ OCCUPY NATGAT Marching Philadelphia [Click to view image: '780d3c90bd75-12-07-04_natgat_7.jpg'] 

 

Boycott the US presidential vote! It only legitimizes the illegitimate... 12-04-15 2012 Presidential election votes will be counted in Spain http://www.scribd.com/doc/89464081/Occupy! 11-12-10 

 

Where should Occupy go next? Civil Disobedience in the footsteps of Thoreau and Gandhi! http :// http://www.scribd.com/doc/75348301/12-06-08 Courts and Judges as racketeering enterprises under RICO (the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) - key element in the current financial crisis http://www.scribd.com/doc/96504009/Secede! 

 

 NATGAT March in Philadelphia now - Occupy Marines Flag

The US in its current form is simply unmanageable...12-01-01 Secession - A Smart Business Move! http://www.scribd.com/doc/76877453/Get Up, stand up, stand up for your rights!

 _______ Joseph Zernik, PhDHuman Rights Alert (NGO) The 2010 submission of Human Rights Alert to the Human Rights Council (HRC) of the United Nations was reviewed by the HRC professional staff and incorporated in the official HRC Professional Staff Report with a note referring to “corruption of the courts and the legal profession and discrimination by law enforcement in California.”Human Rights Alert online Flag Counter: 

Take away justice, then, and what are governments but great bandit bands?Saint Augustine, Civitas Dei (City of God,4.4)

 

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WHAT DID THE EXPERT SAY ABOUT THE CURRENT FINANCIAL CRISIS? 

* "I think it's difficult to find a fraud of this size on the U.S. court system in U.S. history," said Raymond Brescia, a visiting professor at Yale Law School who has written articles analyzing the role of courts in the financial crisis. "I can't think of one where you have literally tens of thousands of fraudulent documents filed in tens of thousands of cases." Reuters (Jan 22, 2012) http://www.scribd.com/doc/79572282/

* Foreclosure fraud: The homeowner nightmares continueCNN (April 7, 2011) * About 3 million homes have been repossessed since the housing boom ended in 2006… That number could balloon to about6 million by 2013 Bloomberg (January 2011) * "...a system in which only the little people have to obey the law, while the rich, and bankers especially, can cheat and defraud without consequences." http://www.scribd.com/doc/50753639/Prof Paul Krugman, MIT (2011) 

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WHAT DID THE EXPERTS SAY ABOUT THE JUSTICE SYSTEM IN LOS ANGELES COUNTY, CALIFORNIA?

* "...judges tried and sentenced a staggering number of people for crimes they did not commit." Prof David Burcham, Dean, Loyola Law School, LA (2001) http://www.scribd.com/doc/29043589/ * "This is conduct associated with the most repressive dictators and police states... and judges must share responsibility when innocent people are convicted." Prof Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean, Irvine Law School (2001) http://www.scribd.com/doc/27433920/

* "Innocent people remain in prison"* "...the LA Superior Court and the DA office, the two other parts of the justice system that the Blue Panel Report recommends must be investigated relative to the integrity of the system, have not produced any response that we know of..."LAPD Blue Ribbon Review Panel Report (2006) http://www.scribd.com/doc/24902306 /

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WHAT DID THE EXPERTS SAY ABOUT THE JUSTICE SYSTEM IN CALIFORNIA?

* "...corruption of the courts and the legal profession and discrimination by law enforcement in California." United Nations Human Rights Council Staff Report (2010) http://www.scribd.com/doc/38566837/

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WHAT DID THE EXPERTS SAY ABOUT THE STATE COURTS IN THE UNITED STATES? 

* "On July 26, 2010, Laurence Tribe, Senior Counsel for the United States Department of Justice, Access to Justice Initiative, delivered an important speech to the Conference of Chief Justices, challenging them to halt the disintegration of our state justice systems before they become indistinguishable from courts of third world nations."Prof Laurence Tribe, Harvard Law School (2010), per National Defender Leadership Institute (2010) http://www.nlada.net/library/article/national_dojspeechto%20chiefjustice07-26-2010_gideonalert

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WHAT DID THE EXPERTS SAY ABOUT THE CONDITIONS IN THE PRISON IN MONROE COUNTY, TENESSEE?

* "What goes on there is more like gulags of centuries ago."ACLUhttp://www.scribd.com/doc/72546279/

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WHAT DID THE EXPERTS SAY ABOUT THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES?

* "More than 100 law professors have signed on to a letter released today that proposes congressional hearings and legislation aimed at fashioning "mandatory and enforceable" ethics rules for Supreme Court justices for the first time. The effort, coordinated by the liberal Alliance for Justice, was triggered by "recent media reports," the letter said, apparently referring to stories of meetings and other potential conflicts of interest involving Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas among others."More than 100 law professors, as reported by the Blog of the Legal Times (February 2011) http://www.scribd.com/doc/49586436/

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WHAT DID CHIEF JUDGE OF THE US COURT OF APPEALS, 5TH CIRCUIT, SAY ABOUT THE US JUSTICE SYSTEM? 

* "The American legal system has been corrupted almost beyond recognition..." Chief Judge, US Court of Appeals, 5th Circuit, Edith Jones, speaking before the Federalist Society of Harvard Law School (February 2003) http://www.scribd.com/doc/50137887/

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WHAT DID THE CHAIR OF THE SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE SAY ABOUT THE US JUSTICE SYSTEM?

* In a speech in Georgetown University, Senator Leahy, Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee called for a "Truth and Reconciliation Commission" on the US Department of Justice.Transcript of Senator Leahy speech (2009) http://www.scribd.com/doc/38472251/

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VIDEOS:#NatGat Protestors Arrested Kettled by PhillyPD Stre.
http://www.livestream.com/globalrevolution/video?clipId=pla_4ba2e2d1-c54b-4376-971e-27ddec9d090a&utm_source=lslibrary&utm_medium=ui-thumb
OWS' first 'National Gathering'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMQOCaFY9lc
chris hedges at NatGat Philadelphia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DIBu6p9nno
Welcome Speeches & Trainings - Occupy National Gathering - (1 of 4)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KFdf57X41M
Police Attack at Occupy National Gathering (part3)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BBswdpdwjY
Fight for Philly In The News
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URoUJWBgZUI