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Happy Fourth, Erbody...

Canedawg2140Canedawg2140 Posts: 1,832 ✭✭✭✭✭ Graduate

Here's wishing the DNation a happy, safe, glorious 4th of July! Thankful for our wonderful country and our wonderful freedoms. And thankful for the Dawgs!

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  • BrooklynDawgBrooklynDawg Posts: 822 ✭✭✭✭✭ Graduate

    FREDERICK DOUGLASS

    "What to the **** is the Fourth of July?"

    "…Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?"

    I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us.

    "...Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions! Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. For who is there so cold, that a nation’s sympathy could not warm him? Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? Who so stolid and selfish, that would not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nation’s jubilee, when the chains of servitude had been torn from his limbs? I am not that man. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the 'lame man leap as an hart.' 

    But such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought light and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn..."

    —Frederick Douglass, July 5, 1852

  • AndersonDawgAndersonDawg Posts: 1,875 ✭✭✭✭✭ Graduate

    Not sure how to fix problems that occurred in 1852? Only try to learn from the past and make 2020 and on better for everyone.

  • 70dawg70dawg Posts: 273 ✭✭✭✭ Senior

    Let's enjoy our Independence Day this year. Be proud Americans and proud Dawg fans.

    Right now there are people marching and protesting who want to end this Holiday!

  • BrooklynDawgBrooklynDawg Posts: 822 ✭✭✭✭✭ Graduate

    The thing is this is not a 1852 problem. It's a now problem. Many Americans do not feel like we are included when you say Independence Day because we were not included in its indoctrination. No, the practice of slavery as it was stated in that time is not being implemented, but the fact that many Americans still do not enjoy the same freedoms as their "counterparts" should alarm anybody who considers themselves a real American. Yes, we have to have discussions in order to "fix" the problem (I say fix in quotes because the system in practice today was and is designed to do just what it has been doing) and this is why I put Mr. Douglass' speech up.

  • BrooklynDawgBrooklynDawg Posts: 822 ✭✭✭✭✭ Graduate
    edited July 2020

    Again, in order for ALL AMERICANS to celebrate this holiday would mean it would be something for ALL AMERICANS to be included in, and this was not so in its indoctrination. While many celebrate the freedoms and liberties that the holiday represents for a select group, there are Americans in this country who do not have the same privileges mentioned. You can celebrate if you want, but remember this while you watch the fireworks in your respective cities and towns. Even those who served in EVERY war that America has been in did not come home to a hero's welcome. Some of these Americans were beaten, harrassed, and killed for proudly donning the uniforms of military service.

  • KaseyKasey Posts: 28,881 mod

    Chris Rock (I think) talked about this before. July 4 is white peoples Independence Day. Black folk were still enslaved at the time, so what are they supposed to celebrate exactly.

    makes sense to me. Fireworks and cookouts are great, but we still got work to do

  • AndersonDawgAndersonDawg Posts: 1,875 ✭✭✭✭✭ Graduate

    Well stated BobL. We cannot beat ourselves up about what happened before any of us were born but we can learn from history and continue to make the US even better.

  • BrooklynDawgBrooklynDawg Posts: 822 ✭✭✭✭✭ Graduate

    Ok, it is not legal to steal land from a people who have long established a culture and home there. The Indigenous People of these lands had there lands stolen and were killed in the process. If someone decided they wanted your house and took it from you, then declared the house independent from the ruling of you would this be considered legal? Moving on, the slaves that were brought and bought here were not considered free like every other man so your statement is false. And although you yourself and others like you may not be directly responsible for the actions of those in the past, you do have a civic duty to make sure that any injustices that are being practiced, today as well in the past, is eradicated. Educating yourself on the true history of this country helps prevent history repeating itself. Voting to change archaic laws and policies helps make sure your fellow Americans truly get to say they are from The Land Of The Free. Speaking out on the injustices of the few helps shed light on all of the atrocities that were hidden by a system designed to oppress. I understand this is "hard" for some of you. I know it's not popular, especially when it seems like most of you just want to go back to closing your eyes and hoping it all goes away. But as hard and as angry as that makes you, there is a mother who is not coming home to her children tonight. There is a son who will never see another firework again. There is a father who is behind bars if only for the fact that they were born "with the wrong shade of skin. There is a daughter being violated. And people who look like them are hurt and angry because of this. Just because you had all of your freedoms and liberties granted to you from birth does not mean your fellow American enjoys the same. And no mainstream holiday changes that. It hasn't changed that since 1776.

  • LowcountryDawg21LowcountryDawg21 Posts: 3,404 ✭✭✭✭✭ Graduate

    If anyone wants to read the full text of the Douglass speech, here’s the link.

  • law_dawg35law_dawg35 Posts: 1,548 ✭✭✭✭✭ Graduate

    Man I hear enough of this crap on social media i dont want to come here and here too. Please tell me what freedoms you're not given in this country. And stop crying about something that happened over 200 years ago. A let it go

  • BrooklynDawgBrooklynDawg Posts: 822 ✭✭✭✭✭ Graduate
    edited July 2020

    No funny, I was waiting on a comment just like this. If human decency and not wanting to be racially profiled, imprisoned, beaten, passed over for jobs and promotions, shot, harrassed, having the police called on you for no other reason but living your life as a person of color, and systematically oppressed is crap to you then you have and are the problem, not social media and certainly not me. As for the freedoms you refer to being stepped on, I have had most of those things done just to me. That doesnt even include people i know or the stories we know, so dont ever in your life assume that just because its sunshine and rainbows on your end that your neighbor is getting the same kind of weather. And just the fact that I said it's happened to me says that it's not 200 year back that's the issue and it only happened there. Its happening now. And just because I'm giving out history lessons I'm gonna leave you with this. 401 years is the true number. That's was when the 1st slaves where brought here. I'm sure you wouldnt work for free or for chump change, right? That's exactly what has happened to a select group of Americans. I'm glad tbh that you and those with your same thinking are speaking out like you are. Makes it easier to see who really believes what America is supposed to stand for. Stolen land built up on the backs of slaves. But hey, let me let you get back to your comfort zone. It's not like we dont have players (whom make up 90% of the roster btw) who live through the same things I've mentioned. Ask the majority of them whether or not they went through just one of the situations I mentioned and I bet you change your tune. And the atrocities I have mentioned is just the tip of the iceberg. But hey, happy Independence Day or whatever...

This discussion has been closed.