WHAT TO THE PRISONER IS YOUR FOURTH OF JULY?
6-18-13

In 1852, Fredrick Douglas once said to people at a rally celebrating the fourth of July:
"What to the American slave is your fourth of July? I answer a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty 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 denunciation of tyrants, brass-fronted impudence, your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow muckery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgiving, 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 saviors. 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."

"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."

What more can be said? A lot more so let me attempt.

This celebration, this jubilent time of praise, happiness the 'oneness' that people show at parties and celebrations nationwide for the birth of this nation. I don't feel one iota of patriotism for this country. I don't feel an ounce of loyalty to this U.S.S. It's not due to me being in prison and holding some type of grudge. That's not the case here. But going there how can a nation celebrate 'freedom' when it has 25% of the worlds population of prisoners!? What does that say about this 'land of the free'? This day pains me for the hypocrisy it [illegible] lies in. This nation is drenched in blood of not only the first nations here but the world over. 'A global force for good' it says but history speaks differently. This day of celebration is not for the many but for the few. For many blacks and 'Latino' people suffer yet choose to celebrate a day thats not meant for them. From the enslavement of Afrikans to the theft of Mexican land. Lies and murder fill the land or this U.S.A. from childhood on we're indoctrinated to salute the flag, to show loyalty to it and defend it.

The fourth of July is a slap in the face for those who suffer under the yoke of American hegemony in the world. Even more so to her victims that languish in her bowels and darkest crevice.