The Best 4th Of July Was On The Fifth! (Here's Why)
(Post Holiday Op-Ed)
Fourth of July speeches tend to divide into two sorts. The
predominant variety is celebratory, and prescriptive—solemnized, as John Adams
predicted in 1776, “with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns,
bells, bonfires and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other.”
But in his exuberance, Adams failed to anticipate that the
Fourth, as it brought Americans together, would continually threaten to tear
them apart. As it is currently doing today by-the-way. Over the years,
celebrations of the Fourth have become a periodic tug of war between
commemorations designed to affirm and even enforce the common identity of
Americans—out of many, one—and subversive pushback from those unruly
enough to insist that we are not all free, emphatically not all equal, and
certainly not one. For further evidence of this just look what this country has
experienced as of this first-half of this 2020 year.
But by the Declaration’s 50th
anniversary, celebrations commonly included the firing of artillery at sunrise,
the marching of volunteer companies, the ringing of church bells, and the
parading of labor associations an nowadays in most major cities rawkus
celebratory gun-fire the night of this American holiday.
In Rochester, New York, on July 5, 1852. There was the
former slave and ardent abolitionist Frederick Douglass who published his
newspaper called the North Star. Douglass was a good friend of Susan B. just
to add a bit of background context here.
Douglass was asked to provide an oration for Independence
Day during this time and here’s a condensed overview of some key points he
made. It went a lil something like this. Read carefully all ye misinformed and mis-educated new crop of woke folks.
The smooth orator Douglass stalked his largely white audience with exquisite
care, taking them by stealth. He began by providing what many listeners might
not have expected from a notorious abolitionist:
The day brought forth “demonstrations of joyous enthusiasm,”
he told them, for the signers of the Declaration were “brave men.'' They were
great men too—great enough to give fame to a great age.” Jefferson’s very words
echoed in Douglass’s salute: “Your fathers staked their lives, their fortunes,
and their sacred honor, on the cause of their country … ”
Your fathers.
But Douglass continued cordially. “Friends and citizens, I
need not enter further into the causes which led to this anniversary. Many of
you understand them better than I do.” Then another step back: “That is a
branch of knowledge in which you feel, perhaps, a much deeper interest than your
speaker.”
Now his parched humor
was edging into view: accompanied, no doubt, by that peculiar twist of the
mouth. As a people, Americans were never shy about proclaiming “the facts which
make in their favor,” Douglass noted; indeed, bragging about their reputation
was often deemed a national virtue. It might equally be accounted a national
vice, he continued slyly; but in deference to that habit, he pledged to
leave any further praise of the Revolution to “other gentlemen whose claim to
have been regularly descended [from their Founding Fathers] will be less likely
to be disputed than mine!”
Now he strikes a more serious tone. It was all well and good
to sing the praises of past heroes; but his business, Douglass insisted, “if I
have any here to-day, is with the present.” Those who praised the hard-won
deeds of the founders had no right to do so unless they too were ready to work
for the cause of liberty. “You have no right to wear out and waste the
hard-earned fame of your fathers to cover your indolence.”
Then he threw down one question after another, each red-hot as a brand from the burning: “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? … This Fourth [of] July is yours,
not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man
in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to
join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you
mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day?”
But what reasoned argument remained to be made? “Would you have
me argue that man is entitled to liberty? That he is the rightful owner of his
own body? You have already declared it. Must I argue the wrongfulness of
slavery? … To do so, would be to make myself ridiculous, and to offer an insult
to your understanding.”
What, am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to
rob them of their liberty, to work them without wages, to keep them ignorant of
their relations to their fellow men, to beat them with sticks, to flay their
flesh with the lash, to load their limbs with irons, to hunt them with dogs, to
sell them at auction, to sunder their families, to knock out their teeth, to
burn their flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to their
masters? Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood, and stained with
pollution, is wrong? …
During these tumultuous times of unmitigated hate and unjustifiable
modern lynching of African Americans in broad daylight, scorching irony, not
convincing argument, is needed. One noted irony today is a segment of this
country will proclaims justice and liberty for all while stating to be God
fearing still adamantly refuse to openly refute their past and present hypocrisies. Making America Great Again is their motto I believe.
And even worse than that, there are still African Americans proclaiming over 170 years after
that speech due to ignorance or maybe apathy still do not care to research the actual
facts of what they still die to celebrate zealously and spend their hard-earned money on. There are different levels of conciseness (knowledge of self) and to my woke folks reading this, eye love you, but we gotta start acknowledging these things..not for the sake of argument but for the sake of souls and FACTS!! Not your average Dj..
Peace Tuc
This originally appeared on Slate and was published July 2, 2015. This article is republished here and condensed re-edited exclusively by Dj Tuc for djtuc999dotcom for informative, educational and entertainment purposes only.
ABOUT DJ TUC:
Dj Tuc is a well known legendary respected ground breaking dj, producer, promoter, remixologist, writer, freelance photographer, emcee,businessman, blogger from the city of Anderson,SC and is the founder and publisher of djtuc999.com the website and djtuc999 the mobile apps which are available on Google Play and the Apple app store also visit our Official facebook page at Facebook/Djtuc999TheMobileApp.com and djtuc999TheMobileApp Podcast is now Live in the iTunes Store.
ABOUT DJ TUC:
Dj Tuc is a well known legendary respected ground breaking dj, producer, promoter, remixologist, writer, freelance photographer, emcee,businessman, blogger from the city of Anderson,SC and is the founder and publisher of djtuc999.com the website and djtuc999 the mobile apps which are available on Google Play and the Apple app store also visit our Official facebook page at Facebook/Djtuc999TheMobileApp.com and djtuc999TheMobileApp Podcast is now Live in the iTunes Store.
Comments
Post a Comment