… is like a people’s state of the union recap. It’s a gorgeous piece of political writing, that opens with a reading, by James Earl Jones, of a speech that Frederick Douglass gave to the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Society 160 years ago. In it, Douglass asked, “What to the American slave is your 4th of July?” Then he proceeded to answer the question:
“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 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…”
Then Amy went on to say:
“The United States has been, for well over two centuries, a beacon around the world for those who suffer under tyranny. But the US also has been a prime global opponent of grassroots democratic movements. Amazingly, South African President Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress were not taken off the US Terrorist Watch List till 2008; when the people of Chile elected Salvador Allende, the US backed a coup against him on September 11, 1973, ushering in the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, who murdered thousands of his own citizens, crushing dissent; sadly, drone strikes and the US run prison at Guantanamo are not historical references, they’re current crimes committed by our own government…”
Have a listen: AmyGoodman’s-July4th-podcast