Today is the 4th of July. The day that we Americans celebrate our freedom. The 4th of July represents for some, a long weekend away from work or a fabulous day at the beach, cookouts, concerts and of course—fireworks—and every year, we hang with our families and friends and some of us drink forties and pour some out for our homies that are no longer here.
For me, every year around this time I get a little pissed, because I wonder how many of us truly know what really went down, for us to be able to celebrate “our freedom” in this country.
Did you know that this whole independence thing here was born from our desire to break free from the evil tyranny of our Oppressor—England– at the time?
It’s a long story but it’s pretty straight forward. England was the bad guy. Some folks who didn’t want to be told what to think and do and who to worship and what to believe came over here by boat and settled here, they were called settlers.
They called this land America and did their own thing and were successful and even profitable. But England still owned America on paper and the Americans didn’t like it so they fought a war against England and eventually won their freedom and so here we are.
Of course, this is the glazed over story we hear every year. The part of the story very few of us know (or hear about as part of the history) is that the war was won in part by the participation of African slaves, who fought for America’s freedom but did not have their own.
Once it was all said and done, The Declaration of Independence was written and signed and read: “We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal and they are endowed by their creator with certain unaliable rights that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness…”
Of course, none of these rights were for the African Slaves, but the facts remains that if they hadn’t fought that war, Americans might not now be free. So in short, our being able to enjoy concerts and cookouts and long weekends at the beach and fireworks, is in part because those that were not free fought for us to be free. Those who were oppressed and told what to think and do and who to worship and what to believe fought with their oppressor against an oppressor for the freedoms we all enjoy today.
So every year when the 4th of July rolls around and you’re at your family’s annual cookout drinking 40s, talking about how glad you are to be free from work for the long weekend—–remember the slaves and show some respect. Pour some out for the homies who are no longer here, but died for you to be free.
The moral of this story? There really should be one, but there isn’t. Just some food for thought. Thank you for reading this though. Peace and many freedoms induced blessings. -e-