I found this video to be particularly moving as I struggle to know how to approach our Independence Day. How do I reconcile the feelings of sorrow and loss about the history of slavery and of the treatment of Native Americans with the general feelings of levity about Fourth of July festivities. Fireworks! BBQs! A day off work!

As these different issues bump around in my mind, Frederick Douglas’ words fill out the sail of concerns in my mind. He wrote his speech What to the Slave is the 4th of July in 1852, before the end of slavery. But as we have seen, slavery was replaced with other forms of oppression, and his words still speak truth.

I am not included within the pale of this 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 life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. 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.

And here Douglas could be talking about American in June 2020.

At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. O! had I the ability, and could I reach the nation’s ear, I would, to-day, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced.

I have mixed feelings about being American. I feel hugely lucky and privileged, and I’m aware that I take so many of the gifts of our country for granted. I’ve also always been uncomfortable with the way America strives to be #1, to be a super power, to amass and exert power. I’m thankful to live in a functioning democracy and for the stability that America’s economic strength gives many of it’s citizens. I appreciate the efforts of the founders and of the people who have worked for the government over the years to do their best to create a healthy, strong country. I’m in love with America’s lands and diversity of people. And yet…

I hope that the words of Frederick Douglass give some grounding and perspective to the celebrations we hold today.