What We Believe to be True - Is Not

I'm still trying to figure out what everyone was celebrating yesterday, July 4th.

Based on what is happening in the US - the best I can guess is that we were celebrating our independence from Britain in 1776.
Some kind af archaic birthday celebration?
Maybe we should rename it "Fireworks Day" or "Family Reunion Day"?

Cause today, in the USA, what are we celebrating, really
- the Constitution, as we believed it to be true - is not.
- our representative government, as we believed it to be true - is not.
- the presumption of innocence, as we believed it to be true - is not.
- the right to vote, as we believed it to be true - is not.
- the presumption of public servants, as we believed it to be true - for the most part, is not. 

I'm still trying to figure out what everyone was celebrating yesterday, July 4th.

Some might say -
Take the time to celebrate that you don't live in ___________.  Pick a country any country.
The absurdity of that reasoning is right up there with "Finish the food on your plate.  Be thankful you have food to eat.  There are starving children in _________." Pick a country any country.

Take the time to celebrate that you don't live in ___________.  Pick a country any country.
But that is just about the most inane nonsensical statement anyone could make.
If I didn't live in the US - I would probably be living in Norway, cause that is where both of my parents were from.  If they hadn't come to the US - I would have most likely been born in Norway - so even then - I would not have ended up living  in __________________. Pick a country any country.

IMHO - we should have been in the streets protesting.
But instead, we were drinking beer, fishing, watching "red white and blue" fireworks or for some people - working.

Most people in America have far better things to do than protest.
Most people in America have a hundred excuses why they can not stand up and speak out for what we were supposedly celebrating on July 4th.

This morning I heard an interview on Democracy Now -  between Amy Goodman and the Honorable John Lewis.  Please read this.

    AMY GOODMAN: Finally, at the end of Across That Bridge, your new book, you write, "Just as Gandhi made it easier for King and King made it easier for Poland and Poland [made it easier] for Ireland [and] Ireland [made it easier] for Serbia [and] Serbia made it easier for the Arab Spring, [and] the Arab Spring made it easier for [the protests in] Wisconsin [and] Occupy..." Talk about these connections.

    REP. JOHN LEWIS: I believe there is something in human history—I call it the spirit of history. It’s like a spring, a stream, that continue to move. And individuals and forces come along that become symbols of what is good, what is right and what is fair. And that’s why I wrote this little book, to say to people that you, too, can allow yourself to be used by the spirit of history. Just find a way to get in the way. When I was growing up, my mother and father, my grandparents and great-grandparents were always telling me, "Don’t get in trouble. Don’t get in the way." But I was inspired by Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks and others to get in the way, to get in trouble—good trouble, necessary trouble. And we all must find a way to have the courage to get in trouble, to do our part. Every generation must find a way to leave the planet, leave this little spaceship, earth, this little piece of real estate, a little better than we found it—a little cleaner, a little greener and a little more peaceful. I think that’s our calling. We have a mission, a mandate and a moral obligation to do just that.

"we all must find a way to have the courage to get in trouble, to do our part."

From that same interview.

(Ironic – cause I don’t imagine anyone ever imagined that the word “right” would become a vile word.)

    REP. JOHN LEWIS: Well, I don’t know. If people feel that something is not right, is not fair, they have a right to protest.

    AMY GOODMAN: Do you feel it’s not right? Would you be protesting?

    REP. JOHN LEWIS: I don’t know what I’m going to do. I don’t know. I believe that the time is always right to do right, as Dr. King said, and people always have a right to protest for what is right.

 
"If people feel that something is not right, is not fair, they have a right to protest."
"people always have a right to protest for what is right"
"people always have a right to protest"
"to protest for what is right"


"people always have a right to protest"