Homework assignment 7

Quote: "America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. Standing with God and the crushed and bleeding slave on this occasion, I will, in the name of humanity which is outraged, in the name of liberty which is fettered, in the name of the constitution and the Bible, which are disregarded and trampled upon, dare to call in question and to denounce, with all the emphasis I can command, everything that serves to perpetuate slavery — the great sin and shame of America!"

My Interpretation:
    In class, we started discussing whether or not the 4th of July was truly something to be celebrated or not. Very interesting argument and it was hard to say. The patriot in me says that yes, it should be without a doubt celebrated. To simply acknowledge the holiday, and celebrate it as hard as you can to acknowledge the anniversary of a time that our country gained independence from the tyranny and oppression of the British government is certainly something to celebrate. The passage itself mentioned, that there are men who have lived, and died already, for the cause of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That's something I most definitely overlook. The fact that men existed that were born, had their own lives, and died, many years ago, but molded our country into what it is today. Of course at the time when this was written the country was only 76 years years old, a mere infant of a society, as opposed to today where we are 240 years old. That's a tremendously long time after, a difference of 164 years since this piece was written. A lot has changed since the times this was written, and many men and women have lived and died. However, one thing is still a fact. Oppression STILL exists.
    Why did this quote stand out to me? Because it invalidated everything that America wants to make fact. We are false to the past, present and are in turn being false to the future. He implies humanity is outrages, our liberty is fettered, and that in the name of the constitution and bible, the greatest sin of America is slavery. I can argue, that today, we are STILL outraged! Who is happy with the state of the country? Are we not the land of the free, and should we not collectively feel the happiness we are supposed to be able to pursue? Instead, we have people like Donald Trump, fools, running for president. Someone like him, who is corrupt, and loop-holes his way around the country, does not pay his taxes, trying to be the commander in chief. Not only that, but we may not have slavery, but capitalism is a synonym. Making us work our butts off to survive, and not having enough knowledge or resources to "cheat" the system. The fact that there even is a system to cheat. And not only that, we are now facing the worst case of climate change in history. We have exceeded humanity and transcended to nature. If our land was not false, for certain, there would not be such a gap between rich and poor, and fools like Donald Trump would not be running for president. So should Indepence Day be celebrated? Up to you.