Reply to What's the mood at your 4th of July parade?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We are celebrating and doing some teaching with the kids about our founding fathers.  I am sorry for the tragedy but we are not going to change how we observe.[/quote]

No do punt skipping over the parts about slavery. [/quote]

4th is a celebration of independence from Britain.  Not a celebration of slavery.[/quote]

I don't know how your 4ths usually go, but mine usually feature celebrations of the Declaration of Independence and its assertion that "all men are created equal" and that "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" are unalienable rights. This unavoidably raises questions about slavery since the guy who wrote the Declaration and many of the people who signed it actively alienated those rights with respect to men that they very much believed were not their equal. As Samuel Johnson asked, "How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes?" [/quote]

Crazy how there were slave systems for so many thousands of years and one could round up and sell your rival tribe for gold doubloons. [/quote]

Yup. Then add capitalism and a new continent starved for labor, and it goes next level. To have the beneficiaries of that slavery-on-steroids waxing eloquent about liberty and equality is jarring. Will still owe Jefferson, Washington, and co. a great debt of gratitude, but we still need to grapple with the contradictions. [/quote]
I knew it!  I knew America invented slavery. I bet they didn’t even provide food or shelter or clothes.[/quote]

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