Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:It’s not really on point, optics wise, and as a matter of principle. to celebrate it this year.
Look up the 442nd Infantry Regiment. They fought for America despite their relatives and friends being interned by its government. And they were the most decorated unit for their size in the history of the American military. They were the Nisei regiment - all second-generation Japanese-Americans.
Look up the 369th Infantry Regiment. The Harlem Hellfighters in two world wars. Rejected altogether at first, some men went to Canada to enlist, they were so determined to play a role.
Do I need to go on with this?
You can look narrowly and negatively at the fourth and see only white men in powdered wigs. Or you can say they're only part of the story and we can reclaim the fourth as a celebration of everyone who worked and fought and still works and fights to move toward a "more perfect Union." No one said the union is or was perfect, only that it can become more perfected if we work at it.
The soldiers in those legendary regiments considered themselves Americans enough to risk and give their lives. Celebrate for them if you don't like founding fathers. I would wager that many a Nisei regiment solider and Harlem Hellfighter celebrated the fourth in their times and the meaning it held for them despite the fact they were so rejected by the rest of America as men.
We need to reclaim the celebration and expand it, not shrug it off and say that "optics-wise" it's not a good look. You can ignore it, or you can make it about all of America.What do you choose? Why not say, this is how we started our political independence, these are the mistakes we made and still make, and there are so many people who have done and are doing better? Spend the day telling people about these regiments. And Maggie L. Walker. And Alice Paul. And Shirley Chisholm. And Dr. Mabel Ping-Hua Lee....