05 Jul What are we celebrating this 4th

What were we celebrating this 4th of July?

For many of us, this 4th of July didn’t feel right as did last year’s fourth. For many of us, we decided not to celebrate our independence, our “freedom” because we have just lost the most fundamental right, the right of doing what we choose with our bodies. 

Last year we realized that so many people are not allowed the same freedoms that many white privileged people are.

Many people are still locked up in cages, right here in the United States of America trying to come to the land of the free. A land that used to accept people from everywhere who were looking for a better life. People who were running away from a life where they didn’t have rights or freedom of speech.

This was the land of milk and honey, this was a place where they could provide a better life for their children. We accepted them with open arms and now we put them in cages like animals?

Are we celebrating the fact that we are trying to steal  the land back that we stole once before from the Native Americans for our own purpose and gain? That they don’t have clean water or good medical care, is this what we are celebrating? 

How about the rights that we fought for and died for that are slowly being taken away now…rights of women, of our LGBT community, The black community, basic human rights for healthcare, because all the government cares about is their pockets.

Are we celebrating that black men are being killed and put in prison at alarming rates? Or that racism is back in full swing again? 

Please, please tell me what are we celebrating? When The world seems to only care about themselves, their likes and what the bottom line is? 

I will tell you what I am celebrating, the fact that even though we are such a fucked up country that so many men and women still want to lay down their lives to protect us, even when the problem is clearly on our own soil. I celebrate their lives and the lives of so many soldiers who have died for us.

Now you can say I’m un-American, you can call me names and tell me to move then but will that solve the problem if everyone who doesn’t like it moves? What about changing what’s wrong? What about making  a difference for others who have no voice?

I am sorry to say we are no longer the land of the free and we are no longer the greatest country in the world. And until we all are, until we all have the same rights, until we all realize that we all bleed red, that we are all one race, the human race. Until we stop thinking we are better than others, on land we stole and killed for and built on the backs of slaves, until we fight together for all rights, then we will never be truly free.

So happy 4th to our soldiers who are fighting a losing battle when we ourselves are making this country less free.

“Be the change you want to see”

@TreadmillTreats