(ANTIMEDIA Op-Ed) As Americans celebrated the 4th of July this week, touting freedom and all the revolutionary efforts they believe went into achieving it, some of the country’s most enthusiastic ‘patriots’ demonstrated their total lack of understanding of the United States’ founding principles.
Frederick Douglass was born in Maryland on February 20th-- my birthday too, but 1818-- and a slave. He taught himself to read and write-- writing later that "knowledge is the pathway from slavery to freedom." He escaped from Maryland at the age of 20 and went immediately to New York and then to New Bedford, Massachusetts. He became a preacher, a powerful orator and one of the country's foremost abolitionists. He became a national figure in 1845 with the publication of his first autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, a best seller.
Over the years Blue America has been gratified to have helped elect some truly amazing men and women to Congress, men and women who have proved to be leaders for the values we embrace-- from Donna Edwards and Jamie Raskin in Maryland to Alan Grayson (FL), Elizabeth Warren (MA), Tammy Baldwin (WI), Keith Ellison (MN), Russ Feingold (WI), Judy Chu (CA), Raul Grijalva, Barbara Lee (CA), etc.
(TFC) — It’s the Fourth of July. The most American of days. If you left your home today or scrolled your social media accounts, you undoubtedly saw disrespect towards the American flag. It isn’t a new expression of speech, but it is certainly more widespread today than in years past. So the question arises: how can you make people respect the flag?
As the United States of America celebrates the first 4th of July under the Presidency of Donald Trump, Pat Buchanan ponders if America is “passing on the house we inherited – or observing its demolition?”
“Is America still a nation,” by Pat Buchanan.
SARTRE
21st Century Wire
The only conclusion any honest American citizen can come to is that the Republic is dead. Once again the flags wave and the songs play as the parades march to celebrate another 4th of July.
(RPI) As Independence Day comes around again we should spend a few moments between barbecue and fireworks to think about the meaning of independence. The colonists who rebelled against the British Crown were, among other things, unhappy about taxation. Yet, as economist Gary North points out, the total burden of British imperial taxation was about one-to-two percent of national income.
(ANTIMEDIA Op-Ed) United States — What if people, sickened by tyrannical control, threw off the shackles of bloated governance in favor of leading themselves? What if the erosion of fundamental freedoms — guaranteed not by a document, but by being human — were actually intolerable as so much grumbling intimated?
Plus: Is Pastor Rick Scarborough burning yet?Uh-oh, Bill-O's mouth is open! Stand back, people! Who knows what might come out of that gaping maw?by NoahHere's a wish for today: I wish that I had the technology to jam FOX News. No, not to prevent the twisted, warped programming. We are supposed to be a nation of free speech, aren't we?
