July 8, 2025: What to us is the 4th of July?

In 1852, Frederic Douglass spoke before the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Society (a group likely wearing clothes made from cotton planted and harvested by enslaved people) and asked, "What to the American slave, is your 4th of July?"  Born a slave in Maryland, he had escaped to a state that had abolished slavery but was neither free nor able to become a citizen since the USA government had not abolished slavery and its laws were the supreme laws of the land.  He very eloquently pointed out the gross injustices and cruelty he faced; the sham of boasted liberty; that national greatness, swelling vanity, and sounds of rejoicing were empty and heartless, so much more.  Here is a link to the full text of his speech:  FREDERICK DOUGLASS'S “FOURTH OF JULY” SPEECH (1852).

Voices of Reason and Resistance host Barbara Humphrey brought us forward to 2025: and asked what the 4th of July meant to so many people in the USA:  to the descendants of the indigenous who were slaughtered or left to die from diseases and starvation while their land was stolen; to the descendants of the enslaved who continue to face racism; to the Asians brought to the USA to build the railroads but denied citizenship; to others who migrated to the USA from Ireland, eastern and southern Europe, Latin America and elsewhere to do the dirty work of nation building and food production but were demeaned and often denied naturalized citizenship; to the soldiers sent to fight USA wars of aggression and left to fight for benefits and compensation for their physical injuries and trauma; and to the working class and poor, who have no rights to food, shelter, healthcare or living wage jobs.  Barbara further asked us, as we see our Constitutional rights being challenged (pointing out that the Constitution is the law of the land not solely the law of citizens), is this a Constitutional crisis or is the Constitution the crisis.