The Fourth of July rings hollow for many people. It’s hypocritical to tout freedom on stolen land. To celebrate a country’s independence when there were roughly 500,000 enslaved Black people in the colonies as of 1775. Protections are rapidly wiped out pushed by conservatives whose only reason seems to be because they can. How free can we be when we’re trying to hold on to shreds of sanity, shelter, and self-preservation?
How free can we be when the Supreme Court finds that states can ban the unhoused from sleeping in public spaces? What about when they uphold redistricting in South Carolina? Or when they strike down a ban on bump stocks, while students practice active shooter drills? Also, when they reverse the 40-year-old “Chevron deference” so that now judges, not regulators trained in environmental science, public health, workplace safety, and consumer protections, determine when and where a statue applies to regulations for the aforementioned?
How free are we when our current “choices” for presidential candidates are an elderly man of questionable mental capacity who continues to fund and endorse a genocide and another elderly man who is a convicted felon, sexual predator, and led his followers to commit a deadly act of treason on the United States Congress because he lost the last election? You can’t beat anyone with sense over the head with talk of losing democracy, it doesn’t appear that she ever lived here.
How free are we when there are 1.9 million people held in the multiple arms of the criminal justice system? Some convicted, some awaiting trial, some working jobs for nothing up to the paltry sum of $3.45 a day. Outside of jail and prison walls, the financial struggle continues. How free are when the average price of a home in the United States is $412,000 and the average income is $59,384? The lowest state average is still $229,000. Good luck on saving for a downpayment or the rainy-day fund.
In 9 months, the United States has sent $12.5 billion dollars to the settler colony of Israel as it continues to commit genocide against Palestinians on their land. Our tax money funds children being burned alive and entire families wiped out. Instead of housing, educating, feeding, and clothing our children, we aid in the callous murder of tens if not hundreds of thousands of people. How free are we when death and destruction are significant expenditures?
How free are we when Advanced Placement African American Studies classes are banned as people attempt to hide or rewrite history? After attacking the graduate level academic study of Critical Race Theory, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is the new replacement for the hard ‘R’. Treaties regarding Indigenous land are constantly violated as plans for pipelines are laid. What is American freedom to the people whose land the colony sits on?
How free are we when birthing people can’t make the decision to terminate their pregnancies? Whether it be to save your life, your nerves, or spare suffering the only person who should make the decision is the pregnant person. How free are we when parents and doctors can be jailed for helping young people live as their authentic selves? That care is best for their mental health. Not to mention the way anti-LGBTQIA+ people blatantly lie about what gender-affirming care is. I hate a liar, especially when they’re playing on people’s most ignorant fears and biases. Sowing chaos to manipulate people into supporting their nonsense.
How free are we when protecting ourselves could be considered criminal? Attempts to ban masking as we attempt to protect ourselves from disease and the institutions that suffocate us while abandoning public health. Guess the Cop City formats are to train the people who will attempt to contain us as society slowly continues to collapse and people rebel.
How free are we as the climate rapidly changes due to our fossil fuel emissions? Every weather event is unprecedented. Major snow and ice storms in Texas. Record breaking heat every single day across the globe. Ocean waters so warm in June that Category 4 hurricanes develop and devastate parts of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, the majority of Carriacou and Petite Martinique, and parts of Jamaica. How free are we when the people and countries who contribute the least to the climate crisis face the brunt of the resulting weather disasters?
None of this is necessary. We could make changes to address and correct it all. How much can we change when the uber-wealthy buy politicians, the judiciary, and elections to keep themselves on top? The only way through appears to be together. We’ll have to rely on and support one another to survive. Despite being able to take care of myself today, I won’t pretend that it all can’t be taken in an instant. Perhaps collective social change will push us toward a way of life that isn’t just dodging disaster.
How Free Can We Be
