Sunday Question: How Do You Celebrate Your Independence?

Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Jul 4, 2010

Some of you might find this shocking, but not all black people celebrate the 4th of July as Independence Day. My wife and I are two of those people, and we’re not close to being alone. Something about that 3/5ths of a person when the Constitution was being put together and then the Dred Scott decision in 1857 still sticks in my craw. Don’t even get me started with the latest legislation in Arizona.

I’m as patriotic as anyone else when it comes to supporting this country, but that’s about as far as it goes. If I were going to celebrate an independence day, it would be July 9th, when the 14th Amendment was passed in 1868, but I’d probably be celebrating by myself since most people don’t know that date.

My favorite
Independence Day

So, in lieu of today being Independence Day in the United States, and my not really honoring the date, I thought I’d throw it out to everyone and talk about the universal concept of independence instead. After all, we all want to live in a free society where we can pretty much do whatever we want to do within the confines of the law, and in some cases we hate some of the restrictions that laws end up putting on us in some fashion.

But for the most part, most of us have a lot of independence. We have independence enough to decide who we’re going to work for, even if it’s ourselves. We have independence in deciding who we’re going to marry. We have independence on which religion, if any at all, we’re going to support. We have independence that says we can go out and have fun with others or stay home and make our own bit of fun.

So, the big question of the day is how do you celebrate your independence? For me, it’s working for myself. It’s writing my own blog posts and my own stories and articles whenever I’m ready to do so. It’s working on my detective novel. It’s going to the casino here and there. It’s going to the health club (though it’s kicking and screaming sometimes lol). It’s deciding when I want to leave the house, and when I feel like staying in the house. For me, my independence gives me the option to live the simple life one day, and strive for better things the next.

That sounds pretty good if you ask me; what say you?

Tags: 14th Amendment, 4th of July, Constitution, Independence Day, living independently

20 Comments »

David Leonhardt:

That’s definitely a different perspective and it makes total sense. There were, in fact, two wars of independence. Like most big things, change does not come in one sweeping blow, as much as we would like to pin down the exact second when history “happened”.

Mitch Reply:
July 4th, 2010 at 12:11 PM

David, history is always written to favor the victor, so to speak, but it doesn’t mean that everyone forgets what happened in the past because the past is still with many of us. Still, there are benefits some of us get from that history, and having the ability to live our lives somewhat independently now is a great thing.

July 4th, 2010 | 10:01 AM

Rummuser:

That is a new insight about the American independence day, and I have learned a valuable lesson from you. Thank you.

India won its independence from England on August 15, 1947. Every year, the day is celebrated as noisily and with as much fervour as the Americans do theirs on the fourth of July. I don’t celebrate that day or any other religious or other festival days, as I personally believe that every day is to be celebrated. I do.

Mitch Reply:
July 4th, 2010 at 12:13 PM

I’m with you, Rummuser. I admit to loving fireworks, but I don’t like parades and I’d rather not get caught up in crowds making mayhem and mischief in the name of any holiday either. But I will always celebrate my independence.

July 4th, 2010 | 11:36 AM

Charles Gulotta:

Both the Declaration of Independence and the 14th Amendment claimed certain freedoms, but it would take many years of fighting and the loss of many lives before those freedoms would even approach reality. I agree with David: It’s often impossible to attach an exact date to change.

Speaking of exact dates, Mitch, I’m sure your date of 1968 was a slip of the typing finger (should have been 1868). But here’s something relevant that DID happen on July 9, 1968 — a full century after the 14th Amendment was passed:

http://www.project1968.com/in-the-news-july-9-1968.html

Mitch Reply:
July 4th, 2010 at 11:27 PM

Dag, stupid typos; thanks for looking out, Charles. In actuality, even though I gave July 9th, it wasn’t actually voted on officially until the 28th, and even then it was close to a bare majority.

Desegregation and the like is back in the news now in North Carolina, and I have a feeling it’ll be making its push in other states for as long as President Obama is in office. Racism is coming back strong, and I don’t like it one bit.

July 4th, 2010 | 11:05 PM

Rose:

I like you work for myself. Happy Independence Day.

Mitch Reply:
July 5th, 2010 at 12:00 AM

Rose, we individual entrepreneurs need to stick together.

Rose Reply:
July 7th, 2010 at 2:20 PM

We sure do.

July 4th, 2010 | 11:40 PM

DeAnna Troupe:

I do like the fireworks. I do agree with you about the whole holiday being different for me being African-American. I do know some blacks celebrate Juneteenth more than they do Independence day. For me, independence means that I have the freedom to decide what I am going to do for the day.

Mitch Reply:
July 5th, 2010 at 12:01 AM

Fireworks are cool; I think Americans like seeing things blown up. lol Actually, I’m at the point now where I don’t have a holiday I actually celebrate anymore, at least not because I want to.

July 4th, 2010 | 11:49 PM

Stan:

It was a great weekend for me, spend with my family, play with my son, watch TV, bought very nice authentic battle katana and had absolutely amazing white whine. Happy independence day everybody.

Mitch Reply:
July 5th, 2010 at 8:37 AM

Glad you had a nice day, Stan; that’s what independence is all about.

July 5th, 2010 | 7:54 AM

Peter Davies:

For me having served in the military I have seen first hand how important it is to live in a stable democracy. On the other hand I as a UK citizen and many others take democracy for granted as we dont know any different if that makes sense.

Those of us who live in stable societies and being able to go about our day to day business without having the state or any other body on our backs should always cherish that fact.

July 5th, 2010 | 8:20 AM

Keith Curreri:

I want to read your detective novel when you finish it!

Mitch Reply:
July 5th, 2010 at 1:38 PM

“If” I ever finish it, I’ll be looking you up, Keith.

July 5th, 2010 | 12:56 PM

Kathy:

July 4th is a big deal to me because I am an American history buff. I love learning about the revolution and the ideas that guided our founding fathers. I hope that one day we live up to the ideals of that precious document referred to as the United States Constitution.

I celebrate by giving thanks to those who have died so that we may be free. For without their sacrifice we would still be subjects of her Royal majesty.

It is our duty to live up to the opportunities they have provided us with.

Mitch Reply:
July 6th, 2010 at 11:18 PM

I’m glad you enjoyed the day, Kathy. I will say it’s an interesting premise of yours to say it’s our duty to live up to the opportunities presented to us by the founding fathers. My thought is that you’d have a different perspective if the opportunities your ancestors were presented included beatings, being considered property, and not knowing if every person you meet might be a potential family member because someone decided you didn’t have any familial rights since, by law, you weren’t really considered a person. I’m sure your study of American history has included those stories as well.

Instead, I’ll celebrate the independence that I have now that came from other leaders and those who were willing to give their lives so I could have said opportunities that weren’t afforded me by founding fathers. I may be a bit more dramatic than others about this, but then again I was an African-American studies minor in college, a direction of historical study that, of course, was a ride on a horse of a different color.

Overall, I’m still thankful for any independence I’m afforded, and I appreciate the American spirit of today and the people who support me in having that independence as well.

July 6th, 2010 | 2:49 PM

Charles Gulotta:

You mentioned that you were an African-American Studies minor in college. I wonder if that’s when you learned the truth about Washington and Jefferson being slave-owners. Even Patrick Henry, whose words (“Give me liberty or give me death!”) we admired and memorized, held slaves. We were never taught any of this in high school. In fact, I didn’t learn these things, and others, until well into adulthood. It made my head spin then, and it still does. If high schools were really about learning, they would have taught us the truth. Then we could have gotten into some meaningful discussions about how these brave and otherwise virtuous men could behave in ways that directly contradicted the words we were asked to commit to memory. They must have struggled with their own hypocrisy. I would have preferred learning about that, rather than the myths we were taught. Hero worship almost always leads to disappointment. But if we had to study heroes, it would have been much more helpful to know about the slaves who rebelled, and the abolitionists who risked their lives to help them. I guess they didn’t think our little brains could handle the complexity.

Mitch Reply:
July 7th, 2010 at 9:12 AM

Actually Charles, I learned it all when I was in 7th grade. Got interested in a biography of Frederick Douglass and I just had to know more. Ended up having to order lots of books through mail order; I was living in northern Maine at the time on a military base. The stuff I learned was shocking, I shared, and everyone started calling me “the militant”. lol

July 7th, 2010 | 8:37 AM

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