“What Do We Celebrate this July Fourth?” @ Bill of Rights Defense Committee

Posted on July 5, 2012

Shahid Buttar — July 4, 2012: “When the United States championed democracy, freedom, and opportunity, it made sense to celebrate the Fourth of July.  But are we still promoting those values? If we are paragons of neither opportunity nor freedom, what exactly do we celebrate today?

Our Statue of Liberty bears an inscription welcoming the world’s “tired and poor…huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”  Our open arms which once greeted strangers (on whose backs our country was built), however, have been replaced by laws like Arizona’s SB 1070, copycat laws around the country, and the recent Supreme Court decision upholding provisions that encourage racial profiling.

Liberty itself is a fading memory, a lyric in an anthem that few Americans today understand, even as millions sing it at sporting events and during today’s holiday………………………..”

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