Celebrating the birth of the United States of America in 2022 just does not feel right. There is so much dissension in this country that I am compelled to spell out my concerns. I canceled my Fourth of July parade plans and just hung with friends, without celebrating this country.
The United States Constitution was ratified OnJune 21, 1788. Thus, the Constitution became the official framework of our government. It has flaws that amendments over the years have attempted to rectify.
This country allows politicians, the media, corporations, and individuals to present non-truths under the guise of the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” Adopted in 1791, this amendment does not give permission for untruths or distortion of the truth.
In this country, some citizens are encouraged, under the guise of free speech, to refuse to honor government institutions and the rule of law.
This country, founded on separation of church and state, now allows erosion of this principle, supported by the justices of the Supreme Court.
This country now honors guns more than the lives of our citizens and our children, lacking the leadership to thwart the production, sale, and ownership of guns, hiding behind a selective interpretation of the Second Amendment to the constitution: “A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”
In this country, children must practice hiding under desks, in closets, and behind locked doors in an attempt to prevent and escape violence.
This country allows legal possession of assault rifles that are capable of firing 600 to 700 rounds per minute.
In this country, personal family decisions and the right to privacy are overruled in spite of the Fourth Amendment: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
This is a country that was built on racism, allowing slavery, which was only abolished by a Civil War, resulting in deaths of an estimated 750,000 people over the course of four years. In an effort to rectify the abuses of slavery, Congress passed the 14th Amendment, granting citizenship to all persons “born or naturalized in the United States,” including former slaves, and guaranteed “equal protection of the laws” to all citizens. Then Congress passed the 15th Amendment, which stated that voting rights could not be “denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”
Yet, this country continues to purposely develop voting restrictions to limit voting rights.
This is a country that allows and encourages the destruction of established voting procedures of the democratic process and basic governance by a radical group of citizens.
This country did not recognize the rights of women until the 19th Amendment granted American women the right to vote—132 years after the Constitution was ratified.
This country discriminates against women, black people, immigrants, homeless, people of other religions, physically challenged people, and those in poverty.
This country denied a global pandemic and allowed a virus to spread throughout the United States, resulting in more than 1 million deaths through lies and deception.
In this country, a large segment of the population denies the insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021.
This country has Supreme Court justices who support gun carrying by citizens without just cause, who support denying the freedom to make one’s own health decisions.
In this country, children are left without proper health care, food, clothing, housing, secure homes, and affordable child care through lack of support by the government.
This country does not recognize women as capable of making their own health care decisions, while allowing men to make their own health care decisions.
This country allows partisan politics to infiltrate every aspect of citizens’ lives.
This country allows corporations to be treated as persons.
This country has a culture that allows “Shell Oil to make $9.1 billion in profit from January to March 2022, almost three times what it made in the same period last year, while Exxon raked in $8.8 billion, also a near threefold increase on 2021. Chevron upped its profits to $6.5 billion and BP reveled in its highest first-quarter profits in a decade, making $6.2 billion,” according to The Guardian.
In this country, women earn 82 cents for every dollar a man earns.
In this country, a minimum wage of $7.25 an hour was set in 2009 and has yet to be increased.
In this country, the average S&P 500 company CEO made 299 times the average worker’s salary last year, according to AFL-CIO’s annual Executive Paywatch Report.
This country values short-term profit over long-term environmental protection and preservation.
This is a country where many people have lost belief in science, transposing opinion for facts.
In this country, there is a lack of understanding of the principles and features of a democracy, and thus democracy is disappearing: equality, free elections, individual freedom, political participation, majority rule, limited government, popular representation, an educated populace, peaceful change of government, free press, and judiciary independence.
This country does not deserve the name United States, as it is sorely divided. It is now composed of states without the will and ability to remain united.
This country has lost my belief in its ability to carry out and defend a democracy. I cannot celebrate its founding, its lack of ethics and principles, its lack of compassion, its focus fear and greed, and its inability to develop a common cause for the good of all. Δ
Jean Burns Slater writes from San Luis Obispo. Send a response for publication to letters@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Jul 7-17, 2022.
No question we have a lot of work to do, but I celebrate the sacrfices people made to fight for civil rights, unions and the American Dream. Do not give up and cede the flag to the fascists.
Nearly every bit of what you wrote, is either terrifically misinterpreted, or an ouright lie. I’ll let you decide.
Outstanding piece, Ms. Slater.
We live in a Balkanized, tribal empire of hate, cruelty & violence. This is a shithole country where assault weapons are valued more than children & where a nihilistic death cult dominates one of America’s two political parties.The only silver lining to July 4 is knowing that some stupid rednecks probably lost a few fingers to prematurely exploding cherry bombs.
“This is a shithole country”
Oh, definitely not. It is, in my mind, still the greatest nation in the world. We have our issues, but I view the present day as an inconvenient time and I take solace in the words of Martin Luther King Jr.—”the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
Ironically, the angry commentary in this letter highlights one of the very best reasons for living in the United States, where one can publicly post it with no repercussions from an autocratic government—like that existing in Russia or China—toward the writer or the publishing media.
There are quite a few of us who struggled with celebrating a country so clearly divided and to watch us slide back into the past where bigotry and violence was tolerated. To sit with the fact corporations are valued more than its people. Common sense and common courtesy don’t seem to exist anymore. An individual’s personal preference or self-importance is forced onto others loudly. The loss of community has been morphed into selfishness. Your words resonate with me in a visceral way. You only have to listen to what is being said about us by citizens of other countries to begin to understand how we are perceived in the world. No longer are we held up as an example of what to be. Now we are hated, pitied or mocked.
Thankyou jean burns for helping me….a life long clear thinking Conservative ….to redidicate my self to my values.., you’re the evil that’s rotting out our country….brainwashing our youths….. I’ll fight people like you to the last day….hopefully truth will prevail..and liars like you will end up where you belong