extrait du discours de Frederick Douglas pour le 4 juillet 1852 et un poème en reponse par Dr. Charles Taylor

Quel est, pour l'esclave américain, votre 4 juillet? Je réponds: une journée qui lui révèle, plus que tous les autres jours de l'année, l'injustice et la cruauté flagrantes dont il est la victime constante. Pour lui, votre célébration est une imposture; votre liberté vantée, une licence impie; votre grandeur nationale, la vanité enflée; vos sons de réjouissance sont vides et sans cœur; vos dénonciations de tyrans, l'impudence face aux cuivres; vos cris de liberté et d'égalité, moquerie creuse; vos prières et hymnes, vos sermons et actions de grâces, avec tout votre défilé religieux et votre solennité, ne sont pour lui que de la baston, de la fraude, de la tromperie, de l'impiété et de l'hypocrisie - un mince voile pour dissimuler des crimes qui déshonoreraient une nation de sauvages . Il n'y a pas une nation sur terre coupable de pratiques, plus choquantes et sanglantes, que le peuple de ces États-Unis, à cette heure même.

                                       Frederick Douglas


What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy — a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour. 

****************

"What to the American slave, is your 4th of July.... your celebration is a sham."

                                             Frederick Douglas, 1852

Dear Frederick, I

always ignore the 4th of 

July. It's only

short displays in dark

sky of brilliant colors,

like our instant lives.

Something's off with me,

I suppose, I never dug

our country's intense

noisy wallowing

in jingoistic booms of

puffing chests and pride.

I'm a runaway

from patriotic life, off

to other nations

or off to hidden

corners or a patch of woods 

where I disappear.

I make excuses,

but I am an introvert.

Don't like to debate.

Something snapped in me.

Only at odd times did I 

see a way forward.

So much force against

any sort of change, so much

evil done, lands ripped

from native hands and

then slaves brought in to slave

and sweat on the land,

then wars and wars and

wars, with assassinations,

assassinations.

It made me angry

and sick, while my working on

campaigns brought no wins

so I became this

runaway, though I did

get chained to a tree

and went off to jail.

I ran away from what seemed

a heavy burden,

weight of history 

I could face but never bear,

Frederick Douglas.

I had three kids to 

raise and lived most my life

month to month. I was

busy with work and

chores. Still, I should have worked more

for a better world.

I hope the time has

come for change now with these kids

marching in the streets

                                                                        Charles Taylor