More Independence

Because July 4th was on Tuesday this year, our family gathered and feasted
on Saturday. Most had to report for work on Monday and wished to rest at
home the following day.

I've had my own special days of Independence in the past, about which I may
write some day, but my July 4th celebration was contingent on burning the
shoulder-high pile of brush accumulated since spring, along with a big trash
can of waste paper from my office.

The county-wide burn ban in effect from May 1st until November 1st provides
exceptions for recreation or for cooking food, so I roasted a couple of hot dogs
and 2 foil-wrapped potatoes and Buckie and I circled the fire a few times, which
might pass for a sort of recreation. Then we waded in the creek to cool off. And
then we ate.

Independence Day is one of the few holidays I can support whole-heartedly.
Even so, I know it does not have the same meaning for all Americans.

I have a CD of Whitney Houston singing America the Beautiful over and over,
5 or 6 renderings of the same song, each slightly different. Quite a trip to play it.
And I like to play it on trips.

From sea to shining sea.

At one point Ms Houston stops singing and calls out: "America- America,
I love you!"

I saw African Americans buying charcoal and all the parts for a cookout on
Tuesday.Yet the Declaration did not mean Independence for their ancestors.

Thousands of slaves and freedmen fought with the British, for the British had
abolished slavery. (Thousands more fought with the Revolutionaries, mostly
Northern Blacks.) And thousands left on British ships for lands where men
could not be bought and sold like cattle. But many were simply abandoned,
left to face the masters they had deserted, when the defeated British pulled out.
And many died from smallpox.

There had been an epidemic, devastating to the Revolutionary Army, but less so
to the British, for more of them had acquired immunity as children. The slaves,
isolated on plantations, were especially susceptible to the disease. Most of those
infected were simply abandoned by the British, or driven into the woods to die.
But some were used in an early example of Biological Warfare: "On July 13,
1781, [British] General Alexander Leslie outlined his plan in a letter to Cornwallis.
'Above 700 Negroes are come down the river in the Small Pox.' he wrote.
'I shall distribute them about the Rebell Plantations'." (Pox Americana, the Great
Smallpox Epidemic of 1775-82, by Elizabeth A. Fenn, New York 2001, p.132
see also p.130)
This seems patterned after the even earlier genocidal plan to give Native
Americans blankets from the deathbeds of smallpox victims.

And purple mountains majesty....

I may not love our history of injustices, but I do love this land. I love the rolling
fields and the deep valleys and even the cities. I love the ridges and hills and
mountains here in North Georgia. My heart lifts up when driving back from the
relatively flat Atlanta area into a higher and higher elevation where the road
begins to wind between wooded hills.
I love this little bit right here beside Cane Creek.

When we first began to march against the war in Vietnam, there were people
on the sidewalks calling out: "Go back to Russia!"

With Paul Robeson I wanted to say: I am an American. I was born here
and here I shall stay.

The biographical book by Robeson, the great African American singer, actor,
former football star, was entitled "Here I Stand.". And so he did. And so shall I.