It was like “A Tale of Two Cities”: the best of times and the worst of times.
It was the best of times for the hundreds of immigrants who were sworn in as U.S. naturalized citizens across this great land.
Their swearing-in was a manifestation of the provision of the 14th Amendment creating citizenship for persons not born in this country — a provision of the Constitution just as important as citizenship by birth.
This is the provision President Trump tried to get the U.S. Supreme Court to nullify in the birthright citizenship case, which the court rejected.
While many recited the words of the Declaration of Independence, stating: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed …”
Many among us are being denied those very rights today, as evidenced by armed troops on the streets of our cities and federal agents killing and imprisoning immigrants, citizens and anyone who appears to be out of step with this administration.
The celebrations, parades and millions of dollars spent on fireworks led many of us to remember and question those events with the immortal words of Frederick Douglass, who raised his rhetorical question during the 1852 celebration of the 76th anniversary of America’s independence: “What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? …”
Today, 174 years later, the question is still all too real.
For those of us concerned about the police state and the kingship Donald Trump would establish, let’s take heart in the fact that today we have tools Douglass did not have. In addition to the Constitution with its 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments, the only thing we lack to make change is the will to get involved and do so.
Let’s start right where we live. Let’s start with the issue of making sure that each of us can vote, register and prepare to do so.
Let’s take another look at how we are spending the few dollars we have. Let’s take another look at who we can help as part of our collective and prepare to use our numbers like never before in all that we do.
Let’s create our own fireworks that will last all year long with our involvement and collective agreement to help ourselves before we expect others to do so — and in all this, let’s make a lasting reality out of the change Frederick Douglass envisioned.
Warren is publisher of The San Diego Voice and Viewpoint.
