Every time I have celebrated the 4th of July with family, friends, or strangers, I have NEVER thought about our country winning it independence from Great Britain unless someone pointed it out, like the media. I just thought of it as a National Holiday that is celebrated with hot dogs, hamburgers, french fries, chips and dips, potato salad, coleslaw, chili, homemade ice cream of any flavor, and apple pie... along with plenty of beer and unsweetened iced tea and fireworks when it gets dark.
I do not think of all the people that were killed in the Revolutionary War, Slavery the Civil War, WWI and WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and in the Middle East.
I do not think about all the freedoms that me and so many other Americans take for granted.
It's just another time to celebrate whatever with a lot of food like Thanksgiving and for that holiday I do not think about its originals as well.
WHY am I like this?
The PAST is our PAST and we live in the present and plan for the future. It is often said that if we do not understand our past... our history, that we are destined to repeat it... and, all that I think about when I hear a statement like that is: CLOTHES STYLES and how every 15 years or so, styles that went out-of-style are not back in-style... so, we are repeating our past intentionally... so, trying to understand our past by knowing our past seems rather pointless.
HOWEVER, as I get older, I recall in certain situations that what I did or did not do had negative outcomes, so those actions or in-actions are not repeated... and, it does not take a brain surgeon to realize that slavery and wars should not be repeated even though some of our laws and systems are designed to keep many of us as economic slaves.
I ALSO HAD NO IDEA that the name of Yale University and Fort Bragg were names associated with slavery and would not ever have known if someone had not of pointed it out to the rest of us. I don't know if my ancestors owned slaves or not but if they did, it still is none of my business and I should not feel ashamed of my family because they did.
I don't think about my grandfather and whether or not he was racist but I do remember hearing stories that my grandfather helped whites and black alike during the GREAT DEPRESSION. My father had a beach house on the Outer Banks of NC and refused to rent his cottage to blacks... but I don't judge my father as being good or bad because of his actions... and, never associated his actions with slavery.
NONE OF THIS is on my mind when I celebrate the 4th of July... it's just another holiday. I never drove around the USA and into cities pointing out statues of historical figures... For me, I did not care who they were or what they had done.
While I was in college, a wealthy student (associated with the Rockefellers I think) donated a History Seminar Room at a cost a a couple of millions of dollars. He put his name on the building as a requirement of the donation back in 1968. But, when I visited the campus back in 2008, 40 years later, none of the students taking seminars in that room knew who he was... in fact, this is what I heard: "he's just some old fart with a lot of money that he needed to spend on something."
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