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The words of FREDERICK DOUGLASS, July 4, 1852:<br><br>
At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is
needed. O! Had I the ability, and could I reach the nation's ear, I
would, today pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting
reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that
is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need
the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation
must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the
propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation
must be exposed: And its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed
and denounced.<br><br>
What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day
that reveals to him, more than all the 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, brassfronted impudence. To
the slave your shouts of liberty and equality are 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.<br>
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O, let America be
America again<br>
The land that
never has been yet<br>
And yet must
be.<br><br>
---Langston Hughes<br><br>
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522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br>
(415) 863-9977<br>
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