I have copied and pasted a section of this speech by Fredrick Douglass, to highlight the perspective, that a godly person cannot in good conscience, celebrate his own liberty, while his brethren are persecuted and suffering under the yoke of grotesque and cruel oppression. NOTE: the speech in its entirety is eloquent and spirit stirring, and I highly recommend you searching it out, and taking the well used time to read it.
I will alternate between Fredrick's rebuke to the people of 1852, and my own for the people that live and breathe now, entering into the year 2025, God willing.
Fredrick Douglas: What, am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob them of their liberties, to work them without wages, to keep them ignorant of their relations to their fellow men, to beat them with sticks, to flay their flesh with the lash, to load their limbs with iron, to hunt them with dogs, to sell them at auction, to sunder their families, to knock out their teeth, to burn their flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to their masters? Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood and stained with pollution is wrong? No! I will not. I have better employments for my time and strength than such arguments would imply.
Linda Grace Byers: What, am I to argue that it is wrong to make men bend their backs to their money grubbing employers, to rob them of breath by the forcing of masks and plexiglas shields, to work them beyond their agreed upon wages with the imposition of inhuman protocols of hand sanitizing, and up the nose daily testing to prove they may or may not be ill, keeping them free of relations with their fellow men, by telling them they must not meet, must not gather, must keep apart from one another, to have them take toxic injections that scream of the horrors of murdered babies that have been ripped, limb from limb, tearing them from their mother and father and would be siblings, auctioning them off as a bi-product and useable for poisons and potions, twisting their heads to break their necks, to burn their flesh with the vileness in the syringe vials, to starve them by threatening to steal away their work wages so that they feel they must obey as they are coerced to comply with their masters, the practice of injecting tracking chips and other objects? Must I argue that a system marked with blood and stained with pollution is wrong? No, I will not. I have better employments for my time and strength, since these arguments are self-evident in proving the wickedness of what we have experienced and witnessed.
Fredrick Douglass: What, then, remains to be argued? Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? There is blasphemy in the thought. That which is inhuman, cannot be divine! Who can reason on such a proposition? They that can, may; I cannot. The time for argument is past.
Linda Grace Byers: What, then, remains to be argued? Is it that slavery is divine; that God established it and blessed the rich, empowering them to oppress and enslave those that work under their tyranny, that our doctors of divinity are mistaken in speaking Christ as King and Lord of lords. There is blasphemy in the thought. That which is inhuman cannot be divine! Who can reason on such a proposition? They that can, may; I cannot. The time for argument is past.
Fredrick Douglass: At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. O! had I the ability, and could I reach a nation's ear, I would, to-day, 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.
Linda Grace Byers: At a time like this, singed souls, not argument, is needed. O! If I could rattle the caged, arouse the near dead, shake awake those that slumber, give a stingy reproach to the conformists and colluders, I would pour resounding warning and rebuke into their closed over ears. We need flames that heat feet to running, a whirlwind that lifts and crumbles foundations of sand, and a quake that breaks up the earth the masses cling to for their dear lives. Let them see the divide, the chasm before them, and fear falling in. The nations must be quickened, the universal pulse must race; the conscience of the nations must be stirred; propriety and piety of the nations must be jolted; the hypocrisy of the nation(s) must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced.
Fredrick Douglass: What, to the American slave, is your Fourth 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 boast of 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.
Linda Grace Byers: What, to the American, the Canadian, the citizens of this world, the injected and dying, is the day the president takes his office? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the coming year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham. To him, you boast liberty when his president betrayed him, taking unholy license. Your national greatness, is swelling and pompous vanity. Your cheers in the streets are empty and heartless. You denounce tyrants while inviting them to rule and reign over a broken populace. The small man sees not liberty and equality from his suffering bed, from his dying chamber. You mock the broken, with your religious parades and feigned solemnity: to him, you are bombastic, a fraud, deceptive and impious, a hypocrite that thinly veils and covers crimes of cruelty and murder. You disgrace your nation and betray your savage hearts. 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.
Dear reader, how many times have you heard recently, about the sick and dying? Who among us has not witnessed suffering and then sudden death, or heard about it, over and over again, as in day after bloody day? Satan, I have said many times before, is an equal opportunity killer, and he does not discriminate. American history is horrific. The slave "trade" can only be thought of with curled lip and the soul whinging and attempting to shy away from reality. Those that were subjected to torture and oppression could not escape easily if at all, because of the shackles and the conspiring the wicked continually committed to keep them oppressed. Dear one, we are in the same state, and just like Fredrick, I refuse to enjoy and celebrate and pretend, that all is well and we can move forward, when so many are falling ill and dying rapidly.
I cannot help but suffer with the suffering, and I ask you: How can you think of praising and parading a president that proudly gloats publicly about his sin; his sin will be his shame one day soon, and if you happen to be someone that can applaud an unrepentant murderer, I fear your soul is in jeopardy, and you are currently on the wrong side of glory.
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