Using out-of-context events to justify anti-American sentiment is extreme dishonesty, and intellectually lazy…but that’s what the Left does in order to drive their point home.
A washed up NFL player sponsored by Nike Corp continued his deceit about why the United States of America is so undeserving of July 4th patriotic recognition.
Nike introduced a sneaker with a 1776 Betsy Ross American flag, and he protested it as invoking a dishonorable slavery past at the Nation’s founding; then piled on with more, by citing former slave Frederick Douglass from an 1852 July 4th speech.
Douglass said “This Fourth July is yours, not mine” in the context of slavery which still existed in 1852. But to cite Douglass’s disavowing the Nation’s 4th of July before slavery was ended, yet fail to cite his embrace of America after, is extreme deceit.
What did he say after the Emancipation was signed in 1863?
“I stand here tonight not only as a colored man and an American, but by the express decision of the Attorney-General of the United States, as a colored citizen, having, in common with all other citizens, a stake in the safety, prosperity, honor, and glory of a common country. There are certain great national acts, which by their relation to universal principles, properly belong to the whole human family, and Abraham Lincoln’s Proclamation of the 1st of January, 1863 is one of these acts. Henceforth shall that day take rank with the Fourth of July.” (bold, u/l emphasis added)
Once a slave, the words of a man embracing and proud of American citizenship.
Yes, in 1852 Douglass disavowed July 4th…yet, before doing so he also said:
“Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. They were great men too – great enough to give frame to a great age. It does not often happen to a nation to raise, at one time, such a number of truly great men. The point from which I am compelled to view them is not, certainly, the most favorable; and yet I cannot contemplate their great deeds with less than admiration. They were statesmen, patriots, and heroes, and for the good they did, and the principles they contended for, I will unite with you to honor their memory.” (bold, u/l emphasis added)
A former slave, fighting to end slavery in his time, yet honored the Founding Fathers’ efforts and memories. A former slave, after slavery’s end, honored America as a citizen.
Why can’t the present-day Left?
Mr. Douglass would be appalled at tearing down Founders’ statues and burning flags…
…as are we.
The shame of this Nation is not how it was founded…but how it’s now maligned…
…DECEITFULLY SO.