Easy life...really.

Today, this weekend really, has been pretty fantastic.  The hardest decision I had to make all weekend was maybe picking out the flavor of ice cream I wanted from Sweet Action.  (I had the Vanilla Porter.)  Granted I was a little sad because my children are far away and I miss them.  Even that fact proves what a pretty awesome life I lead.  And yes, Ezana, it is amazing.  Sometimes it does amaze me when I realize the kinds of lives others, even in our country, live.

Really, this life of mine is a pretty easy one.  I realize that and I'm thankful.  Very thankful.  Daily thankful.  I haven't always gotten what I wanted, or had things work out exactly the way I would have preferred.  But I am still very lucky to live the life I live.  I have people who love me and that I love.  I am able to provide for my children.  I'm relatively healthy (and working on the not so healthy parts).   And I have time to think, the luxury of being able to express myself, and the freedom & support to do so at will. 

So, with the taste of Vanilla Porter still in my mouth I'm smiling and thinking of all the blessings I have in my life, and all the wonderful people I have in my life.  And if I haven't told you lately, just so you know, I love you.

$4th of July

In 1852 Frederick Douglass asked "What the the Slave is the 4th of July?"  He said, "I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence bequeathed by your fathers is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought light and healing to you has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony."

Strong words indeed, yet at the time they were necessary and important.  They still ring true to those in our nation today who have heeded the call of Lady Liberty and yet who cannot share the blessings which so many of us do.  The questions still remains for those enslaved in the sex trade, for those stuck in the fields providing cheap produce that we all enjoy, and for all those who live in fear of being sent back to countries that provide no hope for the future what exactly IS the 4th of July?  A hollow dream?  It is time to stop pointing the finger of justice at countries afar and instead take a look at ourselves and the injustices that plague and shame our nation and dim the freedom so many have slaved and died to provide.

Yes, we are a proud nation, but it is important to remember that it's been built on the backs of people who have often not enjoyed the same freedoms as those who so proudly wave the flags on the Main Street, USA.  In addition to the soldiers who have defended the nation,  it has been built on the backs of slaves, immigrants and migrants.  We, as a nation, would do well to remember that simple fact on this day of Independence.