Today I don’t celebrate.

I grieve.

We are not,

nor have we ever been

free.

How can a nation built on genocide,

subjugation, and slavery call itself free?

The blood on our hands is the red in our flag.

White is the rage of freedoms deprived.

Blue is the bruising of eyes, and arms, and backs

of all those beaten down by discrimination, hatred, and bigotry.

We are not and we have never been free.

I weep for a nation that calls itself free

while over half a million are homeless…

where people are continually deprived of adequate food, shelter, and healthcare,

where our education system is being dismantled

and books are being banned.

Where women are no longer free to make decisions about their own health,

and where so many go without

while others bask in the wealth they could not spend if they tried.

How can we call ourselves free when

our tax dollars are going to fund another nation’s genocide and

when the blood on our hands is more than just our own?

Our nation is not free.

It never truly was.

So no – I do not celebrate July fourth.

Instead, today I grieve.

copyright Lauri Ann Lumby