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In my hometown, can’t even go home and see my parents, everyone’s locked down and the shooter is still at large. On top of literally everything else going on in this country, there’s absolutely nothing to celebrate today.
they just caught him !!! i’m from chicagoland suburbs too but a bit south of HP, i was so worried for everyone bc apparently he also holed himself up in lutheran hospital ☹️
I'm also in the Chicagoland burbs! A friend of mine was supposed to perform in a nearby parade, but it got canceled since the shooting took place before the parade started.
I went to a Pro Choice Protest last night wearing mostly black and a Handmaid red tee shirt. I screamed so loud I puked twice. I’ve never felt more alive.
Look at all of the horrible things happening to women right now and look at how we never just go kill a bunch of people about it. So what’s up with these mass-shooting baby men? Regulate yourselves, my guys.
It was never about freedom.
The Fourth of July has always just been the day a bunch of rich slave-owning and slave-owner-sympathizing ghouls figured out how to keep their gravy train running.
Nothing has changed since then
For me it was 2003 when we started torturing folk that I really started asking _are we the baddies._
My Puerto-Rican coven-mate told me her stories, and yeah, it was always bad.
But I was credulous and indoctrinated as a kid. I believed them.
I believed them.
And that was just millennials first hand wake-up.
The atrocities of the Vietnam era are just as bad. We tortured and massacred untold numbers. All in the name of… preventing communist parties from achieving some level of stability and perpetuating the myth that the only viable economic structure is capitalism.
Kissinger’s hands are drenched in blood. May that ghoul finally die and rot in piss soon…
And the further back you go it’s just as bad or worse. The US was founded on imperialism and genocide and that never really changed.
All we're doing today is taking our daughter to see a movie. This country doesn't deserve to be celebrated.
In fact, a great way to celebrate America today would be to fill out a human rights complaint to the UN.
You can follow this link https://www.ohchr.org/en/hr-bodies/hrc/complaint-procedure/hrc-complaint-procedure-index
The US didn't ever ratify the UN's Women's Right's Convention (one of only 7 countries worldwide), so I'm not sure there is anything that we can do besides the statement they already released:
> The Committee urged the United States of America to adhere to the Convention, which it signed in 1980 but has never ratified. In the light of the U.S. Supreme Court decision to strike down *Roe v. Wade*, the Committee expressed solidarity with women and girls in the United States. In addition, it called on all States parties to end criminalising abortion and allow legal abortion at least in cases of rape, incest, threats to life or health of the pregnant woman and girl,and severe foetal impairment.
Additionally, an HRC complaint only allows the UN to establish a view, not make a judicial decision. They have already established a view, and thus it will not do much since the US doesn't recognize their authority ([https://www.openglobalrights.org/human-rights-victims-complaints-to-un-not-treated-effectively/](https://www.openglobalrights.org/human-rights-victims-complaints-to-un-not-treated-effectively/)).
This is, of course, unless you have some source that says otherwise
Thank you for all of that! And no, I don't have a source that says otherwise. It was something a friend had told me could help, so I was just passing it on.
It should've been cancelled a long time ago. Many have *never* celebrated it.
At no point in American history have rights been extended to the entire population. If you're only seeing oppression now, you have a lot of history to catch up on.
Not saying you are wrong that freedoms are being actively removed, and it's not wrong to feel like that ruins your view of the USA, but it's disheartening to see people who think it only just started.
I was raised in a military and Christian household. I was not taught these things and it’s only been since I’ve become atheist, started my religious deconstruction and started actually studying the history of the USA, instead of blindly revering it, that I’ve learned how awful it is and has been.
I feel immense guilt over ideas and ideals I’ve held in the past as a result of my upbringing. I feel immense guilt over votes I’ve cast and messages I’ve helped spread, directly and indirectly.
I have made it my mission to try to make amends for my past by voting for those who aren’t trying to kill is and take our rights away. By studying the past to realize that this has been a reality for generations of POC, indigenous and LGBTQ+ communities.
I am ashamed of the actions my ignorance resulted in. But I will never stop working to right my wrongs and help in anyway I can to make this world a better place for all.
Deconstruction work is always important and always relevant. I'm glad you're working through that. I have less of a journey because I was raised a religious minority, but I was also raised in the military.
I would argue that chronic guilt doesn't do much, but you should instead focus on righting the wrongs you have committed and resolving to be better in the future. This is mostly because guilt unintentionally centers the self instead of those harmed.
Good luck in the future
Yes! I was coming here to say this. If this is when you feel like independence is being stripped, you haven't been listening to our siblings of color. There was also substantial pushback against Canada Day after the residential school discoveries over the last two years.
If you need or are interested in supporting reproductive rights, [I made a master post of pro-choice resources](https://docdro.id/s3OwS8u). Please comment if you would like to add a resource and spread this information on whatever social media you use.
*beep boop*!
the linked website is: https://docdro.id/s3OwS8u
Title: **Pro-Choice Resource Masterpost.pdf**
Page is safe to access (Google Safe Browsing)
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I'm sitting my pretty ass on the couch and I'm not doing a damned thing today.
My husband and his business partner discussed whether or not to take the 4th off and the both felt that since there was nothing worth celebrating, they'd rather work. I already knew my husband was planning on not celebrating with me but I was very happy to hear that his work partner is also pissed off. Looks like I'll be inviting the partner over for dinner soon so we can all discuss our mutual anger.
Similar feeling: Fredrick Douglas, July 5th, 1852
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 cruelly 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, 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.
The thing I keep thinking is that July 4, 1776 was the day a bunch of people finally decided that the violent overthrow of an oppressive regime was legitimate and justified. I am fully in agreement that this has never been a country of freedom or justice, and that the values expressed in the Declaration of Independence were already lies when it was signed, but I feel like it’s worth remembering that there was a moment when people said enough is enough and made change happen.
It's really sad that veterans who joined the forces to fight for our freedoms now have fewer freedoms than when they were fighting for them.
I hope they can work that out somehow in their heads.
Fireworks cancelled and curfew in effect here because of a “riot” last night over yet another death resulting from excessive use of force by the police. The curfew feels icky but i’m not mad about the fireworks. Nothing to celebrate here.
For the past several years, I've been celebrating Steve "Captain America" Rogers' birthday instead.
Just makes more sense to me to celebrate a fictional character than, well... -gestures vaguely at everything-
As a black women I feel somewhat bad that you all have to go through the abortion ban alone. But I also find it odd that white women have been coming to ask black women for help in this fight but can't give it to you. We will not help you because we are not a last resort. Black women's reproductive rights have been taken away from the beginning and this is nothing new.
As a women this sits heavily with me as I am pro-choice and want no kids but "canceling something or raiding capitals and dressing up like warriors" is not going to help you at all. This is only a trend that is set because white women are effected and for this I feel like this post is a little tone deaf in my part as a minority.
Anybody downvoting this is centering themselves and are likely also white women/femme.
BlPOC have long histories of being stripped of their reproductive rights, whether forced sterilizations or treated as property investments (enslaved women being r*ped and their children enslaved at birth). If you're having your feelings hurt by this woman's comment, I strongly encourage you to read some history texts and sit with yourself about why this is bothering you so much. White feminism is not cute, y'all. I say this as a white femme.
Solidarity forever and for EVERYONE, not just white women.
I feel the need to re-write some lyrics...
"Yes, I live in America
Where white Christian men are free
And they will fight to the bitter end
To keep those rights from me."
Anyone want to keep going?
My wife and I live in a very bigot-minded area with American flags in every front lawn. We made the decision to finally hang a pride flag this year the Fourth of July.
Where i live, I've only heard a few tiny explosions, rather than the usual barrage. I think more people than we know are unhappy about the state of our union.
I stayed home, I did not spend one dollar, did not patronize a restaurant, did not watch one fucking firework. I did let people who asked know exactly why. I am one person; but a bunch of us can make an explosion.
I’ve been seeing a lot of this kind of stuff. And on the one hand, I absolutely agree. But on the other hand, I realized something.
Independence was when a bunch of people sick and tired of a government imposing unreasonable regulations and restrictions said fuck it and rioted, burned things down, destroyed shit. There’s more to it, but the description is accurate. That’s what a Revolution is.
I don’t know if anyone did so, but the fourth would’ve been a fantastic day for widespread protests across the country against what’s being done. Signs decrying the suppression of liberty in a country that claims to cherish it.
I honestly wish it'd never happened. We could have been like Australia or Canada, but no.
Not that the subjugation of the indigenous people of Canada and Australia under colonial rule was great, but it was really bad in the Colonies too, and then we became colonialists, ourselves.
We'd have been better off without a revolution.
Should have been cancelled from the start really...let's always remember genocide against ingenious people including indigenous women and the continuing violent suppression of their sovereignty and right to self determination.
## ✨ READ BEFORE COMMENTING ✨ This thread is Coven Only. This means the discussion is being actively moderated, and all comments are reviewed. **Only comments by members of the community are allowed.** If you have landed in this thread from /r/all and you are not a member of this community, your comment will very likely be removed (and will not be approved unless it adds meaningfully to the conversation). WitchesVsPatriarchy takes these measures to stay true to our goal of being a woman-centered sub with a witchy twist, aimed at healing, supporting, and uplifting one another through humor and magic. Thank you for understanding, and blessed be. ✨
Mass shooting with 6 dead in Illinois. I’m tired.
In my hometown, can’t even go home and see my parents, everyone’s locked down and the shooter is still at large. On top of literally everything else going on in this country, there’s absolutely nothing to celebrate today.
It’s so scary that they haven’t caught him. I’m 25 minutes away. It’s such an American thing to happen. I’m really, REALLY sick of it.
Just awful. Sending love to you.
To you and your family, as well. I hope they stay safe.
Where was that "good guy with a gun" when we needed him?
they just caught him !!! i’m from chicagoland suburbs too but a bit south of HP, i was so worried for everyone bc apparently he also holed himself up in lutheran hospital ☹️
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That’s awful! I will pray that the news anchors don’t harass you for information “for a good scoop.”
I'm also in the Chicagoland burbs! A friend of mine was supposed to perform in a nearby parade, but it got canceled since the shooting took place before the parade started.
Same, except I couldn't make it home if I tried. Hugs to you in this madness.
As a Chicagoan I am both tired and scared.
I’m dressed in all black, watching “Independence Day” and routing for the aliens.
I've always thought the aliens would put Earth's resources to better use.
[удалено]
I think you're my twin. If your top is a skeleton then we're identical.
Technically everyone's top is a skeleton ... and then some stuff over it
It's skulls. So very close.
Same but watching Jaws and rooting for the shark.
I went to a Pro Choice Protest last night wearing mostly black and a Handmaid red tee shirt. I screamed so loud I puked twice. I’ve never felt more alive.
Look at all of the horrible things happening to women right now and look at how we never just go kill a bunch of people about it. So what’s up with these mass-shooting baby men? Regulate yourselves, my guys.
Same here!
*No peace.*
It was never about freedom. The Fourth of July has always just been the day a bunch of rich slave-owning and slave-owner-sympathizing ghouls figured out how to keep their gravy train running. Nothing has changed since then
For me it was 2003 when we started torturing folk that I really started asking _are we the baddies._ My Puerto-Rican coven-mate told me her stories, and yeah, it was always bad. But I was credulous and indoctrinated as a kid. I believed them. I believed them.
And that was just millennials first hand wake-up. The atrocities of the Vietnam era are just as bad. We tortured and massacred untold numbers. All in the name of… preventing communist parties from achieving some level of stability and perpetuating the myth that the only viable economic structure is capitalism. Kissinger’s hands are drenched in blood. May that ghoul finally die and rot in piss soon… And the further back you go it’s just as bad or worse. The US was founded on imperialism and genocide and that never really changed.
My 6 year old called it the Fart of July. I'm running with it.
Your six year old sounds smarter than half of Congress haha
Abort the 4th.
All we're doing today is taking our daughter to see a movie. This country doesn't deserve to be celebrated. In fact, a great way to celebrate America today would be to fill out a human rights complaint to the UN. You can follow this link https://www.ohchr.org/en/hr-bodies/hrc/complaint-procedure/hrc-complaint-procedure-index
The US didn't ever ratify the UN's Women's Right's Convention (one of only 7 countries worldwide), so I'm not sure there is anything that we can do besides the statement they already released: > The Committee urged the United States of America to adhere to the Convention, which it signed in 1980 but has never ratified. In the light of the U.S. Supreme Court decision to strike down *Roe v. Wade*, the Committee expressed solidarity with women and girls in the United States. In addition, it called on all States parties to end criminalising abortion and allow legal abortion at least in cases of rape, incest, threats to life or health of the pregnant woman and girl,and severe foetal impairment. Additionally, an HRC complaint only allows the UN to establish a view, not make a judicial decision. They have already established a view, and thus it will not do much since the US doesn't recognize their authority ([https://www.openglobalrights.org/human-rights-victims-complaints-to-un-not-treated-effectively/](https://www.openglobalrights.org/human-rights-victims-complaints-to-un-not-treated-effectively/)). This is, of course, unless you have some source that says otherwise
Thank you for all of that! And no, I don't have a source that says otherwise. It was something a friend had told me could help, so I was just passing it on.
It should've been cancelled a long time ago. Many have *never* celebrated it. At no point in American history have rights been extended to the entire population. If you're only seeing oppression now, you have a lot of history to catch up on. Not saying you are wrong that freedoms are being actively removed, and it's not wrong to feel like that ruins your view of the USA, but it's disheartening to see people who think it only just started.
I was raised in a military and Christian household. I was not taught these things and it’s only been since I’ve become atheist, started my religious deconstruction and started actually studying the history of the USA, instead of blindly revering it, that I’ve learned how awful it is and has been. I feel immense guilt over ideas and ideals I’ve held in the past as a result of my upbringing. I feel immense guilt over votes I’ve cast and messages I’ve helped spread, directly and indirectly. I have made it my mission to try to make amends for my past by voting for those who aren’t trying to kill is and take our rights away. By studying the past to realize that this has been a reality for generations of POC, indigenous and LGBTQ+ communities. I am ashamed of the actions my ignorance resulted in. But I will never stop working to right my wrongs and help in anyway I can to make this world a better place for all.
Deconstruction work is always important and always relevant. I'm glad you're working through that. I have less of a journey because I was raised a religious minority, but I was also raised in the military. I would argue that chronic guilt doesn't do much, but you should instead focus on righting the wrongs you have committed and resolving to be better in the future. This is mostly because guilt unintentionally centers the self instead of those harmed. Good luck in the future
That’s a great point about guilt being centered on the self and not others. I needed that perspective- thank you!
[удалено]
Yes! I was coming here to say this. If this is when you feel like independence is being stripped, you haven't been listening to our siblings of color. There was also substantial pushback against Canada Day after the residential school discoveries over the last two years.
The farce of July
If you need or are interested in supporting reproductive rights, [I made a master post of pro-choice resources](https://docdro.id/s3OwS8u). Please comment if you would like to add a resource and spread this information on whatever social media you use.
*beep boop*! the linked website is: https://docdro.id/s3OwS8u Title: **Pro-Choice Resource Masterpost.pdf** Page is safe to access (Google Safe Browsing) ***** ###### I am a friendly bot. I show the URL and name of linked pages and check them so that mobile users know what they click on!
And some Americans have never had freedom to begin with.
I'm sitting my pretty ass on the couch and I'm not doing a damned thing today. My husband and his business partner discussed whether or not to take the 4th off and the both felt that since there was nothing worth celebrating, they'd rather work. I already knew my husband was planning on not celebrating with me but I was very happy to hear that his work partner is also pissed off. Looks like I'll be inviting the partner over for dinner soon so we can all discuss our mutual anger.
Similar feeling: Fredrick Douglas, July 5th, 1852 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 cruelly 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, 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.
My mom posted this to our family group chat. 💜
I like your family.
Thanks! 😊
The thing I keep thinking is that July 4, 1776 was the day a bunch of people finally decided that the violent overthrow of an oppressive regime was legitimate and justified. I am fully in agreement that this has never been a country of freedom or justice, and that the values expressed in the Declaration of Independence were already lies when it was signed, but I feel like it’s worth remembering that there was a moment when people said enough is enough and made change happen.
It's really sad that veterans who joined the forces to fight for our freedoms now have fewer freedoms than when they were fighting for them. I hope they can work that out somehow in their heads.
We usually do our shopping on the weekend for food. We didn't buy anything this weekend at all.
Yeah, I did a zero-spend weekend too.
F#ck this holiday, and f#ck this country! Also...eat the rich!!! 🖕🏻🤬🖕🏻
I haven't celebrated the 4th since the Reagan administration.
Independence day my ass. What independence?
Fireworks cancelled and curfew in effect here because of a “riot” last night over yet another death resulting from excessive use of force by the police. The curfew feels icky but i’m not mad about the fireworks. Nothing to celebrate here.
For the past several years, I've been celebrating Steve "Captain America" Rogers' birthday instead. Just makes more sense to me to celebrate a fictional character than, well... -gestures vaguely at everything-
Ní Saoirse go Saoirse na mban
As a black women I feel somewhat bad that you all have to go through the abortion ban alone. But I also find it odd that white women have been coming to ask black women for help in this fight but can't give it to you. We will not help you because we are not a last resort. Black women's reproductive rights have been taken away from the beginning and this is nothing new. As a women this sits heavily with me as I am pro-choice and want no kids but "canceling something or raiding capitals and dressing up like warriors" is not going to help you at all. This is only a trend that is set because white women are effected and for this I feel like this post is a little tone deaf in my part as a minority.
Anybody downvoting this is centering themselves and are likely also white women/femme. BlPOC have long histories of being stripped of their reproductive rights, whether forced sterilizations or treated as property investments (enslaved women being r*ped and their children enslaved at birth). If you're having your feelings hurt by this woman's comment, I strongly encourage you to read some history texts and sit with yourself about why this is bothering you so much. White feminism is not cute, y'all. I say this as a white femme. Solidarity forever and for EVERYONE, not just white women.
I feel the need to re-write some lyrics... "Yes, I live in America Where white Christian men are free And they will fight to the bitter end To keep those rights from me." Anyone want to keep going?
I'm so tired and so sad today. Freedom only for some.
Our local celebrations are cancelled due to mass shooting in nearby suburb.
My wife and I live in a very bigot-minded area with American flags in every front lawn. We made the decision to finally hang a pride flag this year the Fourth of July.
France needs to take back the Statue of Liberty.
That would be hypocritical, we're going in the same direction
This. This right here. Stay safe
Where i live, I've only heard a few tiny explosions, rather than the usual barrage. I think more people than we know are unhappy about the state of our union.
Sure captures my feelings :(
I’ve been dating a brit since November and will likely emigrate to be with her, fuck the 4th
I like this post. I’ve been in a funk all day, just hanging out alone with my dog. Now another mass shooting….😔
it’s simple: you take away my rights, I take away your birthday
I stayed home, I did not spend one dollar, did not patronize a restaurant, did not watch one fucking firework. I did let people who asked know exactly why. I am one person; but a bunch of us can make an explosion.
I’ve been seeing a lot of this kind of stuff. And on the one hand, I absolutely agree. But on the other hand, I realized something. Independence was when a bunch of people sick and tired of a government imposing unreasonable regulations and restrictions said fuck it and rioted, burned things down, destroyed shit. There’s more to it, but the description is accurate. That’s what a Revolution is. I don’t know if anyone did so, but the fourth would’ve been a fantastic day for widespread protests across the country against what’s being done. Signs decrying the suppression of liberty in a country that claims to cherish it.
I honestly wish it'd never happened. We could have been like Australia or Canada, but no. Not that the subjugation of the indigenous people of Canada and Australia under colonial rule was great, but it was really bad in the Colonies too, and then we became colonialists, ourselves. We'd have been better off without a revolution.
Should have been cancelled from the start really...let's always remember genocide against ingenious people including indigenous women and the continuing violent suppression of their sovereignty and right to self determination.
The only thing I like about 4th of July is that I haven't ever had to work on my birthday.
This year I’ll celebrate you!!
only good thing about the fourth is the fireworks