4 July — Freedom & Rights — An Incomplete List

The 4th of July once again offers us the opportunity to celebrate the freedom and rights that the United States, and the western hegemony it represents, offer us. An incomplete list:

Freedom to die of hunger.

Freedom to toil until death so your boss can buy a second home.

Freedom to die because you can’t afford healthcare.

Freedom to die because you don’t have a place to call home.

Freedom to live a life of misery because you weren’t chosen by fate to be born into the correct home.

Freedom to be oppressed by the state because you aren’t white.

Freedom to have your native and ancestral lands stolen from you.

Freedom to live in fear because you aren’t a male, or because of the colour of your skin, or because of your religion.

Freedom to be persecuted for wanting to love who you love and live as your true self.

The right to have your homeland invaded and bombed.

The right to see the soil and resources of your home pillaged and wasted by the titans of capital.

The right to watch your friends and family murdered in the street.

The right to walk a trail of blood and death to try and find happiness.

The right to live in dread of not knowing when they’ll come for you or your family.

The right to see the future of your children and grandchildren stolen from them.

The right to have your terror turned into news headlines for a week.

The right to look on as the very planet that gives you life collapses around you.

The right to be told that, in spite of everything, they’re doing it all for you, for democracy, for freedom.

Fear not, while the United States exists these certain inalienable rights and freedoms shall never be impinged upon. I swear upon the incalculable number of lives that have already been sacrificed on that altar.