Friday, July 4, 2025

OMNI INTERDEPENDENCE DAY ANTHOLOGY #7 JULY 4, 2025

 

OMNI

INTERDEPENDENCE DAY ANTHOLOGY #7

JULY 4, 2025
Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and Ecology

https://omnicenter.org/donate

 

What’s at Stake:  What do July 4, 1776, and Independence Day mean?  This should be a Day of Reflection.

 

CONTENTS

Ace Thelin.   “A Different Revolution.”
“Declare Your Independence From Mainstream Media.”

Dennis Kucinich.  “Renewing a Desecrated Declaration of Independence.”
About Face.  “Right to Refuse.”
Rebekah Jones.  We've lost the United States. 
Win Without War. 7-3-25

[VFP-all] Michelle Ellner.   “What July 5th Taught Me That July 4th Never Did.”
Noam Chomsky.  “Is Trump a Symptom or the System?”  YouTube (AI generated).

The following articles written for 7-4-24 arrived after that Anthology was published.

Emma Goldman.  A New Declaration Of Independence.
The People’s Forum.  “On the 4th of July, the people reject celebrations of genocide and colonization.”
Frederick Douglass On The Meaning Of July Fourth To The Slave

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

TEXTS

 

Three articles from Consortium News

 

Ace Thelin.  “A Different Revolution.”
For men such as Washington, Jefferson, Madison and Monroe the threat of losing the humans they enslaved was a decisive factor in going to war, writes Ace Thelin. Read here...

_

“Declare Your Independence From Mainstream Media.”

Americans are losing their chains to the MSM and are turning as never before to online, independent media, the oldest of which is Consortium News. Read here...

 

Dennis Kucinich.  “Renewing a Desecrated Declaration of Independence.”

If America is to be what the Revolution envisioned on July 4, 1776, a nation governed by laws, then the American people must speak out and defend that vision, writes Dennis Kucinich. Read here...

 

ABOUT FACE JULY 4, 2025, “RIGHT TO REFUSE”

Dick, Today people across the country will celebrate the freedoms this country claims to be a beacon for while the civil rights of people across the county are violated and attacks on the rule of law are rampant.

Over the last month, we've watched the continued descent into fascism, with extrajudicial ICE raids across the country, marines mobilized to terrorize Los Angeles and administer newly built prison camps in Florida, escalation with Iran against the will of the people, and tanks rolling down the streets of D.C.

The myth of the U.S.A. as beacon of justice and freedom for all is crumbling and as a community military members and Veterans, today will be a painful mockery of all we believed we would fight for when we took our oaths. Rather than celebrate, we are announcing our new national campaign to fight for real freedom: the right to refuse.

A black background with white text

AI-generated content may be incorrect.
About Face has been at the forefront of supporting and organizing military resisters for decades and we're clear this is a moment where it is a matter if when, not if, troops will be asked to carry out immoral, unjust or flat out illegal orders by this administration. It's already happening in many cases. Although military members already have both the right and duty to refuse illegal orders, in practice it requires troops to risk court-martial and even prison to do so. That is a massive barrier to doing the right thing and we believe in the so-called "land of the free", no one should be in a position where they are legally not allowed to say no to carrying out violence for the government.

The Right to Refuse campaign will call on Congress to codify the right of any service member to refuse participation in any operation they believe is unjust or immoral. And perhaps more importantly, our campaign will focus on building a revitalized military resistance movement powerful enough to shape the dialogue about the use of the military and shift our trajectory.

Masses of military members and the broader American public are watching grotesque militarism on display up close and About Face is poised to play uniquely impactful role in absorbing and organizing those people into the powerful moment we need to confront military abuses both at home and abroad. As the rule of law is unraveling and while our political power is limited in the face of Trump’s dictator agenda, organized resistance from the military community is one of our best strategies for rallying the public to fight back and directly resist authoritarianism.


About Face members stand ready to meet this task, recently organizing the largest veteran-led direct action in over a decade to say "military off our streets” and earning broad media coverage including CBS, CNN, ABC, NBC, Fox, CW, Buzzfeed, Huffpost, Washington Post, NY Post, Newsweek, Wall Street Journal, NPR, and Daily Mail. The action received over 20 million views on TikTok alone and we know that's because people are hungry for exactly the kind of movement we are working to build.

We need you with us. There will be new opportunities for supporters to get involved with helping to build this campaign as we roll it out. In meantime, please consider making a donation to help fuel this work.

FUEL THE MOVEMENT

In solidarity always, Brittany Ramos DeBarros
Organizing Director,  About Face: Veterans Against the War

 

Rebekah Jones.  We've lost the United States.  oscale.News   JulY 4, 2025.

 

 

 

The founding fathers, men of immense vision and selective blindness, drafted liberty into ink while slavery rattled its chains just beyond the parchment’s edge.   The nation was born to the rhetoric of freedom, yet tethered to an economic engine of bondage; equality was declared self-evident while millions were rendered invisible.  Race, from inception, was both scaffold and shackle. In the grand experiment of democracy, whiteness became the unspoken requirement for full participation. Enshrined in law and cloaked in compromise, racial hierarchy shaped the Constitution’s silences.

The founding, then, was not merely flawed—it was calibrated, with deliberation, to exclude. The irony was not lost on contemporaries; it was simply ignored. The republic’s roots were not only revolutionary—they were, unmistakably, stained.

Women found themselves even lower on the totem pole — within and outside of racial systems, the intersectionality even more piercing.  Freedom only ever truly existed for white men, and our systems and structures, though intermittently challenged, remained the same.

The echo that reverberates across the American landscape today—ominous, steady, familiar—is that of fascism’s final push toward control after centuries of waxing and waning. The revival of male, white supremacy through radicalization is reminiscent of another cautionary tale. . . .

Fast forward to the United States of the 2020s. A pandemic exposes the brittle infrastructure of governance; income inequality yawns like a canyon; conspiracy theory seeps into the bloodstream of civic life. The rallying cry shifts, but the melody persists.  “Make America Great Again” is not unlike “Deutschland erwache”—a nostalgic invocation of a past that never was, filtered through selective memory and grievance. . . .I

We are seeing but a glimpse of the specter of the Nazi state's early machinery—legal, even surgical in its precision—before the camps, before the trains, before the genocide.    But fascism rarely declares itself with a swastika and a salute. It enters instead in stages: contempt for truth, adoration of strength, scapegoating of the marginalized, corrosion of norms. It walks through the door not with a bang, but on the shoulders of applause. . . .
Rebekah Jones
PO BOX 3371
Silver Spring, MD 20918

 

WIN WITHOUT WAR 7-3-25

Dick: July 4th is meant to be about freedom and celebration. But in the face of multiple crises — as Trump brings us to the brink of all-out war with Iran, masked ICE agents abduct people in broad daylight, the Trump administration illegally deports people without due process, U.S.-made bombs keep devastating Gaza, hostages continue to languish, and more — freedom and celebration might feel distant.

The willingness to use violence and the power to strip humanity away from those who disagree lie at the heart of the rising authoritarianism we’re seeing. The good news? Win Without War is uniquely positioned to push back on both — but we can’t do it alone.

There will be setbacks on this journey to build a more just and peaceful world, but we can’t lose hope. When we are hopeless, it fuels those who would do violence for profit or power. When we believe that we can make lives better for ourselves, our neighbors, and the global community, warmongers are weakened.

That’s why we’re asking you to recommit today and help us push back against the violence-first tactics that drive us apart and instead, move closer toward the kind of solutions that ensure our shared communities can truly be safe and thrive. Before the Fourth of July, will you donate to invest in our work for peace? . . . .

Thank you for working for peace, t
Win Without War team


[VFP-all] What July 5th Taught Me That July 4th Never Did - Michelle Ellner.  July 2, 2025.   
To Gerry Condon via uark.onmicrosoft.com 

Here in the U.S., it’s easy to treat independence as something that was achieved once and for all in 1776. But if that were true, why is our country still trying to control the fate of others? Why do we claim to stand for freedom while undermining it abroad through sanctions, coups, and endless wars? And even more urgently: why are so many people in the U.S. still struggling just to survive?

 

https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/07/02/what-july-5th-taught-me-that-july-4th-never-did/

 

Noam Chomsky.  “Is Trump a Symptom or the System?”

YouTube; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCGQuZ-5Ds0
Text:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1igcfZJJ0AoQOEVm5cSLsWBGUG64fUjRh/edit?tab=t.0

A tech specialist friend wrote to me thatthe video is completely AI generated. It was a very convincing fake voice and powerfully written content, but can not be actually attributed to Noam Chomsky.”  [I.e.,, Chomsky never uttered this specific speech; as far as I can tell it is composed of his words in diverse writings.  –D   What do you think of this practice?   It is unfamiliar to me.  If it is clearly identified as AI based upon the sources actual writings it’s ok?  I saw no such declaration in the original, but my specialist friend searched and found YouTube’s policy statement.   But I found several grammatical solecisms one would not find in Chomsky’s writings, so I have written to Prof. Chomsky for his opinion of this use of his writings.]

 

 

 

 

The following articles arrived after 7-4-24

2024

 

A New Declaration Of Independence

By Emma Goldman, In These Times. Popular Resistance.org (7-6-24).  When, in the course of human development, existing institutions prove inadequate to the needs of man, when they serve merely to enslave, rob, and oppress mankind, the people have the eternal right to rebel against, and overthrow, these institutions. The mere fact that these forces – inimical to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness – are legalized by statute laws, sanctified by divine rights, and enforced by political power, in no way justifies their continued existence. We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all human beings, irrespective of race, color, or sex, are born with the equal right... -more-

 

The People’s Forum.  “On the 4th of July, the people reject celebrations of genocide and colonization.”

 

On July 4, thousands took to the streets of New York City to show the world that the people refuse to celebrate the legacy of genocide, slavery, and pillaging that the “holiday” represents. Instead they condemned US complicity in genocide and imperialism from Palestine, to the Philippines, Haiti, and all those oppressed around the world, recommitting themselves to the struggle for liberation so that all can live free from US empire. 

 

From NYC all the way to South Carolina, proponents of Palestinian liberation remained committed to publicizing the violent contradictions of US imperialism. Protestors picketed outside the home of Senator Lindsey Graham in response to his unwavering genocidal rhetoric towards the people of Palestine. Holding up a large Palestinian flag in front of Graham’s home in Seneca, SC, the people chanted “Lindsey Graham, we’re not done. Intifada’s just begun!”

 

People’s History of Fourth of July.  Editor.  mronline.org (7-5-24).  Originally publishedZinn Education Project  on July 2024 by Zinn Education Project Staff (more by Zinn Education Project)  |  (Posted Jul 04, 2024)

Culture, Empire, History, RaceAmericas, United StatesNewswire.

As part of our This Day in History series, we bring you a collection of people’s history stories from July 4th: Beyond 1776.

A collection of more than a dozen people’s history stories from July 4th beyond 1776. The stories include July 4th anniversaries such as when slavery was abolished in New York (1827), Frederick Douglass’s speech “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro” (1852), the Reconstruction era attack on a Black militia that led to the Hamburg Massacre (1876), protest of segregation at an amusement park in Baltimore (1963), and more.

 

Frederick Douglass On The Meaning Of July Fourth To The SlaveBy In These Times. Popular Resistance.org (7-5-2024).  Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? And am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us? I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary!  -more-

 

INTERDEPENDENCE DAY ANTHOLOGY #6, JULY 4, 2025
https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2024/07/omni-interdependence-day-anthology-6.html

INTERDEPENDENCE ANTHOLOGY #5, July 4, 2023.

https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2023/07/omni-interdependence-day-5-july-4-2023.html

#4  https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2021/07/omni-interdependence-day-july-4-2021.html

 

END OMNI INTERDEPENDENCE DAY #7

 

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