#HappyBirthdayAmerica

This morning I dusted off my run shoes and joined Black Girls Run! on the annual 4th of July Ben Franklin Bridge run.  Since I started running in 2011 the activity has become a time of solace and reflection for me.  As I made the 6:30 am trek to Camden with my momma, Janelle Monae’s “Crazy Classic Life” blared through my 2008 Ford Focus car radio.

“You told us, We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

As I ran from New Jersey to Philadelphia, the birthplace of America, these iconic words from the Declaration of Independence rang in my ears.  Now I ain’t gonna lie, I haven’t read through this governing document since 8th-grade civics, and when I got home I felt compelled to refresh my hazy memory with a set of adult eyes.  From my perspective as a descendant of the African diaspora, a woman, a masters student at the University of Pennsylvania, an activist with the NAACP, and most of all an American citizen I wrote a letter, that turned into an examination, that ended up a MANIFESTO to my beloved country.  America, I love you, I have been betrayed by you, but I still believe in you.  Happy Birthday!


Dear America,

Happy Birthday!
242 years behind the mask of freedom and you have never looked so ugly.

The Declaration of Independence you signed on this day, the 4th of July, echoes the injustices you impose on we the people of these United States. As you longed for independence from your British ruler you have turned into a reflection of your oppressor.  America, you have betrayed your citizens and yourself. Convinced yourself you are something you have never been and elected a President whose character is marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.  America, you are committing tyranny against your own citizens.

To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

You, America, have refused to Assent GUN CONTROL Laws that are wholesome and necessary for the public good.

You have discouraged your Governors from passing sensible IMMIGRATION Laws of immediate and pressing importance unless suspended in their operation till the Assent of a WALL should be obtained; and when so suspended, you have utterly neglected to attend to them.

You have refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of meaningful representation in the legislature FOR GUAM, PUERTO RICO, U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS AND OTHER TERRITORIES while continuing to occupy their native lands with military forces and collecting MEDICARE and SOCIAL SECURITY TAXES for which they can only collect conditionally.

You have called together legislative bodies for VOTE and SUPPORTED FILIBUSTERING for the sole purpose of fatiguing REPRESENTATIVES into compliance with PARTY measures.

America, You have repeatedly proposed to dissolve Representative Departments such as the ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (EPA) for opposing with manly firmness, invasions on the ENVIRONMENTAL rights of the people.

The proposal, after attempted dissolutions, cause PARTISAN REPRESENTATIVES TO DISPUTE the HALLS OF ACADEMIA at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the meantime IN LIMBO ON THE EXISTENCE OF CONCEPTS LIKE CLIMATE CHANGE exposed to all the dangers of AN UNSUSTAINABLE FUTURE.

You have endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners AND DEPORTING TAX PAYING MIGRANTS THROUGH THE ENDING OF DACA; refusing to pass other laws to encourage their migrations hither.

You have obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing TO ACKNOWLEDGE Laws for establishing SUPREME Judiciary powers.

You have INTIMIDATED CABINET MEMBERS on your Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

America, You have erected a multitude of New Offices, INCLUDING THE NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY (NSA), THE TRANSPORTATION SECURITY ADMINISTRATION (TSA), HOMELAND SECURITY AND IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT (ICE), and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people.

You have kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES.

You have affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power through the UNIFORM CODE OF MILITARY JUSTICE.

You have COLLUDED with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign and unacknowledged by our laws; giving your Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering MILITARIZED POLICE FORCES among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States: [verbatim]

For imposing extreme TARIFFS on our allies:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: [verbatim]

For FUELING THE PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX  by depriving AND DELAYING us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us TO FACILITIES DOMESTICALLY and beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offenses

For ALLOWING GERRYMANDERING and establishing therein Arbitrary DISTRICT LINES, enlarging DISPROPORTIONATE Boundaries so as to render it at once an example OF THE PEOPLE:

For ATTEMPTING TO abolish AFFIRMATIVE ACTION ONE OF OUR most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For SUPERSEDING our own POPULAR VOTE, and declaring THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE invested with power to legislate for us.

You have failed TO EMBRACE ACCEPTANCE here, by waging War against us FOR OUR INDIVIDUAL EXPERIENCES, VIEWS, AND PERSPECTIVES.

You have ravaged our Coasts IN PURSUIT OF OIL, burnt our towns WITH YOUR HATE, and destroyed the lives of your OWN people WITH SHALLOW PROMISES OF EQUALITY.

You America, are, at this time transporting AND DISPATCHING large Armies of foreign AND DOMESTIC Mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and unworthy the TITLE of a civilized nation.

You have constrained our fellow Citizens to bear Arms against their OWN Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

America, You have excited divisiveness amongst us, and endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our beloved but stolen frontiers, the merciless descendants of Colonial Savages, whose known rule of domestic warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of our melting pot of nationalities and religions. You have fractured the spirits in Americans of all ages, all races, all socio-economic statuses, all sexes, genders identifications, abilities, and conditions.

You should be ashamed of yourself America

The land of the free? When was the last time you examined the principles on which you were founded?  When was the last time you were critical of the government we the people have consented to be governed by?

We are disappointed in you, but in the name of liberty and justice, we know hope and change were not lost in 2016. We, your people, still hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. I stand here as a product of your dream with the right and duty to alter or abolish any Form of Government that becomes destructive of these ends.

This is my manifesto, our manifesto, the 2018 American manifesto of your people. You are the home of the brave.  We acknowledge our predisposition to suffer while evils are sufferable but on this July 4th, 2018 we mutually stand in our truth of compliancy, commit to active citizenship and pledge allegiance to the Flag of OUR United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, ONE nation, under OUR INDIVIDUALLY CHOSEN God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for ALL!

#OurUnitedStates2018

Signed your faithful citizens (add your signature with a comment below),

Samantha E. Whitfield - Willingboro, New Jersey