What are you doing today??

This is always a complex holiday for me.  Always.

Going as far back into childhood, I vividly remember the Independence Day themed coloring books and puzzles and how they were geared towards teaching us little ones about the so-called founding of this country.  Colorful images of historical figures wearing fancy short pants in dramatic poses became ingrained in our young minds.  The messages were sinking in.  But somehow I couldn't quite swallow it all. 

It felt very distant to me.  I felt like a bullied outsider who would never fit because of who my ancestors were.  And I know the exact moment that happened for me.  It was in a grade school history class after reading the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution for the assignments we had to do.  Everything shifted profoundly for me when I read the Declaration of Independence's indictment of King George III and felt the sickening sting of the portion stating:
"...He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions."
And I felt a deeper burn when I began reading and processing the Constitution and saw the grave inequities built upon the foundation of slavery.  

In light of all of the hate-fueled racial violence and corruption in these times we're living in, I still feel the sting of reading those seminal documents and the trauma-filled awareness of the daily reality my ancestors were living when those the documents were being argued over and written.  So....yes.  This day is very complex for me.  And I know I'm not the only trying to make daily sense out of the legacy of intergenerational racial trauma.

I'll pass on that hotdog....
and I don't drink anymore, so I'll pass on that cold beer, too.  And I'm not up for any red, white and blue fireworks set to the 1812 Overture.  
I'm taking this day to rest, give thanks and remember the truth about the history of this troubled country.
Here's prayers and thanks to both sides of my ancestors whose shoulders I now stand upon.  
Here's prayers and thanks to my ancestors who walk with me on every step of my journey in this challenging, imbalanced world.  We have to keep working for peace, justice and equality.
Yakoke and Asana ("Thank you" in both Chahta and Swahili)
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Sankofa -- We must strive to learn from the past or we will continue to repeat it