We should never ever forget our history and all the terrible things that have occurred in the United States. Slavery was in contradiction to the founding documents of the people who framed them.

For centuries we failed to live up to the idea that all men are indeed created equal. The beauty of the founding documents though is that they were created in such a way that it allowed us to apply remedies to that which was wrong. So we were able to successfully battle slavery, Jim Crow, beat the Klu Klux Klan, lynchings, prison camps, integrate the military, integrate sports leagues, Brown vs Board of Education etc., etc., etc. 

With the passage of time, the United States has fought injustice, racism, inequality and other ills that have plagued society since the beginning of time. Keep in mind that before the United States, the way of the world was exactly what we fought to defeat. People lived their lives according to the whims of kings, monarchs, and tyrants. The rights that we enjoy in the world today and in the west is a gift given to the world by God through the United States and a handful of others nations. 

While slavery was a scourge that plagued the world since time immemorial, it was the British, then the French, then the United States that gave freedom to slaves in a way that was never ever done anytime before in human history. 

Nations like Saudi Arabia abolished slavery in the 1960s, and in Mauritania, slavey was abolished in 1981. in 2020 slavery is a scourge that still plagues the world. Many women and children are enslaved in the sex trafficking industry, while in current day Libya, actual slave markets exist and thrive. In Sudan there are enslaved people who can only dream of the freedom that we enjoy in America. 

Today in America we have grown so used to the way of life that we have that we think it exists everywhere, and that this is the way it always was. People need to be reminded that it is not, and it has not always existed in the way we have it in America today.

This is a very new experiment in history, no older than 250 years old in terms of the type of Democracy that we enjoy today, and no older than 160 years in terms of the way that America and others in the world view slavery.

Despite all that America has achieved. Despite all that we have done to correct the ills of the past, people continue to hold America’s sins against the country as a whole, failing to appreciate what we have now. Here is the thing to keep in mind though. As much as America has not always lived up to its ideals, there have always been people all along way, holding the country accountable, fighting to make the country into what we know it to be today.

During slavery there was the abolitionist movement and other examples of people rising to combat racism and other ills that prevented the country from achieving it’s full potential.

It is because of the promise of America that we passed the many civil rights bills that we have over the years, and got us to where we are today. The America of today is a world in which opportunity awaits everyone. Does racism exist? Sure! But there is no group of people in 2020 America who has to overcome what people in 1960s 70s, 80s, or 90s and earlier  had to endure. The racism that does exist is not enough to stop any group from achiving success by simply making use of the opportunties that do exist. 

The fact that bad things happen in life, including racism is the consequence of living in an imperfect world where bad things are bound to ocur. 

If no racism is the goal, then people are destined to be disappointed for the rest of their lives. Racism, like greed, like hatred, like jelousy, sociopathy, and all of the other reasons why people do bad things will be with us until the end of time.

We can choose to be appreciative of all the blessings that we have, and continue working to improve the society that we live in, or we can continue to live in grievance, upset that bad things do happen, reaching for this fantasy world where no racism exists.

Happy Independence Day America!