Fourth of July

I do not celebrate the Fourth of July.

I do not celebrate the conception of an imperialist colonial nation-state built on genocide, racism, and hegemonic oppression. I do not celebrate America, whose wealth and power is derived from the labor and bloodshed of millions of innocent indigenous, African, and innocent people all over the world.

Do you know what I DO celebrate?

The people of America. The people who despite all odds and atrocities have discovered joy where there was none, saw light at the end of the longest tunnels, worked tirelessly to provide for their loved ones, and raged against an unloving system.

AMERICA as a state DOES NOT LOVE YOU. Capitalism does not love you. A system that seeks to exploit and control you CANNOT love. PEOPLE love you I love you. Building community inculcates the transformative love that can break shackles and bend the arc of the moral universe toward justice. I hate the system because I LOVE people.

Today is called “Independence Day”

I celebrate independence here. I embody freedom and rebellion here. Thru-hiking is a REBELLION against the system that works us until we are too old to explore and ask questions because when we question things we see the injustices we need to change. THESE are the values this country was founded on - independence, freedom, and rebellion against tyrannical authority. If you want to celebrate Independence Day, I challenge you to read the Declaration of Independence and tell me if you think this country is living up to the ideals inscribed.

This democracy is supposed to be by the people, for the people but these values must come FROM the people because the state will NOT set you free. We set each other free through love and community. THAT is what I celebrate - I celebrate US (without the A)

Scroll through for an Independence Day education and wile ur at it, give your neighbor a hug

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.

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.