Dear Progressive Reader,
Today is “Independence Day” in the United States. It was not celebrated as a paid federal holiday until 1941, but that term “independence” seems to have a very different meaning today than it had in July 1776, when oppressed colonists wrote of the despotic rule of England’s King George III: “He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good . . . He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance . . . He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither . . . He has obstructed the Administration of Justice . . . He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices . . . He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures . . .”
July is celebrated in many nations around the globe as a time of revolution—Cuba - July 26, 1953; Nicaragua - July 19, 1979, France - July 14, 1789 (and July 25-27, 1830); Egypt - July 23, 1952—but this year, in a time of pandemic and social awareness around the deep impacts of racism in our society, a new global revolution appears to be awakening. Donald Trump, in his speech yesterday at the foot of Mount Rushmore, framed it in his favorite terms of social conflict: “In our schools, our newsrooms, even our corporate boardrooms, there is a new far-left fascism that demands absolute allegiance. . . . Make no mistake. This left-wing cultural revolution is designed to overthrow the American Revolution.” (These words, of course, coming from the same President who talked last year about the 1775 Continental Army that “manned the air, it rammed the ramparts, it took over the airports . . .”—later blaming the gaff on a faulty teleprompter.)
Trump’s new “culture wars” speech was delivered at the foot of a controversial monument that includes an image of Theodore Roosevelt. As Yohuru Williams and Sari Beth Rosenberg note this week, “For some, these statues have become stark reminders of the ‘knee on our neck,’ the slavery, conquest, and genocide that produced the wealth and power upon which the fallacy of White Supremacy ultimately rested. Bringing Teddy down to earth should not be seen as a break with a glorious past but a much-needed correction to reflect a more accurate portrayal of American history.” Ruth Conniff discusses Wisconsin’s reckoning with myopia: “Neither the dusty history of Wisconsin’s progressive movement nor those more recent moments of uprising [in 2011] were ever fully inclusive. Racist violence and structural oppression are a repressed reality in our community.” And Leah Sankey writes about the movement of young activists in Lee County, Florida to push back against efforts by a white supremacist group to preserve a bust of Confederate General Robert E. Lee (who never set foot in the state). “Blocking the return of Lee’s bust to Lee County is just the first step toward dismantling a system built on racism,” she says.
Reese Erlich reports this week on the forgotten war in Libya that continues as a humanitarian crisis. Sanket Jain describes India’s failures in dealing with the economic and social impacts of the coronavirus on its poorest citizens. And Eleanor Bader warns of the looming eviction crisis in the wake of the pandemic-caused economic shutdown. “Once the eviction floodgates are opened, urban areas are expected to take the hardest hit, but rural and suburban residents will not be spared,” she notes. Finally, Sarah Lahm’s thoughtful look at her own community of Minneapolis raises the question: “As summer moves on, and some of the protests seem like they’re beginning to die down, I wonder what else my neighbors and I will be willing to do on behalf of Black lives. Most likely, not enough.”
Keep reading, and we will keep bringing you important articles on these and other issues of our time.
Sincerely,
Norman Stockwell
Publisher
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