4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS JULY 4TH SCOOP STEVENS Groundcover vendor No. 638 On July 4, 2024, Americans celebrate the 248th birthday of an exclusive political community founded on the principle of white supremacy. The Southern Confederacy sought to maintain this political community when they seceded in 1861 and started the American Civil War (1861-65). The founding of modern America as a just and inclusive nation doesn’t begin until after the military defeat of the Southern Confederacy, followed by the Reconstruction Amendments: 13th Amendment (1865), 14th Amendment (1868) and 15th Amendment (1870). The history of the United States is the history of being weaned off of Christianity. The Declaration of Independence declares that the new occupation of life is the pursuit of happiness, which replaces finding one’s place in Christendom. Since most of the immigrants coming to America were coming from Christendom and bringing their state religion with them, America’s founders gave us the First Amendment to keep them from establishing their religion. In the process of being weaned off of Christianity, the resources of the earth have been exhausted and humanity is on the brink of ecological catastrophe, but we are also on the verge of a new age of consciousness. In a speech that African American abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass gave, he asked rhetorically, what does the 4th of July mean to the “negro” in America? It means to always be an outsider, to never really be part of a political community that was instituted for the benefit of white people. All of this began to change after the Civil War because of the 13th Amendment which makes slavery illegal, the 14th Amendment which makes former slaves citizens and the 15th Amendment which empowers them to vote. Looking at history, the United States has become much more inclusive than other nations since that time. Roman crucifixion was the ultimate tool of propaganda, the fictional Gospel of Jesus Christ is proof of this. America’s answer was and is the Eighth Amendment which bans the federal government and by incorporation (14th Amendment — due process) the state governments from using “cruel and unusual punishment.” There is much to celebrate in America’s founding era 1775-91 but Independence Day is not really about the birth of a great nation. America didn’t become a great nation of justice and inclusion until after the Civil War and the Voting Rights act of 1965 which built upon the 14th and 15th amendments. Abraham Lincoln said in the Gettysburg Address, “Government of the people, by the people and for the people ... ” In light of this, “We the People” should change the national anthem from the anthem conceived in slavery, "The Star-Spangled Banner," to the anthem conceived while ending it, the Battle Hymn of the Republic where men die to set other men free. JUNE 28, 2024 Should Americans celebrate Independence Day? Protestors, not terrorists! The seven founding fathers: George Washington,Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and James Madison. Washington the strong soldier, Thomas Jefferson the political revolutionary, John Adams the philosopher, the inventor Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton the statesman, John Jay the forgotten founding father, and James Madison the father of the constitution. I wonder if these fine gentlemen are terrorists? Are these not the gentlemen who led protests which led to the Revolutionary War to gain independence from Britain? Let’s not forget to mention the founding mothers: Phillis Wheatley, Martha Washington, Abigail Adams, and Elizabeth Schuyler, who contributed a lot in this time period of building a nation. MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 Did they not teach us in elementary school about our right to free speech and our right to assemble and protest? I don’t want to sound like the Backstreet Boys, but "tell me why” the DeKalb County Prosecutor Sherry Boston charged 61 protesters with conspiracy and 42 protesters with domestic terrorism? “Stop Cop City” is a multi-faceted Imagine iconic Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks being called or labeled terrorists. That would sound ludicrous. But here in America at ground-zero of the civil-rights movement in Atlanta, Ga., government officials are now charging protesters with racketeering and domestic terrorism. movement in the struggle with the Atlanta Police, opposing the building of a Police Training Center. “Cop City” is a $90 million police and fire training facility to be built in Atlanta. This plan has embroiled the city in protest and demonstrations for two years. Protests like this have now taken hold on the global scale. On just about all seven continents there is some kind of protest or social demonstration taking place daily. Nations have their hands full trying to quell dissent.The free nations of this world must be doing something wrong. All these nations claim to be liberal free democratic bodies of governments, but the policies they support and back render mass protest and unrest. The positioning and actions of these nations contradict what these nations say they are all about. And now, through desperate means, they are willing to label and charge ordinary citizens as terrorists. The student-led Encampment for Gaza and the Divestment of Major Universities Funding to Israel has taken hold in America and Europe. These students are doing us all a favor by standing up for what is right! I say, thank you to all the students who were arrested and all who stand up for justice! The student-led protests and demonstrations stand on the foundation of principles of the constitution of America. These students are doing what they were taught to do, to stand and resist against what is wrong!
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