In America, the Fourth of July is supposed to mark the signing of the Declaration of Independence, an act asserting liberty from tyranny, in particular, the freedom of the American colonies from the imperial rule of Britain. As far as this holiday is a celebration of freedom and 'the pursuit of happiness' which it allows, it is a worthy occasion which would demand only the most lighthearted and glad jubilation to commemorate it. But in all honesty to ourselves, there exist undeniable facts in stark contrast to that interpretation of its significance, realities apparent to all those who remain open to recognizing them, facts which tell us that the cherished meaning of the Fourth may now be little more than theoretical, leaving freedom but an American shibboleth.

What can be said of a holiday about 'freedom' traditionally celebrated with fireworks, in a country where fireworks are commonly banned or regulated, typically limiting legal fireworks to those eliciting only the slightest entertainment? What can be said of a holiday about 'freedom' popularly celebrated with outdoor picnics, in a country where, in some cities, a picnic in public is like an invitation for unwanted guests, enforcement officials whose contribution to the festivities is the now expected and standard search to find and confiscate such forbidden indulgences as alcohol, drugs, and of course, fireworks. I choose to mention just these minor examples here not just for the sake of irony, but because if such trivial pleasures and minor examples of volition are denied and controlled, the implications for the much more critical avenues of desire and choice can only be obvious. We can say: this is a country where one is often made to beg an oppressor to be allowed the pursuit of happiness, or to timidly conceal it. We can observe that it does not appear as though the signatories of the Declaration won the war. We can conclude that celebrating American political independence as though it means freedom is a sham, a pretense, a dirty lie, and thereby an insult to the principle of personal freedom, and to those who risked their lives for it in the past.

Independence is not something other than freedom from some political rule. Why, then, is this holiday commonly portrayed as the beginning of the American nation, the United States, even though that formally began later with the Constitution? For instance, American presidents, signature figureheads of the state, are now probably more associated with Independence Day than the Declaration itself, odd since the presidency began years later. The assumption is that to declare independence is part of the very same phenomenon as everything that followed, the foundation of the United States, the gradual solidification of American central statehood, the increasingly imperial nature of American political, legal, and military domination, within its borders and without. An act of liberation is thereby made into an act of propaganda.

Independence so falsely associated with freedom is a dangerous thing. Home rule and representation have proven far more burdensome and harder to bear than that old foreign rule to so many Americans who have felt their weight, and surely broader and more pervasive in their reach. And in the absence of real freedom, as if by some terrible and cynical design, nationwide celebrations pretending freedom are substituted, convincing citizens that they possess what they do not: power over their own will to express themselves in words and actions, and an openness laid out before their own enterprise.

As unpopular and uncomfortable as it may be to recognize it, the men who signed the Declaration were well-meaning but quite mistaken. No one loses their claim to freedom from control simply because they do not assert it by political representation, yet they signed in representation of their countrymen as though it had been necessary to do so. And this they had no right to do, for no one can really speak for another, no one can substitute his decision for that of another human being. Thus they laid the foundation for government, as they knew they were doing. They felt that the foundation of a new government could be accomplished which would allow for freedoms and protect them. They believed in representative government and set down the precedent for it. They should have pledged on that day to abolish it, as the fundamentally, eventually irredeemable problem that it always proves to be. Instead, in a way, they did indeed begin everything that followed, central statehood and imperial rule, and an American nation which would one day reach the ridiculous condition of having the pleasures associated with its own 'birthday' forbidden by the democratic 'will of the people.'

But they were right and sensible in the spirit of what they did, and for this they deserve praise:

"But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."

Seventy-six years after that day, a pointed question was presented by Frederick Douglass in a speech which contrasted the noble spirit behind the day with an ignoble reality, "What to the slave is the Fourth of July?" To us, let it be an opportunity.

Whatever your country of birth or residence, celebrate a new declaration of your own independence on the Fourth of July, and every other day of your life. Celebrate your independence from right of rule by any other human being, whether you can defend it or not, whether others respect it or not. Do not confuse prosperity, and leisure, and the pride of accomplishment, and other good things which are made possible by limited freedom, with the complete achievement of that goal and its far greater potential rewards. Celebrate your defiance of the principle of political rule over your life with your assertion, your insistence, of your own absolute independence. Promise that until this is respected, you will not be satisfied with anything else until you are allowed to live free. Vow that you will not be fooled when you are told that you are already free, that you live in a free country, that you are free because you can vote, that freedom is a flag, that freedom is patriotism, that freedom is nationalism, that freedom is the place where you were born. Resolve that your own pursuit of happiness in freedom will never be yielded.

Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? that he is the rightful owner of his own body? You have already declared it."

— Frederick Douglass