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This July 4th, We Don’t Need Kings — We Need a Reckoning [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-06-30
“My brothers… my sisters… my beloved community…
We gather here beneath the fireworks of July 4th.
The banners will wave… the anthems will rise… they will speak of freedom… of democracy… of opportunity.
But I come before you today to say plainly:
Fireworks cannot light a sky darkened by injustice.
No anthem can drown the cries of the oppressed.
No parade can mask the unfinished business of freedom.
This is not a celebration. This is a reckoning.
We will be told to celebrate liberty… while millions remain shackled.
Not by chains of iron… but by policies of cruelty… by systems of oppression…
By the silent complicity of those who mistake comfort… for peace.
We cannot speak of freedom… while the memory of George Floyd hangs heavy in our streets—
His breath stolen beneath a flag that promises liberty and justice for all.
We cannot speak of independence…
While Black and brown bodies are surveilled… criminalised… discarded…
By a system built to enrich the few… and bury the many.
A system we must name: Capitalism.
Not freedom—but bondage rebranded.
A torch passed down from plantation fields to corporate boardrooms…
Where corporations grow fat off the suffering of workers…
While wages stagnate… families starve… and the wealth of the few multiplies.
This is not freedom. This is economic tyranny. This is bondage wearing a business suit.
We have walked this path before.
From the auction block… to Jim Crow… to the march across Selma’s bridge…
Every advance met by backlash… every dream answered by resistance…
We are not witnessing new hatred—
We are witnessing the old hatred… reborn… unashamed… emboldened.
We were told, when Barack Obama rose to the highest office in the land, that a new era had dawned.
They told us the stain of slavery… segregation… brutality… had been erased by the election of one Black man.
They told us the dream had been fulfilled.
But I say to you: Symbolism is not substance.
The illusion of progress lulled too many into silence…
While the seeds of backlash took root… watered by complacency… nurtured by quiet complicity.
My dream has yet to be fulfilled—not because the words have faded, but because the work remains unfinished.
And from those seeds grew Trumpism—bold, unmasked, unapologetic in its hatred.
We have witnessed January 6th—not as a fluke… but as the inevitable consequence of cowardice… and complicity.
We have watched families torn apart by ICE… children caged… their cries muffled by bureaucracy.
We have seen billionaires rocket off this earth… while the poor drown in rising seas.
We have seen the Supreme Court—once entrusted to protect the vulnerable—
Become an instrument of oppression… stripping away hard-fought rights… dismantling protections for women… for workers… for Black and brown communities… for those standing at the margins.
And let me be abundantly clear—when I say “those standing at the margins”—
I speak of the people history tries to erase:
Black women… queer voices… disabled communities.
Let me be clear—liberation has always been carried on the shoulders of those history tries to erase.
But even in that chamber… resistance still flickers.
We remember Ruth Bader Ginsburg—spending her final days fighting to defend women’s rights… to safeguard the promise of equality.
Yet even that service was twisted in vain.
Her replacement ushered in to dismantle the very rights she helped draft…
To strip women of their autonomy… to unravel fragile protections generations fought to secure.
And let us be clear—this assault on women… is no accident.
It is the tired playbook of every authoritarian regime… the ancient pillar of fascism.
Oppressing women is not a cultural dispute—
It is the foundation upon which control is built… freedom is denied… and democracy begins to collapse.
And the assault does not stop with women.
It extends to every marginalised community that dares to demand dignity.
They attack Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion—not as policy… but as punishment.
They seek to silence LGBTQ voices… erase trans lives… push disabled communities to the margins…
Dismantle every space where justice… belonging… and humanity dared to grow.
It is the hand of white supremacy… reaching across generations… reshaping the nation in its own image.
We have seen book bans… history erased… awareness twisted into a weapon… to silence the people.
We have seen the truth itself outlawed… disguised as an attack on Critical Race Theory.
But let me be plain: this is not academic debate—it is an assault on memory.
They rewrite history to bury injustice.
They erase reality to protect the oppressor.
It is institutional gaslighting—crafted to make the oppressed doubt their pain… deny their history… surrender their truth.
They do not fear Critical Race Theory—they fear critical thought.
They fear a nation that remembers its sins… and refuses to repeat them.
We cannot be lulled by patriotic slogans… by parades masking oppression… by fireworks drowning out the unfinished revolution.
This is not a celebration. This is a reckoning.
And the reckoning is overdue.
And let us speak plainly about merit.
They shout about meritocracy… as they dismantle inclusion… as they purge diversity programs… as they strip away every tool that helps level the playing field.
But when the time comes to fill the highest courts… the halls of power… the seats of influence—
They abandon merit entirely.
They elevate the loyal over the qualified… the connected over the capable… the obedient over the just.
It is not meritocracy they defend—it is hierarchy.
The preservation of power by any means… under the false banner of fairness.
Be wary of false kings who cloak themselves in spectacle.
We have seen democracy assaulted—
Not by foreign armies alone… but by those within… who fashion themselves after dictators.
Men who mistake vulgar displays of dominance for leadership…
Who drape themselves in banners… promise greatness… and deliver only fear.
Trumpism has not only fractured this nation—
It has alienated us from global allies…
It has rebranded the United States—not as a beacon of hope—but as a looming threat.
It has twisted our core values… our principles of justice… and replaced them with cruelty, division, and dominance theatre.
But the oppression we export is the oppression we inherit.
Global oppression is local oppression.
We cannot send weapons abroad… and feign shock when violence breeds at home.
We cannot bankroll dictators abroad… and act surprised when fascists rise here.
The war machine abroad… becomes the police state at home.
When they parade their tanks down our streets… when they appoint themselves the generals of patriotism—
They expect our applause.
But let the record show—when Donald Trump staged his military parade… the people rose.
Not to celebrate him… but to resist him.
Not to bow to power… but to reassert our values… our will… our streets.
We took to the streets—not in submission… but in defiance.
But even in the rubble of war… we have seen true defiance.
We have seen leaders like Volodymyr Zelensky—
Standing not upon golden thrones… but shoulder to shoulder with his people…
Refusing to buckle beneath the tyrant’s sword.
That is not theatre—that is courage.
That is not false strength—that is the quiet, unshakable resolve of a people who refuse to surrender.
And as the powerful wave their banners… they build new plantations upon American soil.
They rob everyday people of their labour… their dignity… their humanity.
Corporations grow fat off the suffering of workers… while wages stagnate… families starve… and the wealth of the few multiplies.
This is not freedom. This is Torch Capitalism.
An economic inferno that consumes the poor… to warm the palaces of the rich.
And all the while… Congress sleeps at the wheel—
Paralysed by partisanship… shackled by self-preservation…
Watching as the pillars of democracy crumble beneath them.
But let us not be mistaken—the rot runs deeper than any one party.
This two-party system… dressed in the garments of democracy… has become an engine of division.
It sets neighbour against neighbour… worker against worker… while the architects of power sit untouched behind walls of wealth.
We do not need a new party—we need a new foundation.
A foundation not built upon patriarchy… Christian nationalism… or the tired lies of white supremacy.
We need a system rooted in dignity… in equality…
In the unshakable truth that freedom cannot flourish… where oppression still reigns.
And here is where I must hold the mirror—
Not to the open bigots… but to the quiet enablers… to the white moderate.
The one who says, “I believe in justice… but not your methods.”
The one who says, “I abhor racism… but your protests disrupt my peace.”
The one who sees caged children… banned books… murdered Black bodies… stripped rights… silenced truths—
And chooses comfort over courage.
I say to you—the greatest threat to freedom is not the loud oppressor… but the quiet observer.
Your hesitation fuels hate.
Your neutrality empowers injustice.
Your caution delays progress.
And to the white moderate… I extend my hand—
Not because you have earned it… but because justice demands it.
We have marched before… with or without your permission.
We will march again.
But I would rather march beside you.
Lay down your hesitation.
Pick up your courage.
Trade comfort for action.
Trade neutrality for justice.
This is not a celebration. This is a reckoning.
The fireworks will fade… but the reckoning remains.
They want us divided by party… by state… by fear.
But we are the people—the many… the united… the unstoppable.
We will not let them steal our joy.
We will not let them steal our hope.
We will not let them steal our labour… our dignity… our right to rise.
This nation was born in defiance of kings.
And today, on this July 4th, we do not have the luxury of false celebration.
This is not a celebration. This is a reckoning.
We will not kneel to kings.
We will not trade survival for freedom.
We will not let history recycle oppression unchecked.
This is not a celebration. This is a reckoning.
And my dream?
My dream has yet to be fulfilled—
Not because the words have faded… but because justice remains unfinished.
But I still dream—
Of a nation that does not run from its sins.
Of a people who rise… shoulder to shoulder… defiant… unafraid.
Because freedom is not guaranteed.
Liberation is not gifted.
Justice is not inevitable.
It is fought for.
It is defended.
It is claimed—by the people, together.
No kings.
No cages.
No compromise on justice.
And may we rise—
Not with illusion… but with resolve.
Not with comfort… but with courage.
Not as the divided… but as the many—united, unfinished, unwilling to surrender.
This is not a celebration. This is a reckoning.”
This speech is written in deep homage to the vision, cadence, and uncompromising moral clarity of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It is crafted to confront the unfinished business of freedom in our time and to carry forward the revolutionary spirit that demanded justice, dignity, and true liberation for all.
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