NO BUSINESS DESPAIRING!

 "Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country. There are forces in operation, which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery."
Frederick Douglass said this. It is in his address telling a white American audience what a sham the Fourth was to the slaves. On this day, it strikes me with considerable force that he did not despair. Two years before, William Lloyd Garrison had despaired and had shrieked, "Up with the flag of disunion!!" Seven years later, John Brown also despaired of nonviolent ways to end slavery and organized, planned and executed the abortive raid on the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry for which he, in turn, was executed.
I must confess that, much of yesterday (July 4) I was keeping company more with William and John rather than Frederick. In the wake of the latest decision by which the Taney Court 2.0 basically said 'STIFLE YOURSELVES' to the people they don't really want to see voting as they actually allowed dark money to stay that way, I was in something of a funk. Me. A straight pale male, Anglo-Saxon no less, with an unimpeachably English family name, albeit with no real money, in despair over my country's lurching retreat from the things which really do 'make it great' to whatever extent it may be considered so.
Then again, that's also what Garrison and Brown were. They both despaired. Douglass, who had been an actual victim of the unconscionable slave system, did not despair. Let's all chew on this for a few seconds, shall we?
I don't know what made Garrison and Brown abolitionists. I'm pretty sure that, for myself, I see the full measure of my own freedom as inextricably tied in with an equal measure of freedom for each and every one of my fellow citizens regardless of sex and orientation thereof, of skin color, creed or national origin. I can see that, although such rights are equal on paper, they are almost anything but equal in actual practice. And such a sight enrages me. This is an 'advantage' I do not want for myself or anyone else. I say only real loo-sers want to hold on to such unearned privilege. I hope I'm not posing as a White Savior despite my efforts against that sort of semi-to-unconscious manner.
But my main point is, if the actual victims of a wicked system do not despair of our country, what business have I, born with at least some privilege due to my pale skin, gonads outside the rest of me and my heterosexuality, with such self-indulgence as despair? No. I shall take up my cross again and march with the rest and continue to do whatever I can to make sure all of us can have at least a voice in our country's counsels and, meanwhile, give five to Roger Taney II (Roberts) and Gabi D'Annunzio (Alito). Onward, then. On with the struggle, in the name of all who did not despair even when they were the system's victims!