Kansas City Activists Scorn America 250 Despite Local Celebration

As always, we focus on alternative perspectives here in our cowtown . . . For the record, it's kinda funny how this activist bloggy effort is ALREADY trying to relive its glory days.

Here's their recent remembrance and a bit of shade for this weekend of partying . . .  

"Six years ago, in the summer the whole world rose up, it was our turn. On July 4, 2020, hundreds gathered in Westport for an Anti-Independence Day Rally outside Kelly’s Westport Inn, one of the oldest buildings in Kansas City and one that held Black people enslaved in its basement. A carriage burned in the street where enslavers once did business. And I stood up and asked Frederick Douglass’s question for our time.

"We are printing that speech again today, lightly condensed for your inbox, because on the eve of 250 it reads less like a memory and more like a warning that kept its word . . . The day off is ours now, because the sun is out and the family is together, because Black joy has always been its own declaration of independence. Douglass asked what the Fourth of July means to us, and for 174 years our people have been answering with our feet and our seasoning. We will take the day, and we will make it ours."

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . . 

🎆 America Turns 250 Tomorrow. I Ask, What to the World is the 4th of July? - The Kansas City Defender

On the eve of the semiquincentennial, we are republishing the speech I gave on July 4, 2020, at the Anti-Independence Day Rally in Westport, steps from a building that held Black people enslaved in its basement. Then we are going to talk about the cookout.

In fairness we share a counterpoint and more upbeat news news links . . .

America 250: This small Kansas town is showcasing its role in America's history

To celebrate America's 250th and the role Kansas played in the country's history, the Lecompton Historical Society has put on multiple reenactments of Bleeding Kansas.

Soccer, fireworks and the Fourth: World Cup fans celebrate America's 250th birthday in Kansas City

Soccer and Independence Day come together in Kansas City this Fourth of July weekend with massive fireworks show Saturday night over the Liberty Memorial.

America turns 250: Lawrence and Kansas City edition

As America's 250th birthday approaches, Lawrence and Kansas City announce Independence Day events, most of which will be bigger than ever before.

KC's biggest Fourth of July party bigger than ever for nation's 250th birthday - AOL

The Stars and Stripes Picnic on the grounds of the National WWI Museum and Memorial will combine with the FIFA Fan Festival.

Developing . . .