Equal Rights

"What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelly to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy - a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour".


Frederick Douglass


Every word of Frederick Douglass' speech in "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July” speaks volumes to me. His speech reflects that the patriotism that Americans celebrate on the Fourth of July is not a prideful event that everyone can relate to, especially people that were enslaved. It is a constant reminder that they were excluded from natural human rights and basic civil liberties. It is a reminder that there is separation in classification and that above all they were considered inferior to elites that only differed in the color of their skin. It is a mockery to people that were part of society and treated as though they were objects instead of human beings. The Declaration of Independence states that "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness". Where was equality when human beings were labeled, beaten, involuntarily forced to work and sometimes even killed? The elites that were slave owners were a form of government that stripped people of their unalienable rights, where was justice then? It would be fair to say that this document was created in a time when inequalities existed and social justice was non-existent. It would be fair to say that a true American would not take this declaration to heart if they understood the damage caused by slavery.

Group Size and Group Behavior

"When the number of participants is large, the typical participant will know that his own efforts will probably not make much of a difference to the outcome, and that he will be affected by the meeting's decision in much the same way no matter how much or how little effort he puts into studying the issue".
Mancur Olson

To some degree I believe that a much smaller group can make effective decisions and come to a solution to a problem faster than a larger group. Especially when it comes to politics, it would be nearly impossible to make a decision if everyone in society had to participate in the decision making. People do not share the same interest, and too many opinions will slow down the process of coming to a solution- even if the solution is not right. Smaller groups does not guarantee that everyone's voice will be heard. It comes back to the majority vs. the minorities. Not all decisions made by larger groups based on vote necessarily means it is the "right decision". I chose this particular piece of the reading because it does allow me to think of Madison's fear of larger groups creating more factions but it also allows me to think of John Stuart Mill in his piece about Liberties. I would hope that people don't shy away from participating in a movement because they think that their opinions or participation would not make a difference. However, it is something that many people feel on a regular basis, people are not always ready to be part of a movement because their attendance would not make a difference on the outcome or bottom line of the decision.