M.S. Bellows, Jr.@msbellows@c.im

Anyone remember the controversy around Obama's pastor, Jeremiah Wright?

Rev. Wright was right:

"And the United States of America government, when it came to treating her citizens of Indian descent fairly, she failed. She put them on reservations. When it came to treating her citizens of Japanese descent fairly, she failed. She put them in internment prison camps. When it came to treating her citizens of African descent fairly, America failed. She put them in chains, the government put them on slave quarters, put them on auction blocks, put them in cotton field, put them in inferior schools, put them in substandard housing, put them in scientific experiments, put them in the lowest paying jobs, put them outside the equal protection of the law, kept them out of their racist bastions of higher education and locked them into positions of hopelessness and helplessness. The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America'. No, no, no, not God Bless America. God damn America — that's in the Bible — for killing innocent people. God damn America, for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America, as long as she tries to act like she is God, and she is supreme. The United States government has failed the vast majority of her citizens of African descent."

Jeremiah Wright controversy - Wikipedia #July4th #250th
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremiah

en.wikipedia.orgJeremiah Wright controversy - Wikipedia
M.S. Bellows, Jr.@msbellows@c.im

Replying to @msbellows@c.im

Yeah, I know I'm being a buzzkill this July 4th. I vividly remember the bicentennial, when I was 14 years old. The vibe was completely different. This frog
has lived long enough to understand that the water has gotten hot, and it pisses him off.

America is not good enough. She was founded on a rotten foundation, and needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. "God bless America? No, no, no, no, God damn America."

But that doesn't mean I don't love this country! I'm like am adult kid who finally recognizes his dad is an abuser, and will not stand for it anymore, but also sincerely loves him and is willing to take steps to get him the help he needs and to welcome him back into his heart IF HE DOES THE WORK AND BECOMES BETTER. But not until then.

I want our country to be better. We had a Second Founding when the Reconstruction Amendments were passed in the 1860s. It took us a century to begin actually implementing them, and now the Roberts Court is tearing them apart. Now I want a Third Founding, an America I actually can be proud of, the America I thought we were finally creating back in 1976 when the Vietnam War was over and Jimmy Carter was president and racism seemed to be declining and women finally had rights.

The old America died in 2025. That's sad, and also good, because that America was a profoundly mixed bag. There is no America right now. I am dedicated to crafting a profoundly better America in the future.

Happy Independence Day, fellow patriots. Let's stop worshiping a red white and blue idol, and begin laying the foundations of a nation that actually lives up to its supposed ideals. "Work as if you lived in the early days of a better country." -Alasdair Gray

Jul 4, 2026, 19:50 UTCen