Fireworks!

This is a very old, rather large painting of my Aunt Mabel and her friends celebrating the holiday at Oxford Lake, near Anniston, Alabama.  Anniston is remembered for racial injustice and the bus burnings of the 1960’s. If one reads the speech by Frederick Douglas of 1852, it is evident that there is “Another View of July 4th.”

I cannot erase the fact that my ancestors owned slaves. However, as an adult, I should be aware that history is idealized.  It doesn’t mean that we can’t celebrate all that is good about our country; that America has been a welcoming refuge for immigrants fleeing the injustices of other nations, and that it is founded on moral principles that we hold sacred.  Lies and misinformation are distorting these principles.  I am very concerned.