Real Liberation Days

Let’s talk about Liberation Day. In my opinion, there have been many, but our devolved president likely disagrees. His Liberation Day began an ongoing litany of economic turmoil and unnecessary price gouges, the end of which is hard to fathom. The only thing we have been liberated from are our retirement accounts and paychecks.

Yesterday, the anniversary of D-Day was memorialized, but not in the usual way. Perhaps intentionally, this was the new German chancellor’s first visit to the White House. He reminded Trump of the importance of this day to the world. Trump responded with a derisive laugh and comment that it was a bad day for Germany, only to be corrected by the chancellor who noted it was the day Germany was liberated from the Nazis; something celebrated in modern-day Germany. In other words, Germans are eternally grateful that the United States, during their time of need, came out of its self-imposed isolation and helped save the world from fascism. There are a couple lessons in there should Trump wish to reflect. Never mind, he’s too busy ripping up Musk contracts.

Perhaps our first Liberation Day was December 16, 1773. Pissed off about brutal tariffs and an uncaring monarch, early Americans began the process of telling the king he should go pound sand. History teaches most of us important lessons, if we care to learn from them. Were a similar tea party to occur in, say, Canada today with Kentucky bourbon poured into Lake of the Woods, can you imagine the result? By golly, I think the president would tell us all they have problems via Truth Social, that he won’t talk to them on the phone for a while and he’ll quadruple the tariffs on the bottles already pulled from the shelves by smarting Canadians. Let’s see who’s the boss of me now.

Let’s fast forward three-and-a-half years to August 2, 1776, when most of the signatures were inked on the Declaration of Independence, a real Liberation Day. That might be worthy of a multi-million-dollar parade celebrating all 50 states and the territories. Instead, Trump wants us to give him a $90M birthday cake complete with hamburgers he can throw at the Muslims, Diet Cokes he can spray in immigrants’ faces, and enough frosting to cover all the media’s camera lenses.

January 1, 1863, was another Liberation Day for this was the day President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation technically freeing all the slaves. Of course, as students of history not residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, you know it took until 1865 for word to reach Texas, thus we celebrate Juneteenth now to acknowledge that no person is free until all persons are. To both, I suspect our President and his white nationalist yes-men would gripe about how the cessation of slavery (though we all know it didn’t really end for many more years and an argument can be made that elements of it still exist today) ruined the American economy until he got elected and fixed it all, then Biden ruined, and again he alone will fix it.

Women weren’t freed from non-voting citizenry until August 18, 1920. January 22, 1973, was another Liberation Day, the date SCOTUS handed down its ruling in Roe v. Wade. Women were finally given the same healthcare rights as men; well, sort of, but it is about as close as we’ve come.

Herein lies the lesson, though liberation may be achieved, it is not guaranteed in perpetuity. That is why we must continue to fight for it every day. And the fight should not be in American isolation but spread worldwide until we are all truly liberated.