COMMENTARY: Celebrating July 4th – statement by US Ambassador Linda S. Taglialatela

Ambassador Linda S. Taglialatela

Over the last five years, I have had the great honor to celebrate July 4th, the United States’ Independence Day, throughout the Eastern Caribbean.  As an American, I see July 4th as a day to not only appreciate the great ideals and accomplishments of my country, but to also think about how we continue to strive to create “a more perfect union.”  This year has been particularly poignant for our union.  The onslaught of the pandemic has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives around the world, many of them American.  During this challenge, the people of the Caribbean have been with us.  Doctors and nurses, people like Safiya Davy, a Vincentian nurse in Washington, DC, or Terry Pascal, a Grenadian healthcare worker in New York City, join thousands on the front lines.  Additionally, in recent weeks, the people of the United States, and around the world, have demanded accountability and action to address racial injustice.  There too we have felt the support of our Caribbean brothers and sisters.

I spent the July 4th’s of my youth in Upstate New York, where I grew up.  The region has a long association with abolitionist and equality movements.  As the United States celebrates this year the 100th anniversary of women’s right to vote, we remember the first women’s rights convention in the United States at Seneca Falls, New York in 1848.  The declaration that came out of the meeting was modeled on the Declaration of Independence and pledged to “use every instrumentality within our power” to fight for the enfranchisement of half of America’s population.  Most of the participants were women.  The only African-American was a man, Frederick Douglass, the author, orator, and former slave, whose commitment to the equality of black Americans was as fervently matched by his fight for the rights of women, Native Americans, and immigrants.

For Douglass, for me, and for millions around the world, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution reflected the ideals upon which our country was founded.  Our nation was not built on shared history, ethnicity, or language, but on the pursuit of freedom and the wellbeing of our families and communities.  These ideals are what inspired the suffragettes at Seneca Falls, the abolitionists of New York, and conductors along the Underground Railroad, who guided escaped slaves through the towns and cities I would later call home.

All these patriots agreed that upholding and living up to our nation’s ideals required constant dedication and civic engagement.  Our commitment to free speech and full civic participation is one of the values that unites us with Dominica and the nations of the Eastern Caribbean.  Unlike authoritarian regimes, we are convinced that our countries are stronger and more just when our citizens participate and engage in the “free market of ideas.”  We don’t silence critics.  We embrace diverse ideas and invite them to challenge ours.  Douglass was clear on this when he wrote, “To suppress free speech is a double wrong.  It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker.”   Save for the tragic suppression of democracy in Cuba and Venezuela, our hemisphere is one committed to values of democracy public accountability and respect for our citizens’ votes and opinions.

In June, “National Caribbean American Heritage Month,” we celebrated these shared values and the legacies and contributions of the Caribbean region’s sons and daughters.  Modern-day pioneers include academics like Dr. Cardinal Warde, a professor of electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), born in Barbados, who conducts STEM programs for students throughout the region.  They include star athletes like Adonal Foyle from St. Vincent, who played with the NBA Golden State Warriors and continues to inspire Caribbean youth.  Entrepreneurs include Michelle Samuel, who after returning from an exchange program in the United States, began hosting virtual “DreamBuilder” business sessions for women across St. Lucia.  From science to sports, to business, the people of the Caribbean continue to shape our history and contribute to our shared future.

The founding ideals of the United States of America have been advanced by every subsequent generation.  In celebration of United States Independence Day, we take on this challenge and sum our voices in pledging to honor, uphold, and expand the ideals of equality and freedom for all embedded in the American republic

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13 Comments

  1. Jonathan Y St Jean
    July 8, 2020

    I have a suggestion for madame ambassador, please take some time to read the article, 7 things the United Daughters of the Confederacy might not want you to know about them, then wheel and come again with your talk about working towards a more perfect union. The UDC and the KKK are two arms of the same racist body, one male the other female.

  2. A voice
    July 8, 2020

    This woman needs to read the 13th amendment to their constitution. It states literally that no man shall be enslaved…. except as a prisoner. America’s relation with Black people has been driven by this amendment. White Americans have imprisoned Black people before the ink dried, to this day until their prisons are bursting at the seams with especially Black men. This had been perpetrated by both Democrats and Republicans.
    Everyone please help yourself, ther info if it there – watch/search the documentary “13th” on Youtube you’ll understand these evil deeds.

  3. July 8, 2020

    Hello and good afternoon my people. Well Linda it seems to me that you don’t know true American history that’s why you can put your face to an article that’s was written for you. You and Trump is celebrating the confederate statues and want to put black peoples in prison for ten yours if they remove those racist statues. America spent decades pointing their fingers at the USSR , Russia, Cuba, China , Iran and many more countries but you must look into the mirror instead of looking at others. Now we are looking at America and its quiet clear you are a racist country who don’t give a SH.. About your black citizens so don’t tell us anything about how great you are until you free your black citizens. You print currency as you please and no world wide financial institution is holding you accountable (Moody’s,Standard and Poors). So Linda please clean your house then talk to us. You have Twenty six Trillion dollars in debt, who is going to repay that debt.

  4. July 8, 2020

    To: J , John Charles.

    Mr Charles you comment on current events and you always defend Trump. How can you say you don’t know if Trump called, Haiti and other African countries “Sh.. hole Countries. I guess you only mentioningk what support your premise but be careful because if you reside in America Trump and Miller will deport you. Can you tell us who took the SAT test for Trump. When will they interview all the women who took part in his Miss Universe show that was held in Russia and asked them if Trump came into their dressing room when they were nude or partially nude. Listen to the Access Hollywood tape where he admitted what he did. Guy take your head out of the sand.

    • Let us prey
      July 8, 2020

      Oh Tony never mind, JJ is fake. He is the one black guy they place right ‘behind’ trump in all his photos ops, just wishing white bigots would like him. Sick!

  5. J.John-Charles
    July 7, 2020

    There are those who are quick to call the U.S.,Republicans and Trump racist,but will not confess.
    “Yes I support the Democratic party, but this was the party that did everything possible to keep negros in slavery.All segregation laws to keep blacks down, were introduced and put into practice by the democrats party I support.
    I don’t know if they are not aware,or they just choose to suppress the truth.
    We are told Trump called black countries “sh..hole countries”
    I don’t know if he did.But I will not take it from those who put the nation in so much trouble.
    “Trump colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election”
    And they knew it was their own BIG LIE.
    Senator Marsha Blackburn was present at this meeting, and she said ” I never heard this from the president.”
    In closing let me repeat.
    The REPUBLICAN PARTY has always stood with blacks in America.
    Compare what Trump has done for blacks in 3 years, and the nothingness of of Obama in 8yrs.
    U. B. the judge.

    • Gone are the days
      July 8, 2020

      Oh oh you all, here it is again, it’s JJ the Republican, the only black guy they don’t hate. Wtf Lol lol

    • Just asking
      July 9, 2020

      Boy, who taught you ti hate yourself?

  6. Jonathan Y St Jean
    July 6, 2020

    Madame Ambassador, you quoted the great Frederick Douglass who in Rochester, New York on July 5th, 1852, gave a speech”What to the slave is the 4th of July” in which he called the celebration a sham, in a nation that oppresses its black citizens. You serve at the pleasure of a President who gets rid of those who don’t share his point of view, so when President Trump just 3 years ago called Dominica and other countries with majority black people, “sh..hole countries” are we not to believe that you also share his point of view? Just look at the protest movement in the USA right now over discrimination and police brutality against black people. The White ruling people of America love to control the narrative about “working towards building a more perfect union”, then why does it take 244 years to give black Americans the liberty and justice which you white people have. How many more centuries do you need to end the sham and live up to the moral ideals you talk about.

  7. La Swa Native
    July 6, 2020

    Does anyone else notice that over the last couple months the US Embassy in the Eastern Caribbean based in Barbados is on a rabid campaign on their Facebook page to sell how wonderful the failing US is for the region? Every day a new piece of propaganda. In addition they are putting out stories on how much Taiwan is doing for the three saints: St. Vincent and Grenadines, St. Lucia and St. Kitts-Nevis. Some new IT staff member at the embassy is working overtime to manipulate we natives.

  8. Jonathan Y St Jean
    July 6, 2020

    Madame ambassador, the abolitionist Frederick Douglass called the July 4th Independence a sham because it represents a time when in 1776 black people were still 3/5ths of a white man and we were still in bondage and slavery. You white people can keep your July 4th. We will take the day of, however, there isn’t anything for us to celebrate. No wonder white people in America have not listened to black people, not once in 401 years. You people passed the 14th, 15th and 16th amendments giving and reiterating equal rights and justice since the late 1800s and yet we are yet to get those rights, only token acts. Why does the government have to authorize the voting rights act? Equal rights and justice makes this a farce if you ask anyone with good conscience. Keep your July 4th and we’ll take June 19th.

  9. jamie
    July 6, 2020

    America is a failing nation,filled with hate and prejudice towards blacks and hispanics,America dark past of slavery will continue to hunt it’s evil history.

  10. Blaze
    July 6, 2020

    Lady muv your BBC….. AMERIKKKA does not care about it’s own BLACK Citizen…. why should we believe you are friendly with BLACKS that are not your Citizen. You are here to monitor the movements… well only one with movements is the PM…. :lol: :lol: :-D

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