WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The town's Fourth of July celebration reminded all of a "self-evident truth" not included in the Declaration of Independence: Throughout the nation's history, what some call "American exceptionalism" has unjustly excepted millions of people.
On the balcony of Williams College's Chapin Library, actors from the Williamstown Theatre Festival read the July 4 Declaration, a September 1776 reply from the British government, the 1787 Preamble to the Constitution, and excerpts from an 1852 speech by abolitionist Frederick Douglass titled "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?"
"I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim," actor LeRoy McClain delivered Douglass' words.
"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."
Douglass' reminder to all, 122 years after his death, is that America still has ways to go to answer the Constitution's call for a "more perfect union."
Williamstown's Independence Day celebration included all the traditional elements, including the annual town parade, and a new wrinkle, the launch of fireworks at Taconic Golf Club.
For the most part, the mood was one of celebrating country and enjoying what has been called America's "secular holy day."
But the politics of the age were not completely absent.
At the morning's parade, a member of the Board of Selectmen donned a T-shirt reading "Dissent is Patriotic"; the contingent from First Congregational Church carried a placard calling for environmental justice, a Black Lives Matter sign and a rainbow flag associated with LGBTQ rights; and a spectator placed a sign at the curbside of Spring Street declaring that "America Is Under Attack."
During the reading of the Declaration of Independence, the crowd of several hundred outside Chapin Library burst into spontaneous applause a couple of times, notably on passages assailing King George III for "obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither," and for being "[a] prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people."
But for all America's real or perceived injustices, past or present, Douglass' speech included another reminder: that in the U.S. Constitution there is the potential to correct the nation's flaws and establish the justice that the Preamble makes an imperative.
"In that instrument, I hold there is neither warrant, license, nor sanction of the hateful thing [slavery]; but, interpreted as it ought to be interpreted, the Constitution is a glorious liberty document," Douglass said. "Read its preamble, consider its purposes. Is slavery among them? Is it at the gateway? or is it in the temple? It is neither."
If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.
Your Comments
iBerkshires.com welcomes critical, respectful dialogue. Name-calling, personal attacks, libel, slander or foul language is not allowed. All comments are reviewed before posting and will be deleted or edited as necessary.
No Comments
Williamstown Affordable Housing Trust Hears Objections to Summer Street Proposal
By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Neighbors concerned about a proposed subdivision off Summer Street last week raised the specter of a lawsuit against the town and/or Northern Berkshire Habitat for Humanity.
"If I'm not mistaken, I think this is kind of a new thing for Williamstown, an affordable housing subdivision of this size that's plunked down in the middle, or the midst of houses in a mature neighborhood," Summer Street resident Christopher Bolton told the Affordable Housing Trust board, reading from a prepared statement, last Wednesday. "I think all of us, the Trust, Habitat, the community, have a vested interest in giving this project the best chance of success that it can have. We all remember subdivisions that have been blocked by neighbors who have become frustrated with the developers and resorted to adversarial legal processes.
"But most of us in the neighborhood would welcome this at the right scale if the Trust and Northern Berkshire Habitat would communicate with us and compromise with us and try to address some of our concerns."
Bolton and other residents of the neighborhood were invited to speak to the board of the trust, which in 2015 purchased the Summer Street lot along with a parcel at the corner of Cole Avenue and Maple Street with the intent of developing new affordable housing on the vacant lots.
Currently, Northern Berkshire Habitat for Humanity, which built two homes at the Cole/Maple property, is developing plans to build up to five single-family homes on the 1.75-acre Summer Street lot. Earlier this month, many of the same would-be neighbors raised objections to the scale of the proposed subdivision and its impact on the neighborhood in front of the Planning Board.
The Affordable Housing Trust board heard many of the same arguments at its meeting. It also heard from some voices not heard at the Planning Board session.
And the trustees agreed that the developer needs to engage in a three-way conversation with the abutters and the trust, which still owns the land, to develop a plan that is more acceptable to all parties.
Developer David Traggorth asked the trustees to make the contribution from its coffers to help unlock an additional $5.4 million in state funds for the planned 54-unit apartment building at the south end of the Cable Mills site.
click for more
The donors, who wish to remain anonymous, say the gift reflects their desire to not only support Williams but also President Maud S. Mandel's strategic vision and plan for the college.
click for more
Neighbors of a proposed subdivision off Summer Street last week asked the Planning Board to take a critical look at the project, which the residents say is out of scale to the neighborhood. click for more
The Select Board and Planning Board this week clashed over a proposal that would add to the town charter a mechanism to ensure compliance with the foundation of town government. click for more