The sun is not shining bright on liberty and justice on this Fourth of July in Alabama - or America.

In fact, as the summer clouds and ozone haze in Birmingham obscure the sun, a moral cloud hangs over our entire national purpose as set forth in the Declaration of Independence 231 years ago.

Liberty and justice may be working for the rich and powerful. But there is no more trickle down to the poor and the dwindling middle class.

"The system" is certainly working for the Federalist Society Fascists who now control the White House and the courts in this state and around the country. It is working OK for the members of the ruling elite in New York, Washington and Montgomery, even some liberal Democrats. It is working for newspaper publishers even with shrinking circulation who still make a 20 percent return on their obsolete investment, mainly because they no longer invest in the kind of journalism America needs at this critical time in our history.

But the rest of us just cling to a thin thread of freedom like the last remaining piece of cloth from the final vestiges of a burned American flag.

I will not be celebrating freedom and independence today, because I don't believe freedom and independence still exist. We may still be free of the British monarchy, but the American monarchy that has arisen in its place is just as rank.

I will head down to the Southside of Birmingham to watch others celebrate, just to see how jubilant or muted their protests turn out to be. I may burn a flag in silent protest at some point while sipping a Yuengling and eating barbecued ribs. But I will not be smiling and laughing much as I watch the fireworks burst over Vulcan's head.

It is a sad day in America, not a happy day. I just keep wondering when enough of the oppressed people in this country will stand up and say they've had "ENOUGH!"

I know for a fact "the people" can still make a difference in this damaged democracy. Aided by an aggressive, watchdog press, we could still make a difference and change things. But not if the vast majority of "the people" are so oblivious to the truth that they sit on their cheap couches drinking watered down beer and wait for a savior from the heavens to rescue us all.

Even the "good book" says: "God helps those who help themselves."

King George III is long dead, but we have another King George II in power now. And it is obvious he thinks he can get away with anything, including commuting Scooter Libby's sentence and having the officers in his court throw Democratic governors in jail - all because the people WILL NOT RISE UP!

Now, it may be worth re-reading the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence before or after you eat your barbecue today. Think about how you might re-write it for today's world. Is it time to write a new Declaration of Independence?

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands, which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

United States Declaration of Independence