[Editor’s note: The following article contains edited excerpts from the address entitled “Independence Day,” delivered by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan on July 4, 1996 at First District Plaza in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. To order this message available in its entirety on DVD, CD and MP3, please visit store.finalcall.com or call 1.866.602.1230, ext. 200.]
In The Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful.
“Independence Day” (July 4th): To see the activities taking place throughout cities in America and the spirit of the people, we have to reflect on a day like this that it is not a day of just fun and frolic; it is not a day to engage in silliness, for it really should be a day of deep reflection on the meaning of “independence.”
According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, “independence” is defined as “the quality or state of being independent (self-governing)”. The archaic form of the word is “competence,” which means “a sufficiency of means for the necessities and conveniences of life.”
The flag of the United States of America is the symbol of that which took place on July 4, 1776. The flag of any independent and sovereign nation should be respected by those under that flag; it is not proper to burn the flag.
It is not proper to display the flag of any independent government in an unseemly way (draping it over a toilet or putting it on the floor for people to walk on it).
Even though we have suffered great injustice, and still do under that flag, nevertheless it is the flag of an independent nation. And since we who have never been independent respect independence, it is wise that we respect the symbol of that that we hope to one day become.
‘Independence’ is not something given, it is something earned
On July 4, 1776, the members of thirteen colonies decided that they would strike a blow for freedom, and they declared themselves to be independent from the crown of England—which, of course, led to war; which, of course, led to independence.
“Independence” was not something given, it was something gained and earned through self-development, and through a desire that is natural in self-development to be free from that which restricts and confines further development.
So, the “Declaration of Independence” was initialed; and this document created by men, who were God-fearing men, yet they were slaveholders… I think history will bear us out, that they were slaveholders—and, they already told it; I’m just repeating!
They were slaveholders: they didn’t quite see us in the way they saw themselves. But in their view, they were men of God, they were men of purpose, they were men of vision; and the document that they came up with, no one can argue was an inspired document. So it came through them, but may not have necessarily been from them.
You understand how God uses anybody to bring forth something that He wants to lay down for people to study. The Bible came not from men, it came through men from God. The Qur’an did not come from Muhammad, it came through Muhammad from God.
This document called “Constitution” came through men. But the words… The words are so powerful, and the words are so moral, that it would take really moral and spiritual men to make such a document flesh. I want us all just to think and reflect on the subject of independence.
See, words are wonderful; any of us can say the right word, but it takes the right heart to live and do the word that we say. We live in a world that says all the right things, but does all the wrong things.
So these documents called the “Declaration of Independence” and the “Constitution” of these United States of America: These are marvelous documents that had none of us in mind.
Did they declare an “independence” that you can get drunk on Independence Day and you don’t have to go to work on July 4th? But you should be working every day for your independence! What you are celebrating is somebody else’s, not your own.
I will say again, and prove, that independence is never given. If someone gave it to you, you really don’t have it. America is independent because she earned it; she bled for it, she fought for it, and as a result she has it.
She cannot confer it on you. God wants us to be independent, but there is a process that we have to get involved in, in order to develop to the point where we earn the right to be independent.
The Declaration of Independence sets forth the reasons why the colonies wanted to disband what governed them, and set up a new government:
“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 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.”
Now, human events and the interaction of people all over the world today is causing people to secede from, separate from, break apart from, and the human events that have led to these separations is usually based on injustice—injustice that is not reconciled through peaceful means.
Therefore the person that is aggrieved, in setting forth the reasons why they should be separated, must then, of necessity, fight for the right to be separate and equal.
Only God’s Law, not unjust government, can render unequal things equal
The right of self-determination is the right of every people on this earth. For “Big America” to say to Cuba, “You should be a democracy”: If the Cuban people want their form of government, what right is it of America to say to Cuba.
“Because you’re in the Western Hemisphere, and we are all democratic, you must not march to the drum beat of a different drummer—you must either march to our drum beat, or we will punish you!”?
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad told me years ago you don’t have to condemn a dirty glass just set a clean glass up beside it. If democracy is the right way to go, don’t try to force other people to be what you are; show them the efficacy, the wisdom of being who and what you are and they will follow.
Show them the success of being whom and what you are. And since everybody wants success, they will follow. But it is unseemly for America to dictate to Cuba. Why don’t you dictate to China?
You fought Vietnam over this, and you lost. Now you’re trading with Vietnam, but you won’t open up trade with Cuba so you could impact on them and show them how good your way of life is.
Well, this “Declaration of Independence” is something really to be considered: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men”—meaning male and female—“are created equal. …” Well, I don’t know about that.
See, if “all men” were “created equal,” why have we (Black people in America) been catching so much unequal hell? Or is it that you didn’t consider us men and women? Oh, I see! So you relegated us out of humanity…
But even so, your language is not quite correct. No two things in nature are equal; so God never created men and women “equal,” He created them equally. Let’s look at language, now.
You can’t say that the flea is equal to the elephant, and you can’t say that a star that does not have the majestic power of the sun is equal to the sun.
There are no two things in this universe equal, but what renders all things equal is that God created them equally in obedience to a Law! It is law that renders unequal things equal.
I want to stress this, so consider those who compete in the Olympics: If all men were created equal there would be no need to marvel over [just one sprinter] because they all would finish at the race together.
We are all equal, but somebody runs faster than the rest, somebody jumps higher than others; somebody plays better, sings better, dances better, because nothing is equal except under law. To further prove my point, take for example book Holy Qur’an, and a pen:
The pen could be black, with a little stone in it, and it looks nice, but I don’t think it’s equal to The Qur’an—not equal in weight, not equal in size, not equal in effect.
But when I drop these two things onto a desk, the pen is not going to get there faster because it’s lighter and smaller, the pen and the Book will arrive at the same time because when I drop them, I drop them into a law (of gravity). And it is The Law that renders unequal things equal!
Now, what is my point? There is no way that The Declaration and The Constitution can have real meaning under law if I am a racist or a sexist, and see myself better because I am White or Black;
See myself better because I am male or female. If I start messing with that which will cause me to be an unjust judge, then I am destructive of the document! The words are right, the actions of government are wrong.
The words, they could be amended; we can amend the words. But the thing that really needs amendment is the quality and condition of our minds and our thinking, because unless we are changed [mentally] then we can never make the document live.
And every day that we live in America, America is losing her independence and her sovereignty because she is playing with the words and her own actions have caught up with her, and now judgment has come.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men (male and female) are created equally.” And that’s right, we are all created equally. I think you are a product of sperm mixed with ovum—is there anyone produced any different?
Even if you’re a “test-tube baby,” it’s still sperm mixed with ovum. (Smile) So we are all equally created, then. Praise God for His equality! Did any of you grow differently in the womb? Some may have come a little early, some may have come premature, so to speak, but most of us were carried to a certain term, is that right?
God didn’t hold some of us in the womb two years and others two months, so there was general equality. But when you came forth out of your mother’s womb, did you speak in Spanish?
The sound that you made, was it in Arabic or Hebrew or Chinese or Greek or English? No. Everybody made the same sound; whether White, Black, green, pink, I don’t care what your color was, you made the same sound. Equality…
The Holy Qur’an says Allah (God) created you and He brought you forth from your mother’s womb and you knew nothing. So, we all start off equal because The Law of Birth/The Law of Reproduction renders us all equal.
You may say, “Well, some of us got messed up in the womb.” That’s not God’s fault; that has something to do with you, something to do with the way you live your life, something to do with the way you think your thoughts, something to do with the way things go on in the environment around your pregnancy.
See, there is a lot that can mess up a cake when it’s in the oven, and there is a lot that can mess up a human being when they are in the womb.
My point, brothers and sisters, is that birth renders us equal; and in death, you don’t die in Spanish, you don’t die in English, you don’t die in Swahili, you die—and you all make the same sound going out like you made the same sound coming in.
So, you know, the king dies and the fool dies, the emperor dies and the pimp dies, the prophet dies and the fool and the drug head dies. I don’t care how good you think you are, death comes to all; so in God’s Law, He renders all things equal before His law.
And anytime you establish government: If you don’t treat the people who are your citizens with equality and justice, then your very act of injustice is destructive of your sovereignty.
‘Life, Liberty, Pursuit of Happiness’: Rights of every human being which cannot be realized under unjust powers
The Declaration of Independence states: “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”—rights that are not “foreign” (strange) to human beings—“that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. …”
If we were to start defining life, defining liberty, and defining the pursuit of happiness, then we would have to question government, and the reason why we have to set forth a declaration.
The Declaration continues: “That to secure these rights [life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness], Governments are instituted among Men…” Well,when you “institute” something, this is a causative action done by people; people get involved in instituting government.
But look what it says next: “deriving their just powers…”—stopthere. The word “just” (i.e. fair, fair-minded, equitable, impartial, unbiased, objective, neutral, disinterested, unprejudiced, open-minded, nonpartisan, etc.):
You shouldn’t put “just” in front of it! Once you put “just” in front of “powers,” then you have to live up to justice in the execution of power; otherwise, this is not the government, this is not the nation!
See, you can’t beat me with this: I don’t care what you think you know, you can’t beat me with this, because the fact of the matter is both the Bible and The Qur’an preach of “judgment”; and there would not have to be a judgment if the powers that were instituted among men were just powers.
Because the powers are not just, this is why God has determined a judgment of the powers of this world. The execution of power in America has it been just? Has it been just for White people? Well heck, if it’s by White people, of White people and for White people, and it hasn’t been just for White people, what chance do we have?
Now brothers and sisters, we know that there is no such thing in this world as “perfection.” We are not even beginning to say that America should be perfect as these words in her Declaration are, but we should see an effort to live up to the ideals that you set forth, because the ideals are the standards by which you should be judged.
America cannot be judged by the constitutional document of England or France or Italy or Germany, America must be judged by her own document. And if you have failed to live up to your own document, then maybe you have arrived at a serious time in your history. .
No wonder you’re sitting on fireworks, and getting drunk and doing foolishness on this day, because if you reflect on what this day is all about with sober minds you might begin to see why another declaration of independence may have to be made.
The Declaration continues: “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… .”
Black people in America: Did any one of you consent? They didn’t even ask you did you want to be; when did they hold a plebiscite (a vote/a poll) after slavery to even ask us did we want to be considered as a “citizen”?
When did you give your consent? And by the way: How could your consent even be accepted at your level of immaturity? You do not allow boys and girls to consent, their parents have to sign for them… And White folk call you “boy” and “girl,” and they sign for you!
Because you were in no condition to sign; you were in no condition to give your consent! You didn’t know what you were giving your consent to!
‘Just power’ can only be derived from obedience to The Creator
Instead, the words in The Declaration should read like this: “deriving their just powers from their obedience to The Creator.” … Because, there can be no just power in man unless he derives it from a Source that is unimpeachable, that is The Source of goodness and The Source of justice.
When you are ruling other human beings that you didn’t create, they are The Creator’s creation—so how could you rule what you didn’t create without giving due respect and recognition to The Author of that creation?
So if those of us in positions of leadership will seek to tie our minds and our will to govern what we did not create with The Laws of Him Who created all, then we derive our just powers from our submission and total obedience to The Just God.
And if the leaders are not in submission to God, how can their power execution be just? Even those who claim submission to God have a problem with the principle of justice;
Because the world has been so poisoned with racism and sexism and materialism, that it’s difficult for human beings to see how magnificent this principle of justice is that permeates our universe and its order.
And that is why Thomas Jefferson said he “trembles for his country”; he trembled for America when he reflected that God is just and that His justice cannot sleep forever.