So, how was your Fourth of July?

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Staten Island: As I watched the fireworks this July 4, I finally got that there are two Americas. My world has been rocked by the inequality I finally see. I think I knew about these two Americas for a long time, and the deep divide between them, but I didn’t want to know, and so all I gave it was lip service. I finally get that I know nothing of what black and brown people feel, because I’m white. And I’m ready to get busy, knowing, as they do, it’s messy business. But there is no other way. There can be no peace, if there is no equality. We are at the precipice of a racial equality sea change, and I have to do more than just hope that we don’t squander the opportunity, as we have others. God bless America for all. Dorothy Gallie

Bronx: We were in bondage and slavery for nearly a century after the United States became independent. It is asinine to celebrate our enslavement on July 4. To this day, many of us are still enslaved. We do not enjoy the benefit of liberty, equality and justice that is supposedly guaranteed by the Declaration of Independence. It would be hypocritical of me to accept an ideal that cannot stand up to the standard of truth. Perhaps one day this nation will rise and live up to the true meaning of its creed. I still hold out hope. And maybe one day I will be able to celebrate the date, but, until then, I remain skeptical.

J. Crestwell Munnings

Our country, too

Hartsdale, N.Y.: Leonard Greene asks why he should celebrate the Fourth of July, quoting Frederick Douglass (“What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”, column, July 4). As a black man, I would first say that Douglass was a former slave. Neither Greene nor I, racism notwithstanding, has had that experience. I would tell him that five generations of my family, males and females, voluntarily served this country in war, because it is our country, too. They served with black Medal of Honor recipients Moses Williams, Henry Johnson, Vernon Baker and many others. Our resiliency, our endurance, our craft enabled them and us to endure and persevere under the worst of conditions — because it is our country, too. Norman Gaines

Stand together

Bronx: Leonard Greene’s column moved me. I wish I could say, “I understand.” I can’t. Yes, “There is not a nation on the Earth guilty of [more shocking and bloody] practices…[as] the United States.” However, there is also no nation that has achieved greater accomplishments. Reading his column, I learned. I now see “independence” differently. Yet, I still

see freedom as something we both have. I promise to stand beside you for the playing of “The Black National Anthem,” if you stand by me for “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Michael Yorio

New slavery

Manhattan: Thank you, Leonard Greene, for your heartfelt truth-telling about July 4. The new form of slavery is a job in which you work for someone else with many restrictions, whether it be asking for permission to take lunch, a vacation, or when to call-out sick. The traditional 9-5 rat race does not come with a freedom plan.

Omar Branch

Don’t look back

Staten Island: Leonard Greene sees July 4 as a white holiday. He says slaves had no reason to celebrate it, and he carries that past mindset to modern America. He enjoys living in the past, as if America hasn’t changed for the better. He shouldn’t cast his doom and gloom at those who celebrate the best nation in the world. Joseph Valente

Awake in fright

Warwick, N.Y.: I don’t think I’ve ever read a more hateful, one-sided column in any paper. Leonard Greene rants about how horrible America is, and asks why he should celebrate the Fourth. I’ll tell you: because even an ungrateful guy like Greene can live the American Dream.

Raymond Klett

Bombardment

Manhattan: The past week, and especially July 4, was a nightmare. Not only firecrackers until past three in the morning, but what sounded like heavy artillery. Where were the police? Isn’t this illegal? The whole neighborhood must have been kept awake during this “fun.” Here’s to a whole year before the next July 4!

Marcia Epstein

de Blaze of light

Brooklyn: On July 4, we set up chairs in front yards, with an orange moon behind us. The sky lit up like 20 years of Coney Island fireworks detonated all at once. As neighbors oohed and ahhhed, I noticed the absence of police cars and fire engines. There were no sirens, just dead silence broken up by frequent BOOMS in the sky. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for bringing at least this aspect of the bad old 60s and 70s back to the rotting apple.

Robert W. Lobenstein

The other side

Manhattan: Voicer Lenny Nicotri: You made me cry. I could picture that holiday block party so clearly. The world has changed so much since 1962. Now we’re the grown-ups, and I hope we can create that kind of safe, idyllic world for our families and children. Maybe we will find something great on the other side of this chaos that can unify us, and make us better.

Jean Emery

Free-for-all

Brooklyn: July 4 is celebrated to commemorate American independence. However, given the current state of affairs in this country, I’m beginning to wonder whether we have carried these freedoms too far. Too many Americans just refuse to adhere to scientific advice to wear masks and socially distance, in the name of “personal freedom.” Some even refuse to acknowledge the danger at all, including the thousands who attended Trump’s rallies. This distortion of “freedom without responsibility” has led the U.S. to rank among the worst countries in addressing this pandemic. Pearl Cantos

BYRON SMITH/GETTY IMAGES

Two roads

Brooklyn: The virus has made its way across the country and only has two ways to go: into the Pacific Ocean or, back the way it came. Wake up, New York. It’s not over.

Leighton Perkins

Hypocritic oath

Manhattan: Voicer Aviva Cantor wrote that Thomas Jefferson penned the words, “all men are created equal.” Jefferson may have written that, but he didn’t practice it. He owned hundreds of black human beings and profited from their enslavement.

Leonard M. Marshall

Worst for whom?

Bronx: What the hell were you thinking when you published Sunday’s cover with the headline, “2020 Worst. Year. Ever!” How could you forget 400-plus years of slavery, systemic or otherwise?! These are mistakes only non-people of color would make. You guys need real diversity in your editing room. Please retract that cover. It is totally disrespectful to black people and descendants of slavery.

Oscar Sanders