MALVEAUX AND ME: So apparently Julianne Malveaux will not be celebrating on Thursday. Instead, she will be angrily reading Frederick Douglass’s “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?”

That’s actually kind of cool. So I think I’ll re-read the essay too. And then I’ll go watch fireworks on the Mall (whatever, terrorists, talk to the finger ’cause the hand ain’t listening) with the sons of former slaves, and the sons of former Slavs, and assorted whatnot; and I’ll remember how hard freedom is won, and how different things are from when Douglass penned his essay. And I’ll celebrate.