Jessica Stover  0:09  
This recording is an offering of Networks for Training and Development's Online University.

Rosa McAllister  0:18  
Hi, everyone, this is Rosa McAllister with Networks for Training and Development, Inc. And we are here again for another Healing Circle Call, something that we do the first Monday of every month at 8pm Eastern time. We started these healing circle calls a number of years ago. Actually, it started between myself and a few friends from actually around the world who were all at one point or another going through some major stresses and life changes. And all of us live alone, and all of us felt pretty alone. And it was our way of getting together just to breathe together, frankly, to remember that we had each other's back, and that we weren't alone. And we did this - just us - for quite a while and then gradually started asking if it was okay if we let another friend know or another friend know about this. And the circle grew a little bit larger and a little bit larger. And then it was about five or six years ago, I believe, that I brought it to the attention of people within Networks, and said, maybe this is something we should put out to the world and offer it to everyone to join in. And so we started doing these monthly healing circle calls through Networks for Training and Development, and making announcements about that and making it available to others. Whoever wanted to join in anonymously. We don't know exactly who's in here, who's not, or who might be listening to it at a later date. Because about four years ago, actually more than that, we started recording these and making them available as podcasts. So now, these healing circle calls have become something that I look forward to every month. Sometimes I get to lead them. And sometimes other friends and practitioners that we know join in, always with the idea that it's about 20 minutes long. And it's just a way for us to connect, remind each other that although we might be feeling a little alone, we have each other's back. We're in each other's corner. We're holding each other tight. And we're breathing together. Sometimes it's meditation. Sometimes it's a thought. Sometimes it's a physical activity. But it's always wonderful. So here we are, on July 5 2021, the day after Independence Day, where the Fourth of July as it's celebrated here in the United States. And I can't help but think of all that's going on in the world. All that’s going on here in Hawaii, where I live, all that's going on around us as we're still battling COVID also known as the Coronavirus, a pandemic, that seems to be getting a little bit better right now. But we're all holding our breath and hoping it doesn't flare up yet again.

Rosa McAllister  3:29  
So Independence Day, or the Fourth of July is a national holiday here in the United States. Canada Day for our friends and neighbors to the north, is something that celebrated just a few days before the July 4 Independence Day. And it's a similar day of independence recognition. These are days of celebration, celebrating us breaking away, striving for our freedoms, striving for our independence, as countries and as people. In the United States, it's oftentimes celebrated with parades and fireworks and flag waving all kinds of other things, picnics, barbecues, and days of celebration for family and friends, neighborhoods and whole communities. I grew up outside of the Philadelphia area in the suburbs. And I remember July 4th so vividly, because in my family, it was a big deal. Not so much the patriotic big deal that it is for many people, but it was about the fireworks. My dad was a bit of a interesting, shall we say, person. He didn't follow the rules, necessarily. He was a kind and a good man. A genius in many ways. But he liked to have fun. I think I got that from him. He liked to not necessarily have a party, but he liked to make other people have fun. And to do things that were a little risky and unconventional.

Rosa McAllister  5:20  
So I remember distinctly the Fourth of July, every year when I was young, waking up, pulling on a red, white and blue-ish outfit, if I had something like that, running downstairs, and my father would have lined up for us on the dining room table, a lunch bag, a brown lunch bag full of fireworks for each one of us six kids. And as we got older, our bags got a little bit more full, or a little bit more full of the more dangerous fireworks. So I remember the caps, those things that they came on a strip of paper and had, they were like a red with a raised black dot, and you'd hammer it with your shoe or a hammer or stone and it would pop a little bit of a firework. I also remember having in my lunch bag, these I don't remember what they were called, but these little balls and you'd throw them down on the sidewalk or the street and they they burst a little firework. As I got older, I remember bottle rockets and all kinds of other things. And I oh my gosh, I laugh and I shudder nowadays as a mom and a tutu (a grandmother) to think that my father was handing out these bags of fireworks, us kids totally unsupervised. We just go running out for the day. And all our neighborhood friends all knew what was happening at the Bott house (that was my maiden name, Bott) what was and what Mr. Bott was up to, and all the goodies that we would have that nobody else had. And our sidewalk and our street would be littered with fireworks, debris, etc. And we'd have a great time. And in all honesty, I don't remember any of us blowing off a finger or getting hurt, amazingly enough. And as night would come, that’s when it really kicked up a notch and my father really came into his glory. Every year, he would set off a fireworks display in our backyard for the whole neighborhood. And my poor mother… oh. my poor mother, how she must have fretted and worried every year. But she went along with it. So, I lived about two blocks away from the police and fire station and hospital, thankfully. And interestingly, every year, as my father was about to start the firework display, a local police car or two or three, and a fire truck, would just happen to park behind our backyard. I used to think they were there to enjoy the display. I have since grown to believe that they were there because they knew my father, Mr. Bott, may be a genius and a risk taker but sometimes things go a little astray, especially with fireworks. We would have an amazing display. And of course, always the big finale with all kinds of things going off and the dogs barking and people probably shuddering but also our backyard full of neighbors and fireworks and fun and excitement. And that's what I remember about my Fourth of July.

Rosa McAllister  8:45  
Now, again, many parades, many other big celebrations in different towns, a lot of veterans coming out proudly displaying their uniforms, etc. But I gotta tell you, as I've gotten older, and a little bit more aware, especially living here in Hawaii, not everybody sees this day as a big celebration. For some, the trauma of the fireworks that sells sends them into a tizzy. For many who have dogs who shudder and oh, hide because of the fireworks. They don't particularly like it. But there's also a number of people that really don't see this as celebration of independence.

Rosa McAllister  9:38  
Native Hawaiians don't, as a whole, don't necessarily aren't necessarily thrilled with the whole becoming the 50th state in the United States. Don't get me wrong, some are very pleased about it and there are some very good parts to it. But they lost their kingdom of Hawaii. It was it's known as an overthrow. And as I've studied and learned more about the happenings of how this came about this 50th state of the United States… it was kind of a bad business deal, is the way I would portray it and leverage and buying out and locking a queen away so that she couldn't rile up the people to rise up against.

Rosa McAllister  10:40  
Do you think they're really wanting to light off fireworks and wear the red, white and blue proudly and wave our flags? Not so much. In fact, in the last couple of days, I've seen more trucks with the Hawaiian flag flying proudly, and more homes with the Hawaiian flag flying proudly than I have the US flag. Understandably.

Rosa McAllister  11:06  
So is it a day of celebration and independence? I think it's about perspective. And what about other indigenous people? Native Americans? Do you think they're necessarily celebrating Fourth of July as a day of independence? I'm guessing not so much for similar reasons as to Hawaiians. And what about people who maybe came here not of a free will, but were brought to the United States as slaves or indentured servants? Or came here really without a real choice? Do you think they’re necessarily celebrating this day of independence? Whose independence are we talking about? America is known for being a freedom fighter, for being one who takes up the cause of others who are “less than” and yet, our history is not sparkly clean, is it? Our history to our own people, is not necessarily one that we talk frankly about. And it's become very popular now, for others to be brought up, who we did not learn about in history class in grade school and high school. We are learning more things about the history that we did learn and how it was frankly, whitewashed, literally whitewashed. Whose independence are we celebrating? Whose independence are we talking about? And what about veterans? Many celebrate. And many feel very proud about standing up for and protecting their country. And see the Fourth of July and independence as a time to really proudly break out the uniform and the flag and to march and salute. But there are also many, many veterans, United States veterans who do not celebrate and are ashamed, or unsure of what they did, and why they did it and were they really protecting others freedoms? Were they really being protected themselves and their freedoms?

Rosa McAllister  14:00  
For many veterans, it's a day not just because of the fireworks going off, but it's a day when they remember their traumas very clearly, from war. If you think particularly about those who fought in the Vietnam War, if you want to call it that, they were not celebrated necessarily when they came home. And it's been a little bit late, in some of the celebrations and honorings that we've given them. I know many who do not celebrate July 4. In fact, it's a very, very painful day. A reminder of what they did, thinking they were doing right, or because they were drafted, in all honesty, they didn't want to go but they had to go and how it changed them forever… through what they saw, through what they did, all in the name of being a freedom fighter. And yet, did the Vietnamese really want them there?

Rosa McAllister  15:15  
These are questions that we don't often ask ourselves. These are questions and things we don't really talk about too much. But just saluting and flag waving and marching, and wearing red, white and blue and going to that barbecue and setting off those fireworks, I think we should.

Rosa McAllister  15:38  
And what about women? Many have been abused, mistreated, traumatized, been under the authority of others, whether it'd be their father, or their husband, or their partner, or another family member, or the government, making rules about their bodies, making rules about whether or not they can vote, making rules about if they're allowed to speak up, if they're allowed to make decisions for themselves?

Rosa McAllister  16:17  
Whose independence is this that we keep celebrating? That we keep talking about? The reality is, there are many of us who question how much independence we really have. And isn't it more interdependence, they're relying on one another, helping one another. For many of us, the fireworks and the flag waving and the parades and the parties only illustrate and point out the lack of freedoms, and the lack of independence that some of us actually have. But we are here. And we are part of a larger whole. In whatever your life story has been, and your family's lineage, whatever level of independence and freedom, you feel, know that you are amazing. We all are. And we all have choices. It may not be complete choices. Some of us, you know, the one percent, it may feel, has many, many more choices because of their status or their money or what have you. But the reality is, we all have choices. They may not be full and complete, but they are there as one of my warrior women friends, as I like to call them all as a group of women here that I meet with regularly, who all have lived with terrible abuse and injustices, all of them who live with trauma. As one of my beautiful warrior women friends said, you know, even when I was the most down, kicked, and shoved down to the ground, I still had a choice whether to get up and even more: HOW to get up.

Rosa McAllister  18:32  
And it's in those celebrations. It's in those freedoms that we find our independence, I believe. We’re all on a journey. It's based on who and what we are. And within that journey, we can all set off some fireworks. So to take us out. I'm going to bring on some Katy Perry. And I want to remind you that we're here for you and with you at Networks in many ways. In one way, in Healing Circle Call on the first Monday of every month at 8pm Eastern time. Aloha.

Unknown Speaker  19:31  
( “Fireworks” by Katy Perry plays) 

Jessica Stover  23:10  
Thank you for listening. We hope the information provided was helpful. Don't forget to stop by our website and take advantage of all we have to offer.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai