celebrating freedom?

the fourth of july.
independence day.
                                 but something someone posted made me think.
this country was declared independent by a bunch of men in powdered wigs and tights, at a time when people of color were owned, bought and sold and, individually, not even considered a whole person.  women?  well, they might as well have been invisible, with no rights other than those granted to them by their husbands or fathers.  for both these classes of people, education was unthinkable and, for the most part, prohibited.  for both, it kept them subservient;  it kept "the colored" in the fields and women only learned what was deemed necessary to make them useful/valuable to the man and in the home.
             things changed.
                       slowly.
       slavery was abolished.  well, sort of.
       eventually, women stepped outside the house, demanded..and got..the right to vote.
freedom...of sorts.
               then we had the civil rights act,
                                         roe v. wade, and now, the declaration on doma.
but still, independence seems elusive and incomplete.
                   we still have (predominantly) men denying women the right to earn equal pay for equal work.
                   we still have (predominantly) men trying to tell women what they can and cannot do with their      
                   own bodies and what healthcare they can, or cannot, be entitled to.
                   in a country founded on the right to worship as one chooses, we have one group that wants to  
                   dictate just who and in what manner we may worship, while condemning foreign nations for
                   doing exactly that.
                   we have a group that wants to (still) tell us who we may fall in love with, commit ourselves to,
                   raise children with.
                   and we have many who claim to speak "for the people", but offer up their support for anyone
                   with the most money to help enact laws that benefit only the corporate few.
there is probably more...but i'm getting a headache.
i always liked the fourth of july...the fireworks, the cook-outs, those great feelings i got while watching the passing parades, the bands, the flags.
i still get those feelings, to a degree, but at my age and with some insight from a few,  i have come to the conclusion that, just perhaps, we've been a bit premature.  the powdered wigs and the panty-hose may be gone (at least in public, but what they wear in the privacy of their own homes, is none of my business), but some of the old sentiments linger.
freedom?
                 not completely there........yet.