Tucson turned 250 last year. The corn along the Santa Cruz is eighteen times older than that. This piece reads past the fireworks and into the actual fine print of the Declaration of Independence — the grievance nobody quotes — and follows the same argument to a City Council land return, a Supreme Court justice’s own words, and a pope who chose migrant graves over America’s birthday party.
This podcast is generated based on the article below, making it easy and convenient to listen to as you get ready for your day. The article offers extra information and resources to deepen your understanding beyond the podcast.
Grievance Twenty-Seven
What the Declaration Actually Says About the People Whose Land We’re Standing On
by Three Sonorans
There are no fireworks left in the grass yet. Just the smell of sulfur and mesquite smoke, settling on the flank of Cuk Ṣon, at the base of the mountain the settlers renamed Sentinel Peak. Someone is standing where the Santa Cruz used to run above ground, before Tucson paved over its own river, looking up at a peak that has watched people farm this floodplain for roughly 4,500 years: long before Rome, long before anyone here had heard the word “America.”
Today the country turned 250. The corn here is older than that by a factor of eighteen…