Colombo, July 5 -- American Independence Day, July 4, fell this year on Saturday. For the first time, there was no real fanfare of this national holiday but only a subdued observation with some fireworks because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

This year's Independence Day also came in the backdrop of the racial inequality problem that has shaken the very foundation of this country in ways that most Americans have never been seen since the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

Two hundred forty-four years ago, on June 7, 1776 when the Continental Congress met at the Pennsylvania State House (later Independence Hall) in Philadelphia, the Virginia delegate Richard Henry Lee introduced a motion calling for the colonies' independence. The motion gen...