Who is Rep. Cori Bush?
CORI Bush made headlines after her comments about the Fourth of July. Cori Bush, 44, is a Democratic politician out of St. Louis MO. Missouri native Cori Anika Bush, is an American politician, registered nurse, pastor, and activist. She is currently the U.S. Representative for Missouri's 1st congressional district. Before her political career, she got her nursing degree from Lutheran School of Nursing and spent over a decade working as a nurse, clergy, and childcare worker. In 2011, she stared her own church in St. Louis called the Kingdom Embassy International Church, which only stayed open for three years. The daughter of a politician, Bush had no intentions on running for office, she was asked to by community leaders after leading a protest back in 2014 after the death Michael Brown Jr. According to her biography, she initially declined the offer to run for office but decided to run later on because "she could not stand to see her son or daughter become hashtags of injustice without doing all she could to protect them." Bush first ran in 2016 but lost the election before assumed office back on January 3, 2021. Bush stared trending after she made comments about the Fourth of July being a "white holiday." When they say that the 4th of July is about American freedom, remember this: the freedom theyre referring to is for white people. This land is stolen land and Black people still arent free.  Cori Bush (@CoriBush) July 4, 2021  She took to Twitter on July 4, 2021, and said, "When they say that the 4th of July is about American freedom, remember this: the freedom theyre referring to is for White people. This land is stolen land and Black people still arent free." In a follow-up post, Bush continued, "End the War on Drugs. End police violence. End health care, housing, and educational apartheid. WE are the experts on our own liberation. And we won't stop until it's won." Since Bush started trending, there have been mixed reviews for what she has said. US Air Force veteran Rob Maness stepped in and responded to her comments, calling her a "traitor." You are a sad excuse for a sitting elected official. This land was conquered and tamed by individuals of all colors and you dishonor them. You are free, free to live in any other country you wish traitor.  Col. Rob Maness ret. (@RobManess) July 4, 2021  "This land was conquered and tamed by individuals of all colors and you dishonor them," he added. "You are free, free to live in any other country you wish traitor." Despite the negative comments she received, other politicians jumped in to support her. Speak it, @CoriBush! Its almost as if our entire country has been brainwashed to ignore our historyand how its worst elements continue todaydespite our self-congratulatory rhetoric. https://t.co/yJ3PGR8yEU  Shahid Buttar for Congress (@ShahidForChange) July 4, 2021  "Speak it, @CoriBush! It's almost as if our entire country has been brainwashed to ignore our historyand how its worst elements continue todaydespite our self-congratulatory rhetoric," said Democratic congressional candidate Shahid Buttar. Bush is a single mother to two children, Zion, 21, and Angel, 20. Zion was born prematurely and only weighed just over a pound. "His ears were still in his head. His eyes were still fused shut. His fingers were smaller than rice, and his skin was translucent," Bush told People magazine in May 2021. " We were told he had a zero percent chance of life." Zion had to spend four months in the hospital's intensive care unit, but after being given a zero percent chance of life, he survived. Bush became pregnant with her daughter, Angel, just a few months after Zion was born. Bush opened up to People that 16 weeks into her pregnancy with Angel, she went into early labor again, and while her doctors said the baby wasn't worth trying to save, her sister stepped in to change the doctor's mind. After her sister demanded the doctors do something, they ended up giving her a cervical cerclage, which is a stitch in the cervix meant to prevent early deliveries, so she could carry Angel to term, where she was born healthy. "This is what desperation looks like. That chair flying down a hallway," Bush said about her sister throwing a chair to get doctor's attention. "Every day, Black women are subjected to harsh and racist treatment during pregnancy and childbirth. Every day, Black women die because the system denies our humanity."