IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed...
Well, today is July 4th, 2008 -- the 232nd anniversary of the declaration quoted above. Of course, it took a war and several years of negotiating and drafting before we actually got a constitution and a government in place, but this is where it all began:
http://www.ushistory.org/Declaration/document/index.htm
I had fun re-reading this document. It's also fun to look around this site and read about the men (and yes, Abigail, they were all men) who signed it. And not just any men, either -- all white men with real property holdings.
Most of them were also quite young by our standards today. And some of them had absolutely fabulous names. Names like:
Button Gwinnett (sounds like a haberdashery tool -- sorry, Button) Anyway, good old Button died at the age of 42 after being shot by his political rival in a duel (something they seem to have done a lot of in those days), but not until after Button had led an unsuccessful attempt to invade Florida!
http://www.ushistory.org/Declaration/signers/gwinnett.htm
and:
Charles Carroll of Carollton (I guess he didn't want to be confused with that other Charles Carroll of Schenectady):
http://www.ushistory.org/Declaration/signers/carroll.htm
I really am enjoying reading about these signers - I honestly had no idea about any of them (except maybe Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock, Thomas Jefferson, and Samuel Adams - the beer guy).
They had some interesting complaints about the British, too -- and they were none too gentle about their tone (there I go with the tone issue again). Wow! Those Founding Fathers really let their rhetoric fly! You gotta love it.
Anyway, have a fabulous 4th, everybody -- stay cool, don't drink and drive, and enjoy the fireworks.
Your fellow American, overcome with a red, white and blue fit of fabulous rhetorical flourishes (oops, and, uh, bowing deeply with palms together),
Byrd in LA
Sarge played George Read of Delaware in 1776 some years back and for some reason he was the butt of all the jokes in the play. Thanks for the link to the signers. Turns out George Read wasn't such a bad guy after all.
Posted by: Michele at July 3, 2008 12:44 PMThere are no official firework shows going on in the county of santa Cruz and due to the recent fires the police are threatening to come down heavy on any one setting off any fireworks. Typically I would stroll down to the beach a bit before sunset to take in the revelry if I didn't attend a professional display, but I might just skip it this year. I'm far from patriotic and hold no great esteem for the founders of this country but I always love a party and really enjoy proffessional fire works displays but from what I can tell the enthusiasm is dampened this year. I can't see going down to the beach to watch cops give out thousand dollar tickets for fireworks on the beach. They are just going to drive people with fireworks into more fire prone areas. We hold these truths to be self evident, that all people are created equal but after that it's everyone for themselves. Happy Holiday!
Posted by: clown hidden at July 3, 2008 02:06 PMI got my fireworks after all. All I had to do was go out on my porch and I could see them being sent into the sky all around my neighborhood. I also saw the Macy's firework display on television which was remarkably well co-ordinated with the music so I was very satisified. But I wonder if the dream that america will live up to it's creed is still alive.
Posted by: clown hidden at July 5, 2008 09:45 AM