“….It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more…” – John Adams – July 3, 1776
Last night in Kingsville, Missouri at Powell Gardens “Booms and Blooms”.
Thomas Jefferson – July 4, 1826
May (July 4) be to the world, what I believe it will be — to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all — the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government. That form (of government) which we have substituted, restores the free right to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion. All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God. These are grounds of hope for others. For ourselves, let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them.
Amen, brother Jefferson, Amen.
I just posted this on the DailyKos in a thread started by someone who explains why s/he is PROFOUNDLY proud to be an American.
I’m very American. I grew up in the city that gave America Robert Ingersoll, Betty Friedman, Richard Pryor and Bob Hardeman’s key question to decide policy: How will it play in Peoria (Illinois)?
In my twenties I drove a cab in Chicago and at forty I got a tenure-track job at a regional university that I plan to retire from next year with a pension.
I lived in France for over three years and learned French. I have no problem in carrying on conversations in French. In France, I met a German, lived over a half a year in Germany, learned German, and can carrying on conversations in German.
For over thirty years, I have been married to that German and have taught ESL and pre-service ESL teachers to hundreds of students. I have tried to explain our country, both its good and bad, to countless numbers of people from all over the world. I have had countless discussions with people from all over the world about what is good, and not so good, about the USA.
I’m well aware of the fact that my own life history is a lot easier to pull off in the USA than most places in the world.
Because I have known so many people from all over the world and have lived in two different countries (and learned the languages of those countries), I feel profoundly American. I’m never going to be French and never going to be German.
I know that the optimism I have comes from being an American. I changed my life dramatically and feel that I can still do whatever I want. I’m not sure that is the case in most places of the world although that feeling being able to re-invent one’s self is perhaps diminishing here, too.
I take pride in what Seneca Falls, Selma, Stonewall represent and how today is the celebration of why those are such glorious markers in making our country a more perfect union. Because of my knowledge of other countries, I’m aware there are milestones in their history that are also rightly celebrated.
However, as an American, I’m not proud that the promise of what we celebrated today remains (and is becoming less?) unachievable for many of our fellow citizens. We remain in so many ways a most imperfect union.
Despite the present political climate with the forces of reaction appear to growing stronger, I keep my American optimism we will defeat them and move toward that promise that all people are equal with the unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.