July 4.
Fourth of July.
Independence Day.
Any way you slice it, there it is. The day that the United States of America declared independence from England. That King George III.
It was signed by representatives from 13 states. That’s all the states we had back then. This statement, this declaration was adopted by the Second Congressional Congress. A lot of discussion and bickering and hashing out of details went into all of this. Our founding forefathers. Yet, it was the first step toward forming an independent United States.
Of course, Thomas Jefferson wrote the thing. After he got his thoughts down on paper it was edited by the Committee of Five headed by that short fellow who would be our second president, John Adams. The whole five consisted of Roger Sherman, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Robert Livingston. Anyway, when all the dust had cleared, it took a total of 17 days to write that declaration.
“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.”
Those are some good words. Even if they got it slightly wrong. For as much as Jefferson liked to be with women, you would think he would have included that in the details. Maybe that’s what he meant without saying it. But he should have written it down. John Adams, who shared so much, so dearly and intellectually, with his wife Abagail, should have insisted too. The other part, certainly, is that the document does NOT read “all white men.” All men, is what it says. But saying and doing are two different things.
We hold these truths.
All of this plays very near in my mind, as we watched Hamilton for the first time, last night, on Disney Plus. The last short visit we had in NYC, we let the grandkids pick which Broadway play that the four of us would see. They chose The Book of Mormon. I wish now we would have insisted on Hamilton.
It was spectacular in every way, watching it last night. I was completely moved. To tears. A number of times. If you haven’t seen it, spend the six bucks it costs to get Disney Plus, and stream it tonight. You won’t be sorry. I will never look at a ten-dollar bill in the same way again, ever.
As for the rest of our country, now? Our freedoms, our rights, our independence. It seems that certain groups think it is their right to march armed to the gills, on courthouse steps, and proclaim their rights. But when others do the same thing, filling the streets with thousands of people in protest, they call it anarchy.
“That all men are created equal.”
Or maybe Alexander Hamilton said it a little better.
“The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased.”
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