The 4th of July has always been my favorite national holiday. Not sure if I can explain why. No religious overtones, for starters. Fireworks, for sure. And actually taking a moment to be proud of what this nation represents in human history...definitely.
Last night, as I do every year, I took about '40 of my closest friends' to Nashville's AAA ball park for what I consider the perfect, all American 4th of July: baseball, hotdogs, and fireworks. Doesn't get much better than that.
And then, this morning I was listening to NPR, and heard their broadcast of a verbatim reading of the Declaration of Independence. It was actually very stirring to hear the document read in its entirety.
Most of us are familiar with the preamble, the "endowed by our Creator... pursuit of happiness..." part. But it is equally compelling to hear the specific grievances against the King that are enumerated in the Declaration. Doing so provides a much better insight into the sort of despotism that the United States joined forces to stand firm against.
So I'm providing a link to the NPR broadcast of that reading here:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... Id=5526473
...in the hope that some of you will find time to listen to it sometime today or this week or ever.
After all, when you consider the Grand Arc of Human History, what happened in Philadelphia 230 years ago deserves to be considered the REAL "Philadelphia Experiment."
--PS
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Happy 4th of July, 2006 and the real "TPX"
Happy 4th of July, 2006 and the real "TPX"
Paul Schatzkin
aka "The Perfesser"
"At some point we have to deal with the facts, not what we want to believe is true." -- Jack Bauer
aka "The Perfesser"
"At some point we have to deal with the facts, not what we want to believe is true." -- Jack Bauer
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LongboardLOVELY
- Junior Birdman
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Declaration of Independence
I love that movie National Treasure. Not because of the intrigue, or treasure hunting or even the codebreaking (which of course makes it one of my favorite movies/stories) but because of that one man's passion. He loved his history. One of the phrases that comes up a lot in that movie is
"No one talks like that anymore". I would venture to say that no one thinks like that anymore either.
What's really funny is that I mention the 35 signers in another post and then I read this one from you, Paul. Hm. All on the same wavelength.
Linda
"No one talks like that anymore". I would venture to say that no one thinks like that anymore either.
What's really funny is that I mention the 35 signers in another post and then I read this one from you, Paul. Hm. All on the same wavelength.
Linda
Any fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage - to move in the opposite direction. ~ Albert Einstein