An idea for celebrating Independence Day with your kids
“That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States”
What is the most important Independence Day tradition?
“Celebrating Julie’s birthday!”
“Fireworks!”
“Barbecue garden burgers!”
“Beer!”
Ummm, no.
Although Julie’s birthday is tempting and I’d be there if I wasn’t knee-deep in moving boxes and looking to bust out of my parent’s house…for good this time.
No, the reason for this particular season is The Declaration of Independence, people. A beautiful piece of poetry, this document deserves to be read *out loud* at least once a year to your children, loved ones – hell, even to yourself.
Yes, fireworks and parties are fun, but that’s not the reason for the season. Our forefathers and their wives were wicked brave and, to honor them, we should understand why they stepped to the British monarchy in the first place.
Then go blow off body parts.
If you don’t have a copy at home, find one here. (But get a copy. Seriously. TJ knew his shit.)
Don’t take Christ out of Christmas. And don’t take The Declaration of Independence out of Independence Day.
TJ could write and his words are meant to be read *out loud* – like all good poetry should.
Yes, the part about savage Indians makes my stomach turn, but it’s important and makes for great discussions. My kids know the drill and giggle a little when Mommy gets choked up at the end.
The beer and barbecue will wait. Takes three minutes – tops. Feed your mind and soul first.
Enjoy! Happy birthday, Jules. And may everyone have a wonderful holiday weekend.
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Catherine Durkin Robinson
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VOTE!
she’s crafty
I don’t have any kids. Can I rent some somewhere? Can I maybe get something in a small Asian?
Somehow, Jefferson (and many other of the signers) owning slaves lessens the significance of this piece of literature to me.
What it should have said was “that all men are created equal” except for blacks, women, Native Americans, and anyone who doesn’t look or have genitalia like we do.
Of course, most were more concerned with not paying taxes to England than with any other issue.
I guess that I shouldn’t be picky since with “y’all” in the South it seems that American History usually begins and ends with the Civil War.
But, have a tofu burger with soy cheese and a beer and have a party.
Maybe, with the reading, you could remember to say a prayer for all of those in war zones around the world.
You are certainly entitled to your opinion, Mark. And in a way, I agree.
But you sound like a major sourpuss.
The ideas are what I’m celebrating tomorrow. As much as I wish those Jeffersonian/Locke ideas were TOTALLY progressive, it’s enough that they were 75% ahead of their time.
Look, I don’t know about you, but I like my heroes fallible. There’s something comforting about knowing that the men and women I look up to cheated, smoked, owned slaves, acted like idiots sometimes, and had their share of shortcomings. I don’t require perfection from them.
And so that makes it more reasonable for me to be involved and engaged. If they can do it, so can I…
And, oh no you didn’t…are you referring to me when insulting Southerners? I’m sure you know that I have quite the grasp on ancient history that goes eons before the Civil War and continues right on up until today. So I’m no sure who your chewing out with that statement…
And soy cheese is just plain nasty.
Yes. Let’s remember those in war zones at every major event whether it’s appropriate or not.
Like I said. A major sourpuss.
Sourpuss? Yeah, that’s me. I’m the one who told your kids that the Easter Bunny and Santa weren’t real, while sucking on a lemon.
So, you seem to be saying, don’t confound me with facts, let me live with my fantasy?
Listen, I love fallibilities. I know people who have some fallibilities. But to me a fallibility is drinking too much, having a lead foot, and being bad with money-not enslaving a race of people. That, I would contend, is no mere quaint fallibility. It is evil incarnate. It isn’t even in the same solar system.
If participating in slavery is a “fallibility” then Stalin just had feelings of insecurity, Hitler was just cleaning up some ghettos around Europe, and Pol Pot had an attraction to the color blood red. Nice boys, really, just some “fallibilities”.
Yeah, but history is written by the winners and the founders sins are mere fallibilities.
The “beautiful piece of poetry” you describe was hardly a unique document. It was cribbed from texts as old as the Magna Carta to the English Declaration of Rights, theorists like John Locke through the Virginia Declaration of Rights. And the fluff in the second paragraph was ignored through the war and only came up in the national conversation in 1790′s in a political fight. The real importance of the declaration is in the last paragraph.
It is so ironic that, in drafting the constitution later, the southern states insisted that their slaves be counted, in part, in the census (3/5ths) and yet had 0/5ths freedom.
And Jefferson screwing while owning his deceased wife’s half-sister (how would she count in the census) while owning her and their children…oh, but boys will be boys…
In reality, all the Declaration did was transfer political power from one group of well-to-do English white men to another group of well-to-do American white men and that, if you are going to read it, you need to recognize what the terms in the document meant when they were written. And teach your children.
PS. The “southern” non-sequitur was thrown in because once, when I was visiting Mom in Zhills, I was drug to the “Founders Day Parade” (the “founder” was a former Union soldier) where I witnessed 3 floats of those “courageous heroes of the Confederacy” and 1 float of WW II soldiers. No Revolution, WWI, etc. Guess which floats got the cheers?
And I knew that it would get your dander up.
I suppose it’s all in the art of the thing. When one looks at the Sistine Chapel ceiling or the statue of David, does one say, “That captures something, some basic human longing and striving, that speaks to some innate level all of mankind shares,” or does one say, “Gosh, that’d be really pretty if I didn’t know that, by many accounts, Michelangelo was a lecherous dick of a closet case who hurt many around him with his arrogance.” Does one read Shakespeare and think, “Well, I’d really like this, but truth is the stories aren’t really his. Many of them were directly stolen from Marlowe, in fact, who’s probably the better dramatist.”
Ideal and persona are not the same thing and it is dangerous to confuse the two. Not only does it lead to cults of personality over substance, but its logical end is in those who would banish what they dislike or don’t understand. It shows a certain closed mindedness that masquerades as even-handedness and blots out achievement in favor of the harshest interpretation of reality.
No one credible has ever put forth the notion that the Founding Fathers were anything other than men, complete in their failures and their achievements. But then, the Constitution is merely by them, but not of them. They were able to channel a certain national zeitgeist and managed to craft a document that recognized their foibles and allowed for room to grow out of them. It is rare that a thing is right the first time, rare that an Athena springs fully formed from a Zeus. Jefferson, among others, knew this and knew that the best government, the most enduring government, was one which governed lightly and provided the framework upon which its citizens could hang the walls of their political house as they choose. To say it is less because it wasn’t all things immediately and forever is absurdity. What thing is?
Did Jefferson blow it on slavery? Sure. Could it be argued that Adams gave in on slavery? Course it could. It was a huge sellout. To temper the ideas put forth in the Constitution, though, by refusing to consider them except in light of the men who made them is to utterly miss the point of the document itself.