Happy Independence Day!
Michael Berliner of the Ayan Rand institute reminds us of the original reason we celebrate Independence Day: Freedom from servitude to empire.
Click this link, or watch embedded below: Michael Berliner on Independence Day.
From Garrison Keillor at The Writer’s Almanac:
Today is Independence Day. On this day in 1776, the Second Continental Congress unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence, and the United States officially broke from the rule of England. The colonists were trying to persuade other nations of Europe to be on their side, so they included a long list of complaints about the king. The document said of the king, in part, “HE is, at this Time, transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete the Works of Death, Desolation, and Tyranny, already begun with Circumstances of Cruelty and Perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous Ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized Nation.”
Twenty-four years later, in 1804, the explorers Lewis and Clark had the first Fourth of July celebration west of the Mississippi. They were traveling through a part of the Midwest that is now Kansas. They stopped at the mouth of a creek on July 4th, and named it Independence Creek in honor of the day. To celebrate, they fired their cannon at sunset and distributed an extra ration of whisky to the men.
There were unofficial celebrations of Independence Day from its first anniversary, but it really became a popular holiday after the War of 1812. On the frontier, it was the only time of the year when everyone in the countryside gathered together in one place. There would be parades and speeches, and the prettiest and most wholesome girl in the village would be named the Goddess of Liberty. Politicians would get up and call the king of England a skunk and challenge him to a fight. Drunk men in the streets would get into fights and call each other Englishmen. Soon, events like groundbreaking ceremonies for the Erie Canal and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroads were scheduled to coincide with July 4th festivities.
And now, for some fireworks, to the tune of a couple of my favorite songs: 4th of July Fireworks.
Read More: 4th of July, Independence Day
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Sounds like good fun. And now we have come full circle and have another George behaving the same way.
Who was it we purchased the Louisiana Purchase from? Bet it wasn’t the Indians who were there already. Oh well, I guess we “liberated” them.
Sorry, Joe. You made such a nice attempt to get away from the “the rest of the story”…andjust say something to make us all feel good. Sorry I spoiled it all.
Maybe we’ll have a different Independance Day the first Tuesday of November.
Yeah, I’m hoping there will be a change after November. The way the neocons are flipantly tossing around the idea of bombing Iran, and the way Congress has already spent $400 million for covert ops in Iran (how would the world react if Iran announced they were currently carrying out covert operations inside Israel?) I’m not sure things are going to be that much difference…it will be a long hard road back, and I think the people would rather “serve” the empire by playing their xboxs than root out the corporations that have hijacked our freedom and liberty.
Sorry to say Joe, nothing will change come November. All those promises almost two years ago and the same old shit up till now. And you are right, as long as people have all these shiny new toys to play with, the hell with what is happening around them.
Pelosi and Reid haven’t exactly impeached anybody yet, have they? Yep, I do believe they’re all on the same team, but the naive kid in me still hopes a true patriot will get in there and shake up the den of snakes we call Congress.
Speaking of shiny new toys, over the weekend I noticed a couple of large electronics stores in town are now vacant. I suppose the high gas prices and falling dollar and stock market have really taken a bite out of most people’s budget for shiny new toys. Maybe that’s a good thing…that’s when folks start paying attention…
Vacant electronic stores and Starbucks closing stores, maybe there is a light starting to burn at the end of the tunnel.
As far as a true patriot riding in on a white horse to save the day, it seems not to be on the horizon.
Obama, now that he is on the main stage, appears to look like a deer caught in someone’s headlights, as he doesn’t know which way to turn or what position to take. McCain appears to be the spry young kid of late and Obama as the tired old man.