Sigh... Sniff...
Friday, 4 July 2014 23:22![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dr_phil_physicsJust finished our annual DVDing of 1776.
Sure it's a musical. And even with 13 colonies, there is some compression of the Continental Congress. And undoubtedly some liberties, so to speak, with the facts. But by God this is one of America's finest hours.
Messy? Rancorous? Political? Personal? For sure, without a doubt.
But the events leading up to Thursday 4 July 1776 -- 238 years ago -- were done by men. It was a human process, flawed and glorious that it was. It's hard to consider that we WERE talking about rebellion. That there were British troops in the colonies. That if they had gotten to sweltering Philadelphia that June, that the members of the Second Continental Congress would have been hung and their families left destitute and properties seized. It was no small thing to do.
Nor was unanimity an easy or foregone conclusion. It wasn't one set of colonies, but thirteen separate peoples, economies and histories.
And it was a close thing.
So, watching some of the delegates sign the document, then start taking up their places in the iconic painting positions, at 10:30 this evening, we were surrounded by neighbors setting off their own personal fireworks -- celebrating their life, liberties and their right to potentially cause brush fires and burn our house down. But no matter.
It was the Fourth of July.
I even had a hot dog at lunch.
Happy Birthday, these United States of America.
Dr. Phil
Sure it's a musical. And even with 13 colonies, there is some compression of the Continental Congress. And undoubtedly some liberties, so to speak, with the facts. But by God this is one of America's finest hours.
Messy? Rancorous? Political? Personal? For sure, without a doubt.
But the events leading up to Thursday 4 July 1776 -- 238 years ago -- were done by men. It was a human process, flawed and glorious that it was. It's hard to consider that we WERE talking about rebellion. That there were British troops in the colonies. That if they had gotten to sweltering Philadelphia that June, that the members of the Second Continental Congress would have been hung and their families left destitute and properties seized. It was no small thing to do.
Nor was unanimity an easy or foregone conclusion. It wasn't one set of colonies, but thirteen separate peoples, economies and histories.
And it was a close thing.
So, watching some of the delegates sign the document, then start taking up their places in the iconic painting positions, at 10:30 this evening, we were surrounded by neighbors setting off their own personal fireworks -- celebrating their life, liberties and their right to potentially cause brush fires and burn our house down. But no matter.
It was the Fourth of July.
I even had a hot dog at lunch.
Happy Birthday, these United States of America.
Dr. Phil
