By many accounts the heat was oppressive and tempers were hot in Philadelphia two hundred and forty-seven years ago as that aggregation of malcontents and troublemakers (in the eyes of His Majesty, George III, King of England) gathered to refine, define, and catalog their grievances and complaints as they took exception with the most powerful empire the world had ever seen.
Enumerating what it called our ‘unalienable rights’ to include ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ the founders of our republic, who did not agree on very much except that the present state of affairs could not be allowed to continue, concluded the only way forward as a people on a largely unexplored, new continent whose size and wealth was not yet known, was to break with the past and declare independence from King and Crown.Out of all of that has come all of this.
And along the way, the original magic and meaning have sometimes been lost in backyard pool parties, car sales, and chicken fried steaks on the barbecue. Our politics is spirited even if our interest isn't and our understanding of the issues is muddled and muted.
And, again, it’s not that we all agree with who we are and what we are doing. It’s been suggested we as a nation haven’t been this divided morally, politically, and socially since the Civil War. And that observation and analysis should mean far more than it does.
Some say never have so many had so much of life’s material rewards but, others say never have so many struggled to hold on to what they have. On the outcome of every election, or so it seems, lies the future of our nation-just as has always been the case because every election is important, and if you choose not to decide, that, too, is a decision.
What may be missing is our national sense of self and our confidence and belief in our own abilities to forever adapt and triumph. We demonstrated those traits at the Founding and I would hope, today, each in our own way, we might again find them, both for those whose inheritance we are and for those whose promise is yet to be. Happy 4th of July.
-bill kenny
Some say never have so many had so much of life’s material rewards but, others say never have so many struggled to hold on to what they have. On the outcome of every election, or so it seems, lies the future of our nation-just as has always been the case because every election is important, and if you choose not to decide, that, too, is a decision.
What may be missing is our national sense of self and our confidence and belief in our own abilities to forever adapt and triumph. We demonstrated those traits at the Founding and I would hope, today, each in our own way, we might again find them, both for those whose inheritance we are and for those whose promise is yet to be. Happy 4th of July.
-bill kenny
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