Sunday, July 3, 2011

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY


Today we celebrate the 235th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the document that signaled our break from England, the document that offered great promise to the citizens of the United States.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
Lofty words, indeed. Have the promises of the Founding Fathers been fulfilled? Some yes, but not all. We have a way to go. And there's a game of brinkmanship being played out in Congress which could lead to grave consequences for us, the citizens, and for the future of our country.

What did the Founding Fathers really say in the Declaration of Independence? In the Washington Post, E. J. Dionne explicates the Declaration for us and relates its meaning to the present situation today in the Congress.
Our nation confronts a challenge this Fourth of July that we face but rarely: We are at odds over the meaning of our history and why, to quote our Declaration of Independence, “governments are instituted.”

Only divisions this deep can explain why we are taking risks with our country’s future that we’re usually wise enough to avoid. Arguments over how much government should tax and spend are the very stuff of democracy’s give-and-take. Now, the debate is shadowed by worries that if a willful faction does not get what it wants, it might bring the nation to default.

This is, well, crazy. It makes sense only if politicians believe — or have convinced themselves — that they are fighting over matters of principle so profound that any means to defeat their opponents is defensible.
Read it all.

Have a happy Fourth of July, anyway!

16 comments:

  1. A good essay; thanks for the link. While I'm up, and the Independence season is still here, I've had a grievance for many years (nearly 50) against the realpolitik-mongers, mainly Republican of course, who sneer at the wimps who worry about World Opinion and such chicken-hearted stuff.

    (Now including wimps who worry about war crimes; remember the days of the 1960s when hardly anyone dared to insist that torture is ok?)

    So, for these people, a quiz item: What nation's very first words included "a decent respect for the opinions of mankind"?

    Happy Independence.

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  2. Oops, forgot to mention: that "respect" [to the opinions of mankind, I see] is the grammatical subject of the very first sentence uttered by the nation.

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  3. Those who fail to study history are condemned to repeat it. Now, if this were just history, as in history class, these folks could be forgiven. As it is, they do not care what history is or was, they want to rewrite to whole kit and kaboodle. Hold on to your reins folks, the ride is about to get bumpy!

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  4. Very good essay . . . then I made the mistake of scrolling to the bottom for comments.

    The first 3 are by a Tea Party wingnut who, w/o bothering to refute Dionne, just ignores him and spews the usual "Obama is a Socialist!!11!1one!!" BS. Oy Vey. Happy Fourth, everybody...

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  5. JCF
    I do not think I am either Tea party or a wingnut. Did I misunderstand the article?

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  6. I think that JCF is not referring to the first three comments here (and of course I'm a totally unbiased judge in this :) but to those on Dionne's piece itself. The shoe fits those remarkably well.

    Then again, maybe "2012frank" is a sock puppet for some Commie provocateur who's out to prove that the Right posts knee-jerk responses that have no reference at all to the postings they claim to comment on. That would be very naughty; and wholly superfluous anyway.

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  7. Happy Fourth of July to all my American friends!

    PS Sorry about the little local difficulty with the White House and a firebug...

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  8. Porlock yes, what happened to caring about world opinion?

    All along we've had folks who thought torture was okay, but, in the past, our leaders at least paid lip service to the no torture policy.

    Fred yes, we appear to be headed for a bumpy ride.

    I second Porlock that JCF meant the comments in the newspaper, not here.

    Lay Anglicana, thanks for the good wishes.

    Sorry about the little local difficulty with the White House and a firebug...

    ???

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  9. It's also a document of its time - "the merciless Indian savages whose known rule of warfare is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions"
    I never actually read much of the last paragraphs, as the soaring rhetoric of the beginning is so famous and well articulated.
    Enjoy the 4th anyway!

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  10. Yes, indeed, Heidi, and slavery was present early in the settlement of America.

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  11. Sorry, Grandmere Mimi, I shall have to copy Dr Johnson and say 'Ignorance, sheer ignorance, Ma'am'.
    I'm afraid I had conflated 1776 and 1812 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_of_Washington). Oh dear!
    But I still send my very good wishes (and incidental apologies for 1812 while we're at it)

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  12. It seems to me that Americans have only 2 real choices in regard to their own country:

    To be uncritically loving, or unlovingly critical.

    Makes me wish I lived in Finland or Belgium or Austria or some other never-hear-about-it country sometimes.

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  13. Lay Anglicana, no problem. Just don't give me a pop quiz on a famous date in the history of England. :-)

    Counterlight, I couldn't stir up much in the way of patriotic emotion this 4th of July, although I realize that I could be living in a place that is much worse.

    What's sad is that we have been given much, and much is expected of us, but we don't come close to living up to the expectations.

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  14. I'm just having a melt-down moment. I can't win. If I express patriotic sentiments, I'm a Tea-bagger. If I don't, I'm a commie.

    I hearby declare my citizenship of Andorra and unilaterally withdraw from NATO.

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  15. I'm just having a melt-down moment.

    In my blog comments? I am honored beyond what I can express.

    Next time I'm in Andorra, I will visit you.

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