My Home Sweet Home...
It's the 4th of July again. And like other recent holidays, I want to remind you that today is not about the summer sales at your local mall, but about men who risked it all to create a new country and declare their independence from Great Britain. (And to set the record straight, the Congressional resolution of independence was approved on July 2nd, not the 4th. The Declaration of Independence was not completely signed by all until November of 1776.)
Ho hum...history is boring, right? Wrong! To get a taste of what it was all about, why not spend a couple of hours in an air conditioned room and watch one of my favorite musicals, "1776". Music, comedy and drama! And for the most part it's true to life. (I doubt there was actual singing in Congress, but there was fighting, name calling and probably some drunkenness...has much really changed in 200+ years?).
One of the reasons I love this movie is because it presents these historical figures as "real people," which is what they were after all. One of my favorite lines from the play/movie comes from John Adams: "Franklin smote the ground and out sprang—George Washington.. Fully grown, and on his horse. Franklin then electrified them with his magnificent lightning rod and the three of them—Franklin, Washington, and the horse—conducted the entire Revolution all by themselves." Our forefathers were not demigods, but men trying to do what was best for their country and stumbling along the way. Not were all for Independence, but that does not make them the villain...again they were men trying to do what was best for their country, which was not even a country yet!
A resolution of Independence may have been passed on July 2nd, but the date doesn't really matter. What matters is that we celebrate and REMEMBER the fight for Independence that continues this day. To those on the left....to those on the right...remember what those men fought for. That because a relatively small band of men formed a Congress and declared their Independence is the reason that we are here today. Independence never was perfect and never will be. But we need to come together on this day that has been designated and remember what it is all about. Remember that once we were the upstart little country fighting for our rights. Fighting for what our forefathers through was right.
Let us continue onward, not agreeing, but trying to understand each other and to remember that we Americans are here because of what has come before us and let us ALL try to leave a positive legacy that our great, great grandchildren will be talking about in the future.
Ho hum...history is boring, right? Wrong! To get a taste of what it was all about, why not spend a couple of hours in an air conditioned room and watch one of my favorite musicals, "1776". Music, comedy and drama! And for the most part it's true to life. (I doubt there was actual singing in Congress, but there was fighting, name calling and probably some drunkenness...has much really changed in 200+ years?).
One of the reasons I love this movie is because it presents these historical figures as "real people," which is what they were after all. One of my favorite lines from the play/movie comes from John Adams: "Franklin smote the ground and out sprang—George Washington.. Fully grown, and on his horse. Franklin then electrified them with his magnificent lightning rod and the three of them—Franklin, Washington, and the horse—conducted the entire Revolution all by themselves." Our forefathers were not demigods, but men trying to do what was best for their country and stumbling along the way. Not were all for Independence, but that does not make them the villain...again they were men trying to do what was best for their country, which was not even a country yet!
A resolution of Independence may have been passed on July 2nd, but the date doesn't really matter. What matters is that we celebrate and REMEMBER the fight for Independence that continues this day. To those on the left....to those on the right...remember what those men fought for. That because a relatively small band of men formed a Congress and declared their Independence is the reason that we are here today. Independence never was perfect and never will be. But we need to come together on this day that has been designated and remember what it is all about. Remember that once we were the upstart little country fighting for our rights. Fighting for what our forefathers through was right.
Let us continue onward, not agreeing, but trying to understand each other and to remember that we Americans are here because of what has come before us and let us ALL try to leave a positive legacy that our great, great grandchildren will be talking about in the future.
Love that movie! And the music from it or the Broadway version! "Sit DOWN John!"
ReplyDeleteLady Beth