Yesterday, in case you missed it, was the 4th of July. Independence Day is more than just a movie title, it's a very important piece of American History. Other bloggers have taken the time to post the entire declaration, and it's readily available online if you Google for it, so I won't do that.
I'm fairly certain that other bloggers have also posted the reality of what happened to those brave men who pledged "their lives, fortunes and sacred honor" - most of them lost their fortunes, if not their lives, retaining only that great intangible - their sacred honor.
I wanted to spend my holiday watching movies about our country's founding, and movies that would celebrate the American spirit. Alas, they were hard to find on tv. I believe one network aired Mel Gibson's "The Patriot" again, and another was showing the sci-fi film "Independence Day," but no one was airing the musical "1776," or even "Yankee Doodle Dandy."
So I came home last night, and slipped in my tape of "1776," and marveled anew at the audacity of the Continental Congress, to dare think they could legitamize what was, after all, merely a rebellion by unhappy colonists. I know it's just a movie, but still... I choke up every time I watch it, and I've watched it 3 times in the past 24 hours. Well, the first time I watched it, the other 2 times I had it on as background whilst rearranging the livingroom. I love the movie. I love the songs in it, the story it tells, the sheer ... what word do I want to use? ... courage? bravery? commitment? of Caesar Rodney, the Delaware delegate who left his death-bed and rode through the night to vote in favor of independence. If you remember the Delaware quarter, it is Mr. Rodney's picture on the back, galloping to Philadelphia to help create our country.
When I finish this post, I'm going to search out my copy of Yankee Doodle Dandy, and be refreshed and reinvigorated by the unashamed, unabashed patriotism of Mr. George M. Cohan, as portrayed by the inimitable James Cagney.
It's a good thing, I think, to reflect and remember where this country came from. To read again the words written by Thomas Jefferson, to realize how very unusual it was, in *that* day and age, to think that just because a king had become a tyrant, he lost his right to be king.
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