Human Events

Among the darkest times in living memory was the early part of 1942, when Hitler's armies were nearly to Moscow, when German submarines were sinking our oil tankers off the coast of Florida and New Jersey, within sight of the beaches, and there was not a thing we could do about it. When half our Navy had been destroyed at Pearl Harbor. We had scarcely any Air Force. Army recruits were drilling with wooden rifles and there was no guarantee that the Nazi war machine could be stopped. It was then, in 1942, that the classical scholar Edith Hamilton issued an expanded edition of her book The Greek Way, in which in the preface she wrote the following: "I have felt while writing these new chapters a fresh realization of the refuge and strength the past can be to us in the troubled present. Religion is the great stronghold for the untroubled vision of the eternal but there are others, too. We have many silent sanctuaries in which we can find breathing space, to free ourselves from the personal, to rise above our harassed and perplexed minds and catch sight of values that are stable, which no selfish and timorous preoccupations can make waver, because they are the hard won, permanent possessions of humanity. When the world is storm driven and the bad that happens and the worst that threatens are so urgent as to shut out everything else from view, then we need to know all the strong fortresses of the spirit which men have built through the ages."

David McCullough, The Jefferson Lecture, Washington, DC (May 15, 2003)

Who among us, as we gather (or, not) to celebrate the birth of our nation, does not recognize these as trying times? One could not be criticized to any extent for turning their backs on The Great Septic Tank otherwise known as social media. Neither can one look down on eschewing the sweeping grandiosity of a media who collectively reject the words of Edward R. Murrow (The thing you have to remember is that just because your voice carries halfway around the world, you are no wiser than when it carried only to the end of the bar).

To Whom shall we turn, in times like these, to steady our hands, and our hearts? The answer is the course of human events.

It is currently unfashionable, and in certain quarters potentially physically dangerous, to reflect back on the Founders of our country, and to access their individual and collective wisdom. Flawed men, for sure. Hear, once again, David McCullough:

Those we call The Founders were living men. None was perfect. Each had his human flaws and failings, his weaknesses. They made mistakes, let others down, let themselves down. Washington could be foolhardy, Adams could be vain, irritable. Jefferson evasive, at times duplicitous, and even in their day many saw stunning hypocrisy in the cause of Liberty being championed by slave masters. They were imperfect mortals, human beings. Jefferson made the point in the very first line of the Declaration of Independence - "When in the course of human events" -  the accent should be on the word human.

They left us a legacy, one that is not easily ignored because the original expression of these ideals is kept safe behind glass, guarded constantly, and displayed for all the world to see.

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. That, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

Institute government... The Founders did not believe that a free people would prosper through the lack of government, but through a government that they themselves organized to further "their safety and happiness." It was not rule by mob or rabble, not laws made by proxy, not the cry of loud and selfish voices. It was the intent of Americans to be governed by Americans, organized under American laws created with the consent of Americans acting together for the general welfare of Americans.

There is a video, one that is readily available and has been seen by millions, detailing a solo flight taken by a seventeen-year-old girl - Maggie - in Beverly, Massachusetts. The business end of her right landing gear departs the aircraft on takeoff. At first a bit upset, she settles down and lands her crippled plane successfully when her instructor says over the radio: "Remember what we've talked about, Maggie. Go back to the basics."

Back to the basics. One final time, David McCullough:

The American experiment was, from its start, an unfulfilled promise. There was much work to be done. There were glaring flaws to correct, unfinished business to attend to, improvements and necessary adjustments to devise, in order to keep pace with the onrush of growth and change and expanding opportunities. Those brave, high minded people of earlier times gave us stars to steer by, a government of laws, not of men. Equal justice before the law, the importance of the individual, the ideal of equality, freedom of religion, freedom of thought and expression, and the love of learning. From them, in our own dangerous and promising present, we can take heart.

Let's all be Maggie. We may be in trouble, but we know the basics, know what we have to do. May you and yours have a happy, healthy and optimistic Independence Day. It was the gift of the Founders to us.  

    

That's What Independence Day is all about, Charlie Brown

"[A]s Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."

Declaration of Independence, 1776


In 1776, a document circulated, alleging that a free people could describe the enumerated, limited scope and structure of their government, choose their own representatives, create and enforce their own laws, and determine the course of their own lives in peace and liberty. Representative government was not unheard of in history, or even in the Empire of Great Britain. The extent to which the Colonialists took it was beyond anything seen in that era. It was, as historian David McCullough wrote, "[A] declaration of political faith and brave intent freely arrived at by an American Congress."


Each July 4th, we celebrate our declaration of political independence from the English Parliament and from the Crown, and our commitment which, essentially, binds us to a republican (representative) form of government. We elect representatives, who wield only the powers we've described, and in a manner to which we've agreed beforehand.


There have been many dark periods in our history. We may be living through one of them now. It was inconceivable, when the Revolutionary War began, that the citizen army of George Washington was a match for the professionals among the King's forces. But, Washington prevailed. It was a cause for celebration, and remains so even during the trying and tumultuous times of 2020.


We celebrate, among other things, the freedom of nameless, faceless basement dwellers to post stupid stuff on the internet. To wit:


"Please remember if you allow your government to tell you, you can't have fireworks. Then also allow your government to cancel your city firework show (that you already paid for). Then you have missed the entire purpose of independence day."

Really? The free people of my city duly elected representatives to hold office, and make those laws they deemed are in the best interest of order, and public safety. They have made fireworks of any kind illegal. We, as citizens of a political subdivision organized under the laws of the state of Colorado, and the United States of America, have spoken.

Would you assholes setting off bombs in the middle of the night, and then proclaiming it is because that's what Independence Day is all about, knock it the fuck off?

You don't know what you are talking about.