The dream of democracy in America

 

Spirit of America

By Norman Rockwell

includes self portrait with his wife on lower left

1974

Today's quote: (But stay safe, I'd add!)

Treat those who are good with goodness, and also treat those who are not good with goodness. Thus goodness is attained. Be honest to those who are honest, and be also honest to those who are not honest. Thus honesty is attained. —Lao Tzu

Happy Independence Day, Americans!

 

My friend, Diane, in a fabulous American shirt. But wait...what's that hanging from her ears?

They are tiny Democrat patriotic donkeys!

One of the houses that decorates a bit for the holiday.

All the tents and signs are how Harwood Funeral Home will invite everyone for free 4th of July BBQ, which I have heard are hot dogs. But really, thinking of eating right outside the bulding where Uncle Joe or Clem got creamated, is a bit strange to me! But it's a Black Mountain tradition.

Looking up at the Hwy 9 road going into Montreat, there's the post office.

They will have a parade on Independence Day. Considering it's the only road in or out of the town, I choose to not get into the snarl of traffic. There will be coverage on the news probably. It's all in good fun for this little college town.

NOTE Added at 11:15 on July 4. The clubhouse is preparing to have hotdogs and trimmings, and maybe hamburgers too. But here's the desert table after I added the brownies, far right!

And just to finish the post, here are more shots from the party.

Barry grilled the hot dogs and hamburgers at home and brought them over. He's our maintenance man.

My spread before the first bite. 

I belong to the clean plate club. I made the plate back when I gave one to each of my sons, wives and six grandchildren, kept 2 for myself, (for my 70th birthday)

Barry's wife Summer is showing Lavern her patriotic nails. 

Hope you have a happy holiday and stay safe!

Today's quote:

It's said that "power corrupts", but actually it's more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power. When they do act, they think of it as service, which has limits. The tyrant, though, seeks mastery, for which he is insatiable, implacable.

 -David Brin, scientist and science fiction author (b. 1950)

Two July posts

July 6, 2018

Today's quote:

When have you really just had enough of a problem that you're ready to do whatever it takes, no matter how radical, to get rid of it? I live with several chronic medical conditions, and wish that I could just change one (or more) thing in my life to have them diminish, or go away completely.  But I also find that my comfortable routines keep me a long ways away from actually confronting some of the things that make these conditions worse.  I think, "insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results." (ME)

July 4, 2018

I love what this country was founded on...not the way it's being run these days.

So to remember why we started a republic!

The United States Declaration of Independence is the statement adopted by the Second Continental Congress meeting at the Pennsylvania State House (now known as Independence Hall) in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776. The Declaration announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with the Kingdom of Great Britain would regard themselves as thirteen independent sovereign states no longer under British rule. With the Declaration, these new states took a collective first step toward forming the United States of America. The declaration was signed by representatives from New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.

The Declaration was passed on July 2 with no opposing votes. A committee of five had drafted it to be ready when Congress voted on independence. John Adams, a leader in pushing for independence, had persuaded the committee to select Thomas Jefferson to compose the original draft of the document,^[2]which Congress edited to produce the final version. The Declaration was a formal explanation of why Congress had voted on July 2 to declare independence from Great Britain, more than a year after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War. Adams wrote to his wife Abigail, "The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America"^[3] – although Independence Day is actually celebrated on July 4, the date that the wording of the Declaration of Independence was approved.

After ratifying the text on July 4, Congress issued the Declaration of Independence in several forms. It was initially published as the printed Dunlap broadside that was widely distributed and read to the public. The source copy used for this printing has been lost and may have been a copy in Thomas Jefferson's hand.^[4]Jefferson's original draft is preserved at the Library of Congress, complete with changes made by John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, as well as Jefferson's notes of changes made by Congress. The best-known version of the Declaration is a signed copy that is displayed at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., and which is popularly regarded as the official document. This engrossed copy was ordered by Congress on July 19 and signed primarily on August 2.^[5][6]

The sources and interpretation of the Declaration have been the subject of much scholarly inquiry. The Declaration justified the independence of the United States by listing colonial grievances against King George III and by asserting certain natural and legal rights, including a right of revolution. Having served its original purpose in announcing independence, references to the text of the Declaration were few in the following years. Abraham Lincoln made it the centerpiece of his policies and his rhetoric, as in the Gettysburg Address of 1863. Since then, it has become a well-known statement on human rights, particularly its second sentence:

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.

This has been called "one of the best-known sentences in the English language",^[7] containing "the most potent and consequential words in American history".^[8] The passage came to represent a moral standard to which the United States should strive. This view was notably promoted by Lincoln, who considered the Declaration to be the foundation of his political philosophy and argued that it is a statement of principles through which the United States Constitution should be interpreted.^[9]

The U.S. Declaration of Independence inspired many similar documents in other countries, the first being the 1789 Declaration of Flanders issued during the Brabant Revolution in the Austrian Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). It also served as the primary model for numerous declarations of independence in Europe and Latin America, as well as Africa (Liberia) and Oceania (New Zealand) during the first half of the 19th century.^[10]

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Declaration_of_Independence

That is an extensive article about the Declaration over on Wikipedia.

------------------

Notes:

1.  Becker, Declaration of Independence, 5.
2. ^ Jump up to: ^a b "Declaring Independence", Revolutionary War, Digital History, University of Houston. From Adams' notes: "Why will you not? You ought to do it." "I will not." "Why?" "Reasons enough." "What can be your reasons?" "Reason first, you are a Virginian, and a Virginian ought to appear at the head of this business. Reason second, I am obnoxious, suspected, and unpopular. You are very much otherwise. Reason third, you can write ten times better than I can." "Well," said Jefferson, "if you are decided, I will do as well as I can." "Very well. When you have drawn it up, we will have a meeting."
3. Jump up ^ Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 3 July 1776
4. Jump up ^ Boyd (1976), The Declaration of Independence: The Mystery of the Lost Original, p. 438.
5. Jump up ^ "Did You Know...Independence Day Should Actually Be July 2?"(Press release). National Archives and Records Administration. June 1, 2005. Retrieved July 4, 2012.
6. Jump up ^ The Declaration of Independence: A History, The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
7. Jump up ^ Stephen E. Lucas, "Justifying America: The Declaration of Independence as a Rhetorical Document", in Thomas W. Benson, ed., American Rhetoric: Context and Criticism, Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press, 1989, p. 85.
8. Jump up ^ Ellis, American Creation, 55–56.
9. ^ Jump up to: ^a b McPherson, Second American Revolution, 126.
10. Jump up ^ Armitage, David (2007). The Declaration of Independence: A Global History. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. pp. 113–126. ISBN 0-674-02282-3.