July 4 marks the 234th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. The United States of America is currently the world’s longest-running democracy. Back in 1776, the idea that free men could maintain law and order and forge a nation at the same time was perceived by most as a far fetched endeavor.
Fifty-six signers, mostly wealthy men, fed up with King George III, formed a union. There were 13 lawyers and 11 judges with 20-some merchants and farmers. Rounding out the 56: two physicians, a soldier, a surveyor, an ironman, a clergyman and one prolific inventor, Ben Franklin. Most had last names ending in consonants.
Looking back, the 4th offers tidbits. In 1826 the republic celebrated its 50th anniversary. Ironically, on that day, Thomas Jefferson died. Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence, and was the nation’s third president. More ironic on that very day, fellow signer and second U.S. president, John Adams, also died.
Adams and Jefferson were bitter rivals substantiating that the founding fathers didn’t agree. It’s reputed on his deathbed Adam’s growled, “Jefferson still lives!” Unbeknown to Adams, Jefferson passed away down in Virginia just two hours before.
Another president, James Monroe, died on 1831’s 4th, while president Calvin Coolidge’s birth date reads 7-4-1872.
The 4th of 1856 also brought on the nation’s first rodeo. Serious fireworks exploded on the 4th of 1863, a grueling day, with the Confederacy’s having its fate sealed after same day defeats at Gettysburg and fall of Vicksburg.
Hawaiians might not embrace the 4th. In 1894, despite Hawaii being a sovereign nation, a rogue judge named, Sanford Dole, self-anointed himself and then wielded some gunboat policy and swiped the islands forcing them to become an American pineapple republic.
Speaking of fights, on July 4, 1910 black heavyweight champ Jack Johnson knocked out the first white hope, Jim Jefferies, an ex-champ coaxed out of retirement by bigoted white men. The event spurred race riots nationwide. Times changed by 1934 when the beloved Bronze Bomber, Joe Louis, won his first professional bout on that 4th. On July 4, 1939, a retiring Lou Gehrig choked to a teary-eyed crowd, “I’m the luckiest man alive!” Soon after, the Yankees Iron Horse succumbed to a disease that now bares his name.
Many now alive celebrated the 1976 bicentennial. Much was made of its coming. If I remember, that 4th had Americans catching the spirit, a jollier one than what’s been wafting about these days. Sadly, examples of eroding liberties are evident, with airports being what they’ve become and the uneasiness of knowing our mail and telephone and other electronic conversations are more than likely being monitored. Winston Churchill snarled that democracy was terrible form of government, while surmising it was the only choice.
On the bright side, I suppose we all have yankee-doodle memories. We can easily drift off this page and back to yesteryear with memories of a particular 4th, reflections that has us almost tasting lemonade at a family picnic or remembering an Independence dance, recalling a tune, almost bring back the warmth of holding on to somebody nice under a summer night’s moon.
What is the magic that’s propelled what perhaps has become mankind’s greatest success story? Was it that elitist leaders tossed a bone to the common man, a bone to pursue happiness without kowtowing to some king, or a fat bone permitting individuals to worship as they please or being permitted to pick a bone with the established order and speak one’s mind? Those unalienable rights or bones, if you will, alone may be worth the price of freedom, regardless of what else takes place or who’s driving freedom’s bus. Liberty is an experiment, a flimsy project constantly under construction with no completion in sight.
The experiment continues. Will freedom prevail during my lifetime? Has the dream become warped and jaded by special interests? Have the sons and daughter of the land of the free become a geo-bully or have they become a last-ditch salvation against eternal evil? Or cynically, has the common man been bamboozled from the get go?
Democracy is doomed to suffer sleepless times, tossing, turning and tormented by its imperfection. Still, democracy constantly takes stock to gaze inward — yet not often enough. Democracy back bites, it contradicts and too often delivers incredible power and responsibility into hands that don’t deserve it. During shining moments it is right but too often, perhaps, it nods toward the wrong. Nevertheless it’s saddled with a cumbersome bureaucratic liability that prefers to dictate and administrate man-made law rather than delving out true-freedom’s justice.
One ray of democracy’s hope occurred on July 4th, 1997 when Mar’s Pathfinder landed. You’ve got to admit byproducts of democracy manifested Pathfinder and set it on its ambitious mission! I’ll suppose here: If mankind has any chance of promise and progress, democracy has to be part of the equation. Happy Fourth of July!
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