If you have a scattered mind as I do, always managing several ideas at once, you know there’s a price to pay. Being clear about things can be difficult: certain times get confused, particulars of some incidents get transposed onto others and important details are frequently omitted. In short it’s easy for people like me to become befuddled.
I thought it appropriate to write something about our signature national holiday. Although embarrassing to admit, I wasn’t sure just exactly what did happen on July 4th 1776 other than we became independent of Britain. Knowing myself as I do, I thought I’d better check on details so I wouldn’t shoot myself in the foot. I googled “What happened on the 4th of July?”
When I went onto the site, I felt vindicated, as if I wasn’t so flakey after all. Maybe I didn’t know exactly what happened but I discovered that many Americans didn’t either. According to The Washington Post most Americans think we declared our independence when the continental congress met on that Fourth of July in Philadelphia. Not so. Nor did the members of the Continental Congress sign the declaration that day. Actually the Continental Congress declared our independence on July 2nd and Jefferson thought this date would be “solemnized with pomp and parade . . . games, sports, guns [and] bells . . . from this time forward forever more.” It was comforting to know that even Jefferson didn’t get it right.
According to The Washington Post what actually happened on July 4th, 1776 – if Jefferson couldn’t get it straight I wonder why the Post thinks it can- our Continental Congress approved the Declaration of Independence that Jefferson had written with this caveat; subject to edits by a five-man team. Jefferson wrote the final draft, completing it in the third week of that June.
To further confuse our ingrained ideas of the fourth, Americans didn’t celebrate the first Independence Day until July 8th with a big party in Philadelphia, including a parade and shooting off lots of guns. Even George Washington who was in New York didn’t get the word until the ninth, ironically the last one to be told, save the British who finally heard about it on August 30th. They found the declaration seditious, didn’t consider it an occasion to celebrate at all, and kept on shooting at us anyway.
If we had cell phones, or even walkie-talkies, General Washington, could have been kept abreast of events and enjoyed a timely celebration with everyone else. Heaven knows he deserved it.
the finalizing in declaring our nation’s birthday went from July 2nd to July 8th. This is six days. Are we dishonoring our founding father’s efforts by just having a one day celebration or if the date falls right, only a long weekend? Might we not celebrate our nation’s birth by octaves, eight-day observances as some religions do? On second thought that may be a scatterbrained idea. As exuberant as most Yankees are about having parties, an eight-day cookout with a daily diet of beans, potato chips, franks, hot dogs, beer and hamburgers, nightly fireworks with all your kin constantly under your nose day and night may be over the top. A long weekend is probably best.
Happy Birthday, America.
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