Happy Birthday - to Us

• by donr
• 2014-07-04 11:07:39
• General Posting
• 1403 views
• 11 comments

Well, it's that day of the year again when all the Yanks crawl out from under their rocks & hold a raucous Star-Spangled bash of a birthday party - on the WRONG day, of course.

Ah, the Fourth of July. Conjours up all sorts of visions - fireworks celebration, cannon fire as salutes, flags, picnics, barbecues - a general, all-around grand time. Oh, BTW - don't forget the speeches!

We celebrate a major event in the history of the World; but it was really a schmear of events that lasted from about 1775 till September 1789. (The revolt had its first shots fired in 1775; our Constitution was ratified by the last state in Sept 1779.)

For those of you who are not one of us - as well as a whole bunch who are - a bit of history about us. A short, but inaccurate belief about the American Revolution has a whole bunch of ungrateful English Colonists in a far away land rising up & rebelling against King George III of England.

Now that version was written by the Brothers Grimm, because it is pure fairytale.

The reality was that the 13 original Colonies were a mish-mash of national, religious & ethnic groups. Yes, there were a bunch of Englishmen, but there were Scots, Irish, Germans, Polish, Spanish, Welsh, Dutch, Italians - you name the western European group, it was represented. There were Presbyterians, Anglicans, Baptists, Roman Catholics, Puritans, again, you name it from Western Europe & it was here.

There is a well-written book - "1775, A good Year for Revolution" that pretty thoroughly analyses what a melting pot we were.

When all was said & done, the American Revolution split itself into three roughly equal factions - Revolutionaries; Loyalists & the "Please leave me alone, I don't care" group. So what we have today was driven by only about 1/3 of the 1775 population. Unity was NOT a term to describe the effort.

What about this magic day, the Fourth of July? What really happened on this day? In many respects, not really a lot. The Declaration of Independence was NOT signed on that day - that came sometime in August, 1776. Did they start writing the document that day? Nope. It went through over 80 iterations before it was completed - all "Writ by hand." You see, there were NO PC's or Macs back then. Every copy of a successive draft was laboriously copied by hand on parchment of some sort. Twenty pound bond did not exist! 4 July 1776 was merely the day that the Convention writing the Declaration approved the final version.

And what a version it was. It was a guaranteed poke in the eye w/ a sharp stick for King George III. I mean not the least bit conciliatory. Let me give all of you a quick & dirty summary of what happened to the many signers of that document. They were hunted, hounded, harrassed, chased, beaten, property burned, houses destroyed, families dispersed, financially ruined, imprisoned. Now these were all well-to-do men - the landed gentry of the 13 Colonies who pledged their lives, their fortunes & their sacred honor when they signed the Declaration of Independence from England. They meant what they said in that pledge because most of them lost just about all but their sacred honor.

They all KNEW the consequences of their rebellious act. MOF. one John Hancock, the first man to sign said something like "Let there be no problem identifying who I am," and he proceeded to sign his name in huge, carefully-crafted, legible letters such that there is absolutely no question as to his identity. In the US, his actions & words lead to a person's signature being called a "John Hancock."

How many of us can name the signers of the document? I can name but three - John Hancock (everyone knows him) Benjamin Rush (I went to High school w/ one of his descendents, Rosalind Rush) & Button Gwinnett (How can you forget a man named "Button"? He signed for Georgia & has a county named after him.)

But today, I ask you "What is an American?". You cannot identify one by DNA; you cannot identify one by ethnic origin; you cannot identify one by anything other than their place of birth or naturalization papers.

Take our children,for example - on their mother's side, they can trace their roots directly to England through Georgia settlers named Thomas. On my side - what a polyglot gaggle of humanity. I brought German, Dutch, Spanish (via Cuba) into the mix. For our grandchildren, add another bit of English Thomas & finally a splash of Scottish Pict (Via Robertsons) Our Robertson Son-in-Law gets embarrassed when I tell people that "...he's a Pict - you know, like Mel Gibson in Braveheart, who painted himself blue after stripping neked & grabbed his broadsword & went screaming into the ranks of the Redcoats."

We are Germans, English, Scot, Hmong, Cambodian, Viet Namese, Chinese, Russian, India Indians, American Indians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Ghanans, Cubans, Mexicans, italians, Greeks, Nerpalese, Burmese, Philippenos, Samoans, Hawaiians Black Africans, white Africans, Arab Africans - you name it, we have it - and in every possible mix of the many base stocks.

Do we believe in our country? I'll let you judge - in 4 generations, we have an aggregate of nearly 150 yrs of taking the oath to "...defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign & domestic..."

We are what we are - a nation born of violence, but loving peace. A Brash, young nation - but 238 years old. Willing to face any challenge. A bit irreverent, but always ready to help.

Time to have that Barbecue!

Happy Birthday, USA!

Donr