Well, in about 10 days, or so, the United States is celebrating a rather remarkable anniversary. We, the United States, are going to be 250 years old. Well, actually it’s going to be 250 years since we announced to the world that we were a new, separate, and different, country of our own. The reality is, of course, that it took somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 years before England was actually convinced that its rebellious North American colonies actually meant what they had said in 1776 and that it was willing to accept (at least on paper) that they weren’t going to get those “colonials” back under their rule.
That, in and of itself, is rather remarkable. Rather few democracies have survived for 250 years, although I think some HAVE lasted longer, but most have not. Look it up for yourself, if you can figure out how to do it. I found that the brief research I attempted quickly became rather confusing, but I think I am correct. Still, the common “life expectancy” of democracies seems to be substantially shorter than that of ours at this point.
Of course, it also depends on what you mean by “democracy.” When some of my rather distant ancestors signed The Mayflower Compact in 1620, they said: that they intended to:
That, in and of itself, is rather remarkable. Rather few democracies have survived for 250 years, although I think some HAVE lasted longer, but most have not. Look it up for yourself, if you can figure out how to do it. I found that the brief research I attempted quickly became rather confusing, but I think I am correct. Still, the common “life expectancy” of democracies seems to be substantially shorter than that of ours at this point.
Of course, it also depends on what you mean by “democracy.” When some of my rather distant ancestors signed The Mayflower Compact in 1620, they said: that they intended to:
To me, this sounds very much like a more democratic governing system than was generally available in Europe. Of course, they did acknowledge the English king as their supreme ruler, under God, of course. But, since the colony was dominated by folks who didn’t support the established and “official” Church of England, religious differences DID create some challenges, and, obviously, only men had any say in governing. Then, as the number of colonies increased, there were significant variations among them (especially regarding the “proper” religious beliefs), which would be major difficulties (among many) when the idea of establishing a common set of laws for the nation those colonies were trying to form was desired.
In my opinion, what was ultimately achieved (with the Constitution in 1789 and the Bill of Rights in 1791) was quite surprising in that acceptable compromises were ultimately reached, accepted, and adopted In those documents, among other things, religious matters were completely set to one side (exempted from consideration by the national government) as it was clear that the colony/states included such a wide variation of sects, denominations, etc, and that a “state” religion (pretty much standard in Europe) was simply NEVER going to be acceptable here.
Of course, the idea of Caucasian, males being the only ones allowed to have any real say in governance was widely accepted, although ALL white women AND children were counted in the population. All people of color were originally completely excluded since many (but not all) of them were, in fact, considered to be property and, therefore, not really “people.” However, when the Founders got around to writing the Constitution and Bill of Rights (because the original 1781 Articles of Confederation were so totally ineffective as to be essentially useless), ALL Caucasians were included, but slaves were counted as 3/5s of a person each for purposes of establishing representation in the House of Representatives, etc. This is said to have been a compromise to avoid counting non-voting slaves as full members of the population as the “slave” states desired). Native Americans were not subject to taxation and were, generally, treated as outside the American body politic. They were not citizens, and were not governed by ordinary federal and state legislation. Tribal laws, treaties with the United States, and special federal Indian legislation governed their affairs. Hence, Native Americans were largely excluded from any of this.
I believe that I should also point out that slaves were not exclusively held in the Southern states, but were to be founds in ALL of the colonies, although the “plantation” economies of the South did lead to significantly greater numbers of slaves there. It’s also worth noting that many of the earliest slaves were, in fact, Native Americans, although African slaves did quickly became the dominant identity.
While it’s become rather common to advance the notion that “AMERICANS” quickly created the world’s greatest democratic government, the fact is that it’s taken us quite a while to get as far as we have, and we are still arguing about a number of provisions. At this point in time: women are actually supposed to be able to be full, equal citizens;” ex-slaves (and their descendants) are said to enjoy full citizenship; “foreigners” are supposed to be subject to our laws and have rights under them (including the right to become citizens); religious factions aren’t supposed to have undue influence on the legal system; etc. But, recently those ideas seem to be under attack by some (seemingly mostly led by members of the most privileged members of American society). Somehow, the words of Emma Lazarus in her poem, The New Colossus (which is on the Statue of Liberty) that say “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free….” seem to have been replaced by an attitude which supports the notion that this country was intended to exist for the privileged, the wealthy, the powerful and that anyone who doesn’t fit into that groups really doesn’t belong here and shouldn’t have full access to the rights which our founding documents suggested were promised to what they SAID was all by the mutual pledge of their “Lives, Fortunes, and sacred Honor.”
I think that what is happening is sad. I also think it’s a betrayal of our founders’ intentions. History demonstrates that we are a nation built by folks who came here from other places, with many different backgrounds, beliefs, and ethnicities; who have said that we wanted to make a UNITED country based on the idea that accommodating these differences should make us a better, stronger nation; that compromise and tolerance of such differences are of value in creating a better society, not weaknesses to be avoided.
Have we been perfect in moving toward these goals? No. We have failed many times. But we have always come back to acknowledge our failures and to attempt to move to correct them, not to pretend that they never happened and that we’ve always been “the greatest.” Recent attempts to rewrite (or hide the historical facts) to suggest otherwise will, at least eventually, as always, be failures, or they will mark the beginning of America’s decline into irrelevancy. Growth is only possible by acknowledging mistakes, attempting to correct them, and moving forward, while trying to do better.
But enough political philosophy. The Fourth of July isn’t just a day to deal with solving the unsolved problems of our history, it’s also a day for self-congratulation, picnics, too much drinking, eating, parades, various celebrations, and FIREWORKS!
I’ve touched on such celebrations in earlier posts, so I won’t get into fussing about the noise, scared pets and other annoyances of such things in this one. All things considered, I’m proud to be a citizen of the U.S.A., although I have reservations as to the direction we have been headed recently, which seems decidedly away from the democratic (NOTE: “Democratic” is a PHILOSOPHICAL term, not, necessarily, the name of a political party.) I DO, however, think that we should not ignore the fact that our nation (the product, after all, of fallible humans) is not and NEVER HAS BEEN perfect, and I believe that good citizens should acknowledge that fact and strive to continue the progress which has been made towards forming “…a more perfect Union….”
That means that we need to teach our children (and ourselves, perhaps) that Dolly has made an, understandable, but incorrect assumption in this Family Circus cartoon:
In my opinion, what was ultimately achieved (with the Constitution in 1789 and the Bill of Rights in 1791) was quite surprising in that acceptable compromises were ultimately reached, accepted, and adopted In those documents, among other things, religious matters were completely set to one side (exempted from consideration by the national government) as it was clear that the colony/states included such a wide variation of sects, denominations, etc, and that a “state” religion (pretty much standard in Europe) was simply NEVER going to be acceptable here.
Of course, the idea of Caucasian, males being the only ones allowed to have any real say in governance was widely accepted, although ALL white women AND children were counted in the population. All people of color were originally completely excluded since many (but not all) of them were, in fact, considered to be property and, therefore, not really “people.” However, when the Founders got around to writing the Constitution and Bill of Rights (because the original 1781 Articles of Confederation were so totally ineffective as to be essentially useless), ALL Caucasians were included, but slaves were counted as 3/5s of a person each for purposes of establishing representation in the House of Representatives, etc. This is said to have been a compromise to avoid counting non-voting slaves as full members of the population as the “slave” states desired). Native Americans were not subject to taxation and were, generally, treated as outside the American body politic. They were not citizens, and were not governed by ordinary federal and state legislation. Tribal laws, treaties with the United States, and special federal Indian legislation governed their affairs. Hence, Native Americans were largely excluded from any of this.
I believe that I should also point out that slaves were not exclusively held in the Southern states, but were to be founds in ALL of the colonies, although the “plantation” economies of the South did lead to significantly greater numbers of slaves there. It’s also worth noting that many of the earliest slaves were, in fact, Native Americans, although African slaves did quickly became the dominant identity.
While it’s become rather common to advance the notion that “AMERICANS” quickly created the world’s greatest democratic government, the fact is that it’s taken us quite a while to get as far as we have, and we are still arguing about a number of provisions. At this point in time: women are actually supposed to be able to be full, equal citizens;” ex-slaves (and their descendants) are said to enjoy full citizenship; “foreigners” are supposed to be subject to our laws and have rights under them (including the right to become citizens); religious factions aren’t supposed to have undue influence on the legal system; etc. But, recently those ideas seem to be under attack by some (seemingly mostly led by members of the most privileged members of American society). Somehow, the words of Emma Lazarus in her poem, The New Colossus (which is on the Statue of Liberty) that say “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free….” seem to have been replaced by an attitude which supports the notion that this country was intended to exist for the privileged, the wealthy, the powerful and that anyone who doesn’t fit into that groups really doesn’t belong here and shouldn’t have full access to the rights which our founding documents suggested were promised to what they SAID was all by the mutual pledge of their “Lives, Fortunes, and sacred Honor.”
I think that what is happening is sad. I also think it’s a betrayal of our founders’ intentions. History demonstrates that we are a nation built by folks who came here from other places, with many different backgrounds, beliefs, and ethnicities; who have said that we wanted to make a UNITED country based on the idea that accommodating these differences should make us a better, stronger nation; that compromise and tolerance of such differences are of value in creating a better society, not weaknesses to be avoided.
Have we been perfect in moving toward these goals? No. We have failed many times. But we have always come back to acknowledge our failures and to attempt to move to correct them, not to pretend that they never happened and that we’ve always been “the greatest.” Recent attempts to rewrite (or hide the historical facts) to suggest otherwise will, at least eventually, as always, be failures, or they will mark the beginning of America’s decline into irrelevancy. Growth is only possible by acknowledging mistakes, attempting to correct them, and moving forward, while trying to do better.
But enough political philosophy. The Fourth of July isn’t just a day to deal with solving the unsolved problems of our history, it’s also a day for self-congratulation, picnics, too much drinking, eating, parades, various celebrations, and FIREWORKS!
I’ve touched on such celebrations in earlier posts, so I won’t get into fussing about the noise, scared pets and other annoyances of such things in this one. All things considered, I’m proud to be a citizen of the U.S.A., although I have reservations as to the direction we have been headed recently, which seems decidedly away from the democratic (NOTE: “Democratic” is a PHILOSOPHICAL term, not, necessarily, the name of a political party.) I DO, however, think that we should not ignore the fact that our nation (the product, after all, of fallible humans) is not and NEVER HAS BEEN perfect, and I believe that good citizens should acknowledge that fact and strive to continue the progress which has been made towards forming “…a more perfect Union….”
That means that we need to teach our children (and ourselves, perhaps) that Dolly has made an, understandable, but incorrect assumption in this Family Circus cartoon:
The fact is that the Declaration of Independence underwent some considerable revision in the Continental Congress, although I don’t think there was a version quite like the one discussed in this from The Argyle Sweater:
It does seem at least remotely POSSIBLE, however unlikely, though, that there just MIGHT have been a draft discussed which wasn’t too far from the one suggested by Frank and Ernest as having been a contribution of Ben Franklin in this cartoon:
Still, I do support celebrating our “National Birthday.” As I have gotten older, however, I am rather less enthusiastic about all of the noise, etc., which fireworks make. After all the “rockets red glare,” etc., was from the War of 1812 and had nothing to do with the Fourth, but I’m letting my “historian” show again. I guess I may just be getting to be a bit like Henry, the Wizard of Id’s pet dragon.
Actually, I rather enjoy fireworks when used properly, as in a show. I guess that the pyrotechnics which I dealt with as a theatre TD made me cautious enough to not be comfortable watching the neighbors setting rockets, etc. off from the street in front of their houses located just up the street from mine. I also agree with the character (I can’t tell who it is) from the B.C. strip below that the Fourth MIGHT NOT be a good day for parasailing.
On the other hand, I think it’s likely that there will be warm weather for the Fourth. That’s probably as it should be in the middle of the summer in North America, although I certainly hope that it won’t be TOO HOT! There have been times (having lived a fair amount of my life in the Middle West of the U.S) when the Fourth has been what I would call exhaustingly hot! I do enjoy corn in many variations, but this cartoon (Which appears to have come from Germany?) suggests that even the “corniest” of us can only stand SO much heat happily. (Note: there’s a LOT of corn grown in this part pf the world.)
I’ll go away on that note. I DO expect to be back in a couple of weeks, and I will TRY to make a bit less political on that occasion. However, the Fourth IS, after all, a political celebration, so it doesn’t seem unreasonable for this post to be more political than usual. In any case, have an enjoyable Fourth of July with family and friends and I hope you’ll be back for my next post in a couple of weeks.
🖖🏼 LLAP,
Dr. B
🖖🏼 LLAP,
Dr. B
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