Tim Rogers: Happy 235th

Good morning.

Monday marks the 235th birthday of the United States.

I hope you all intend to celebrate it in some way.

I myself am a sucker for fireworks, the bigger, brighter and louder the better.

When my family and I lived in Wichita, Kan., the Fourth was the loudest, rowdiest and best day of the year.

Everyone bought fireworks and from early evening until well after midnight there was hardly a minute when you couldn’t see something bursting in the night sky. It was a day for cooking out, flying the American flag and celebrating the birth of the greatest country that this world has ever seen.

To me, fireworks have always symbolized the spectacular explosiveness of this great country of ours.

As Americans, we think a lot of our country and all of the things that we have been able to accomplish in our nearly two and half centuries of existence.

We have become the pre-eminent power in the world and established a standard of living and freedom that is envied by every other country in the world.

But the most spectacular thing that we have ever done, and likely ever will do, is write the document that got it all started.

If the Declaration of Independence isn’t the most important political document written in the past 2,000 years, it certainly ranks in the top three.

Like fireworks in the night sky, the words penned by Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and the rest of the committee tasked with writing this famous document still explode off the page and challenge anyone who reads it.

It asserted a way of thinking that up until then had been talked about but never boldly put forward as the basis for establishing a new country. In fact, in many ways, it remains the most revolutionary of political documents and continues to be as relevant today as it was in 1776.

If you don’t do anything else this weekend, I urge you to reread The Declaration of Independence — we will print a copy of it in Monday’s Daily Citizen — and learn more about it and the Fourth of July.

To help get you in the mood for tomorrow’s birthday bash I have looked up some trivia about the Fourth of July for you to enjoy and see how much history you have learned.

Some of it is just trivia but some of it is a part of our history and helped shape the country that we have become.

I got these bits of information from a website geared toward teachers but the Internet is flooded with Fourth of July trivia contests for those who wish to challenge themselves further.

For the record, my favorite piece of Fourth of July trivia comes from the year 1826, when America was celebrating its 50th anniversary.

On that date, both Jefferson and Adams, who by then where both very elderly men, died. The two men, who were perhaps the most responsible for the Declaration of Independence, both lived to see it spark revolution in other countries and see the United States become a vibrant and strong nation. It is said that Adams’ last words were “Thomas Jefferson still survives.” Ironically, Jefferson had died earlier in the day.

Enjoy the rest of these tidbits:

• America’s birthday is also celebrated in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and England. In Denmark, where people listen to songs and speeches about the friendship between the United States and Denmark, the celebration is known as ‘Rebildfest.’

• Delaware’s delegation to the Continental Congress put a unanimous endorsement of the Declaration at risk. Delaware delegate George Read was adamantly opposed to the Declaration (many still harbored an affinity for Great Britain and others feared for their careers and the fate of their families), while fellow Delawarians Thomas McKean and Caesar Rodney favored its adoption. Yet it appeared that Rodney, who was suffering from terminal cancer, might arrive in Philadelphia a day too late to break the Delaware delegation’s deadlock. However, the insistent Rodney rode all night through darkness, lightning, and thunder to arrive just in time to cast his affirmative vote, without which the Declaration would not have been unanimous.

• Up until Henry Ford and his millions of cars came along, the Fourth of July was traditionally the most miserable day of the year for horses, tormented by all the noise and by the boys and girls who threw firecrackers at them.

• The word “patriotism” comes from the Latin patria, which means “homeland” or “fatherland.”

• The Declaration of Independence was first read to the public in Philadelphia at noon on July 8 (where, according to one observer, there were few “respectable” people).

• The Declaration was first read in New York “in a clear voice” on July 9, by order of Gen. George Washington

• In Williamsburg, the colonial capital of Virginia, Independence Day is actually celebrated on July 25, because news of the adoption of the Declaration in Philadelphia did not reach Williamsburg until three weeks after July 4, 1776.

• The Statue of Liberty holds a book in her left hand, upon which is written “July 4, 1776.”

• In the 1890s, it was customary to celebrate the Fourth of July with two parades: in the morning, a “Horribles” parade of men and boys dressed in fantastic costumes made noise with all sorts of devices; and in the afternoon, a second parade featured military veterans and members of various local organizations.

• The names of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were withheld from the public for more than six months to protect the signers. If independence had not been achieved the treasonable act of the signers would have, by law, resulted in their deaths.

I hope you all enjoy tomorrow and have a glorious Fourth.

Tim Rogers is editor of The Daily Citizen

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