I hope everyone has been having a great weekend. In and around the barbecuing, baseball games, family gatherings and fireworks—take a moment to read and think what it is all about.
If you have been paying attention, you should know the "boy" in the excerpt below.
"The Fourth of July in Farmington began with a fanfare from the town's brass band, resplendent in gold and white, rumbling down Main Street in a wagon pulled by a four-horse team. Later, in a shady grove by the river, there'd be fried chicken, iced lemonade, a baseball match, fireworks at a recitation of the Declaration of Independence—and always a lawyer over from the county seat to deliver the patriotic oration.
The boy would see the lawyer's horse and buggy at the hotel in the morning, and think 'how nice they were, and how much money a lawyer must make.' When the visitor got up to speak, the boy noticed his 'nice clothes—a good deal nicer than those of farmers and other people who came to hear him talk—and his boots looked shiny, as if they had just been greased.' He talked very loud, 'and seemed to be mad about something, especially when he spoke of the war and the Bridish (sic), and he waved his hands and arms a great deal.' On he went in the midday sun, about the flag, and the G.A.R., and because our people were such great fighters,' and how they must be 'ready to fight and to die' for that flag. The farmers clapped their hands and said the lawyer was 'a mighty smart man' and 'could talk louder than anyone we had ever heard.' The boy thought 'what a great man he was, and how [he himself] should like to be a lawyer.'"
—above from Big Trouble by J. Anthony Lukas (p. 300-301)
Again this year I am posting the Declaration of Independence. See below. Nothing I could write would top it.
Read it if you haven't...Read it again if you have.
Click on the image below to use my Footnote.com viewer to examine and navigate this document.
Transcribed version located on last years post: The Declaration of Independence.
More food for thought...
Merciless Indian Savages
Interpreting the Declaration of Independence by Translation (Spanish, French, Italian, etc.)
Thomas Jefferson and the American Symphony
Wikipedia - Thomas Jefferson
Wikipedia - Declaration of Independence
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