Lives in a Shoe

When in the Course of Human Events...

One of the Founding Fathers, John Adams, predicted that Independence Day would become America’s greatest holiday. This is what he wrote to his wife Abigail on July 3rd 1776: “(This) the Second Day of July 1776 will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.” Adams got the day wrong, though. Congress voted for independence on July 2nd 1776, but didn’t approve the text of the declaration until the Fourth.

Thank You, Julia Ward Howe

At a flag-raising ceremony at Fort Warren, near Boston, Massachusetts on Sunday May 12, 1861, the John Brown song, using the well known "Oh! Brothers" tune and the "Glory, Hallelujah" chorus, was publicly played "perhaps for the first time." The American Civil War had begun the previous month. (Wikipedia.)

And thank you, Johnny Cash.  

 

The Yanks Were Coming -- WWI

George and I visited the National WWI Museum and Memorial in Kansas City,
Missouri last year.  I remember walking up the marble steps thinking I would finally be able to figure out the Why of that war, aside from the Archduke Ferdinand part.  No luck.  There is an exhibit timeline that tried to help me get my head around it, though:

And this --- a glass walkway bridge over 9000 poppies -- 

The Yanks over there.  The readable Victor Davis Hanson:

One hundred years ago, on April 6, 1917, the United States entered World War I. The ongoing conflict ended just 19 months later with an Allied victory.

The United States did not win the war alone, given the far earlier and greater sacrifices of Great Britain, France, Italy and czarist Russia.

But America's late arrival, with some 2 million doughboys who landed in France less than three years after the start of the war, saved the teetering Allied cause.

My Dad always played Over There for me -- I've always loved it. 

 

 

 

 

Inauguration Day U.S.A.

“And your people will rebuild the ancient ruins; You will raise up and restore the age-old foundations; You will be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings. -Isaiah 58

(Thank you, Gerard.)

Self-Sufficiency, Self-Government, and Individual Responsibility, Oh My...

Stuart Schneiderman's site, which is wonderful, all the way down to the commenters, from whence this came:

While the Federalists advocated for a strong central government, Jeffersonians argued for strong state and local governments and a weak federal government.
Self-sufficiency, self-government, and individual responsibility, were, in the Jeffersonian worldview, among the most important ideals that formed the basis of the American Revolution. In Jefferson's opinion, nothing that could feasibly be accomplished by individuals at the local level ought to be accomplished by the federal government. The federal government would concentrate its efforts solely on national and international projects.[43] Jefferson's advocacy of limited government led to sharp disagreements with Federalist figures such as Alexander Hamilton. Jefferson felt that Hamilton favored plutocracy and the creation of a powerful aristocracy in the United States which would accumulate increasingly greater power until the political and social order of the United States became indistinguishable from those of the Old World. [Emphasis mine.}

The essay which prompted this was titled "Is the World Rejecting Western Values?"  Worth a contemplative part of your hours.