Miniver Cheevy: Independence Day:
"Independence Day is the High Holy Day of American political identity. If you think about it, the Fourth of July is a strange choice of date. Consider the French equivalent, Bastille Day, which commemorates the storming of the Bastille and thus the event which demonstrated that the French monarchy was over. By similar reasoning, we should be celebrating when Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown on 19 October, the battle of Lexington & Concord on 19 April, or (my favorite as an occasional lefty activist) the Boston Tea Party on 13 December.
But we don't. We celebrate the day that a bunch of guys signed a piece of paper."
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
Miniver Cheevy: Independence Day
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1 comment:
Well, yes, we're a nation that celebrates the covenant, and the deliberate formalities of law. The celebrants of tradition and the practicalities of the moment - the Loyalists - lost that war.
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