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Jul. 4th, 2005
Independence Day
Jul. 4th, 2005 07:32 pmHappy Fourth of July to all the USians reading. This morning I went downtown to hear the annual reading of the Declaration of Independence, which has happened at the old State House in Boston each year since 1776. Which I hadn't heard about until last year, surprisingly.
There was a salute at the burying grounds across from the Old South Meeting House, then a parade (military, not huge floats or high school marching bands) continued to the old State House. After the Pledge of Allegiance and an historical introduction, the Declaration was read from the balcony of the old State House, flanked on either side by reproductions of the original lion and unicorn that had been burned by the patriots after hearing the original reading.
And though the man reading the Declaration didn't have a particularly good speaking voice, it hit home yet again just how disturbing the path this country has taken in the last couple of years, as the list of grievances went on, and some of them sounded far too familiar. The phrase that particularly leaped out at me was "disavow these usurpations," which is so what I would like to do...
As the parade continued on to Faneuil Hall, there were many firearms discharged (I believe most of them muskets or other period pieces) as historically-dressed companies marched by behind modern sailors. And there were other historically-dressed people about, as well. My favorite of these was Abraham Lincoln. And there were political activists about, including Billionaires for Bush, handing out green 'billion dollar' bills, including the slogan "four more wars."
Side note: early this morning, there were already people starting to crowd the Esplanade for this evening's concert (Has it already started? I don't know.), and boats lined up in the river, groups of four or five boats anchored together.
There was a salute at the burying grounds across from the Old South Meeting House, then a parade (military, not huge floats or high school marching bands) continued to the old State House. After the Pledge of Allegiance and an historical introduction, the Declaration was read from the balcony of the old State House, flanked on either side by reproductions of the original lion and unicorn that had been burned by the patriots after hearing the original reading.
And though the man reading the Declaration didn't have a particularly good speaking voice, it hit home yet again just how disturbing the path this country has taken in the last couple of years, as the list of grievances went on, and some of them sounded far too familiar. The phrase that particularly leaped out at me was "disavow these usurpations," which is so what I would like to do...
As the parade continued on to Faneuil Hall, there were many firearms discharged (I believe most of them muskets or other period pieces) as historically-dressed companies marched by behind modern sailors. And there were other historically-dressed people about, as well. My favorite of these was Abraham Lincoln. And there were political activists about, including Billionaires for Bush, handing out green 'billion dollar' bills, including the slogan "four more wars."
Side note: early this morning, there were already people starting to crowd the Esplanade for this evening's concert (Has it already started? I don't know.), and boats lined up in the river, groups of four or five boats anchored together.