COVID-19 Policy Update: Fourth of July Edition
COVID-19 Policy Update
SUNDAY 7/4
CELEBRATING THE FOURTH OF JULY
After a year that left all of us weary, I hope this Fourth of July offers you a time of restoration with friends and family as well as a renewed sense of hope and optimism in the days that lie ahead.
Declaration of Independence: In Congress, July 4, 1776:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
"That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."
Inspiration: "All men are by nature equally free and independent. Such equality is necessary in order to create a free government. All men must be equal to each other in natural law." Philip Mazzei, translation by Thomas Jefferson
Also a wonderful Cabernet Sauvignon (more here).
The National Constitution Center: Has a great podcast diving into the Declaration of Independence tracing where its words and its ideals came from and how it went on to influence state constitutions, the United States constitution, and other key American texts including President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, the Seneca Falls Declaration of Rights, and Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s I Have a Dream speech.
What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?: Frederick Douglass, July 5, 1852
"Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?"
"What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sound of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants brass fronted impudence; your shout of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanks-givings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy -- a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour."
"At the very moment that they are thanking God for the enjoyment of civil and religious liberty, and for the right to worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences, they are utterly silent in respect to a law which robs religion of its chief significance, and makes it utterly worthless to a world lying in wickedness."
"While drawing encouragement from the Declaration of Independence, the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age."
Samuel Adams: In an essay:
"The liberties of our Country, the freedom of our civil constitution are worth defending at all hazards: And it is our duty to defend them against all attacks."
"We have receiv’d them as a fair Inheritance from our worthy Ancestors: They purchas’d them for us with toil and danger and expence of treasure and blood; and transmitted them to us with care and diligence."
"Instead of sitting down satisfied with the efforts we have already made, which is the wish of our enemies, the necessity of the times, more than ever, calls for our utmost circumspection, deliberation, fortitude, and perseverance."
The Greatness of America: Alexis de Tocqueville: "The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults."
25 Years Ago: President Whitmore's Speech #NeverForget