Happy Independence Day

For John, BLUF:  He may be remembered as Silent Cal, but this is a great discussion of Independence Day.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Address at the Celebration of the 150th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

From The American Presidency Project, by President Calvin Cooledge, 5 July 1926.

A great speech, but I wish to highlight this paragraph:

About the Declaration there is a finality that is exceedingly restful. It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning can not be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers.

We have not done a perfect job implementing these principles, but we retain them and try our best to hew to them.

May god bless our efforts.

Regards  —  Cliff

Happy Fourth

For John, BLUF:  John Quincy Adams, before he became President, on the Declaration of Independence.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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JOHN QUINCY ADAMS ON FREEDOM, INDEPENDENCE AND PEACE

Here is the sub-headline:

On July 4, 1821, then-Secretary of State John Quincy Adams gave the following Independence Day speech.

From War on the Rocks, by WOTR Staff. 4 July 2023.

Here is the lede plus three:

And now, friends and countrymen, if the wise and learned philosophers of the elder world, the first observers of nutation and aberration, the discoverers of maddening ether and invisible planets, the inventors of Congreve rockets and Shrapnel shells, should find their hearts disposed to enquire what has America done for the benefit of mankind?

Let our answer be this: America, with the same voice which spoke herself into existence as a nation, proclaimed to mankind the inextinguishable rights of human nature, and the only lawful foundations of government.  America, in the assembly of nations, since her admission among them, has invariably, though often fruitlessly, held forth to them the hand of honest friendship, of equal freedom, of generous reciprocity.

She has uniformly spoken among them, though often to heedless and often to disdainful ears, the language of equal liberty, of equal justice, and of equal rights.

She has, in the lapse of nearly half a century, without a single exception, respected the independence of other nations while asserting and maintaining her own.

And it goes on.

I think we, as a nation, would do well to follow what then Secretary of State John Quincy Adams told us.

Regards  —  Cliff

Preparation

For John, BLUF:  Here is a very short article calling us to prayer and preperation for our nation's 250th anniversary in 2026.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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My homeland in Ordinary Times

From The Pilot, by Ms Lucia A. Silecchia, 21 June 2023.

Here is the lede plus one:

Three more years.

As we celebrate Independence Day this year, I can't help thinking that we are now in the three-year run-up to our nation's 250th anniversary in 2026. In some ways, three years seems like a long time away. Yet, if advancing years have taught me anything, it is that time passes far more quickly than I anticipate!

The celebration of our nation's bicentennial in 1976 dominated some of my early childhood memories. Yet, so far, the celebration of our nation's fast-approaching 250th birthday is not receiving much public attention. I hope that this changes soon.

Meanwhile, I have a modest proposal.

And her modest proposal is prayer for this noble experiment, broken into three prayers over three years.

• Perhaps we can direct our prayers in each of the next three years to one of our three branches of government.  (Legislative, Executive, Judicial)
• Perhaps, instead, we may order our prayers toward the three levels of government, rather than the three branches.  (Federal, State, Local)
• Perhaps, instead, we can organize our prayers temporally -- praying on our nation's past this first year, its present in the second year, and its future in the third year.

A good thought for preparation for our 250th Anniversary.

Regards  —  Cliff

Independence Day

For John, BLUF:  Everything to see here; move about as proud Americans.

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Happy Fourth of July

And a Special Thanks To

The Committee of Five

• John Adams, representative of Massachusetts, who later became the second president.
• Thomas Jefferson, representative of Virginia, who later became the third president.
• Benjamin Franklin, representative of Pennsylvania, known as one of the most famous intellectuals of the Founding Fathers, whose academic writings and press publications had a very significant influence in the American Revolution.
• Roger Sherman, representative of Connecticut, the only person to sign all four of the U.S. state papers: the Continental Association, the Declaration, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution.
• Robert Livingston, representative of New York, who later negotiated the Louisiana Purchase as the minister to France.

Who gave us the Declaration of Independence.

Regards  —  Cliff

Self-Hating West

For John, BLUF:  As the Chinese Communist Party celebrates its 100th Anniversary, and is pushing its own form of toltalitarianism, it seems the United States no longer has an attractive model for its own citizens and for those abroad, except for illegal immigrants.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Marketing optimistic Chinese self confidence vs Western managed decline

From The Belmont Club, by Mr Richard Fernandez, 1 July 2021.

Here is the lede:

Xi Jinping has projected himself as the ‘Strong Horse’ and painted China as an attractive future in contrast to Joe Biden and the self-hating West which cannot even find something good to say about itself.

"The self-hating West.  That sums up a serious problem.

Chinese Citizens, Uyighers and Tibetins aside, have a common narrative, and rhe Chinese Communist Party pushes that narrative on those who are Chinese descendents in other nations.  What do we have to offer on the 4th of July 2021?  Apparently no longer the Magna Carta and the Rights of Englishmen.

What is it that unites us in the United Statees this 4th of July?  Is it only our belief tht Caucasians are a special form of evil, as expressed in Critical Race Theory.  I understand the desire for revenge, but when revenge becomes self-defeating it is time to move on to forgiveness and a quest for unification.  Are we there yet?

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Narrow Minds

For John, BLUF:  Those pushing "White Supremacy" as the key to unlocking the secrets of society have a narrow view of society and of history.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Ideology Destroys Sanity, Scholarship

From The American Conservative, by Commentator Rod Dreher, 8 April 2021, 7:51 PM.

Here is the lede plus one:

Writing at Yahoo! News, Prof. Jennifer Ho, president of the Association of Asian American Studies and a faculty member at the University of Colorado Boulder, would like you to know that when black people attack Asians, it’s really white people’s fault:

The point I’ve made through all of those experiences is that anti-Asian racism has the same source as anti-Black racism: white supremacy.  So when a Black person attacks an Asian person, the encounter is fueled perhaps by racism, but very specifically by white supremacy.  White supremacy does not require a white person to perpetuate it.

This makes everything the fault of Caucasian males of European origin.  That they represent a culture is not relevant.  It is the wrong culture.  However, it is a serious question to ask, if Admiral Zheng He had sailed East, rather than West, in 1405, would the West still be the wrong culture, or would it be an oppressed minority under the colonial thumb of another culture?

Later in the article is this summation of the state of academia.

This is what totalitarians do: they destroy the cultural memories of a people in order to make them easier to control.  It is gobsmacking that the gatekeepers and guardians of educational institutions are capitulating in the destruction of the institutions they have been charged with defending.

Why would anyone want to go into academics today?  Serious question.  I keep saying it over and over, and maybe somebody will believe me and act:  all those who want to save the humanities in this Dark Age had better stop trying to shore up this rotten imperium, and instead start building the equivalent of early medieval monasteries:  communities within which knowledge and traditional academic practices can survive this barbarian epoch.  I’m not exaggerating.  It’s that serious.

Perhaps, as we broaden our knowledge of other cultures, and of world history, we will come to appreciate what contributions Western Cukture has made.

Perhaps we will come to realize the Declaration of independence promised more than mere mortals could deliver all at once, but that it was a framework for overcoming our own narrow views and for making it a better world.

Regards  —  Cliff

Go Topless Rally in Texas

For John, BLUF:  The People, being free citizens, that "are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness", are going to do what they see is right, even if wrong.  Especially in Texas.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Texas’ ‘Go Topless Jeep Weekend’ news report becomes instant classic

From the New York Post, by Reporter Tamar Lapin, 19 May 2020.

Here is the lede plus one:

Not even the coronavirus pandemic could stop Texas’ annual “Go Topless Jeep Weekend” — a wild party that resulted in nearly 200 arrests and raised eyebrows on social media.

A viral local news report about the boozy beach bash in Galveston showed maskless revelers drinking, twerking and driving around in ATVs, as resigned cops admitted it was “impossible” to enforce social distancing.

From Blogger Ed Driscoll,

Exit quote: “The cops are doing their job, [and] as long as they don’t be mean to people who are actually being innocent, then I’m all gravy, baby!”.

I think this is a very important point.  The police need to be Peacemakers, not Stormtroopers.  That kind of an attitude should reduce tensions, reduce confrontations.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Meditation on the Fourth

For John, BLUF:  And NeoNeoCon has a take on our wide spread lack of interest in individual freedom and autonomy.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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A Writer as Big as America

From Pajama Media, by Author Sarah Holt, 4 July 2019.

Here is the lede plus two:

As some of you know, I’m an American by choice.  I left kin and country, culture and connections to throw in my lot with the freedom gang.

How did this come to happen? How could a girl raised in Portugal, of patriotic (fanatic, really) parents, get to the point where she felt expatriate, a stranger in a strange land?

Well, a lot of it had to do with what I read.  When I tell people I was raised on Robert A. Heinlein books, I wasn’t joking.  And there was something in those books that just made me American, before I even realized it was happening.

America isn't about soil or folk.  It is about the idea of freedom.  You either are in or you are a, perhaps whiny, free rider.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Exceptionalism

For John, BLUF:  I think many believe the United States is like Europe, but I think not.  We still believe in all men being created equal, with the potential to grow up to be President, and that is just the risk they have to take.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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America Was Always an Exceptional Nation, but Is It Still?

Here is the sub-headline:

Its robust civil society and lack of hierarchy are cherished by Americans and curious to foreigners.

From The Wall Street Journal, by Professor Allen C. Guelzo, Professor of history at Gettysburg College, 23 November 2018.

Here is the closing paragraph:

But to reject exceptionalism is also to reject the fundamental philosophical principles on which the republic was founded, relegating the guarantee of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" to the level of tribal myth.  We do not need to claim perfection to reclaim exceptionalism.  And the exceptional principles that guided our founding may turn out, as Lincoln said, to be "the last best hope of earth" after all.

It is a short Opinion Piece and worth the read.  We are an exceptional nation and if parents put their children on the right path those children will achieve much.  This being America, those children may even set themselves on the right path.

Regards  —  Cliff

Thanks to the FFs

For John, BLUF:  Glad we did the show today.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY

Nothing Follows.

Regards  —  Cliff

Coming to America

For John, BLUF:  The Lusitanians.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Becoming American

This is autobiographical writing by Author Sarah Hoyt, late of Portugal and now an American.  It was published by Pajama Media, on 30 June 2017.

She winds up this "love letter" to America thusly:

It is our solemn duty, no matter how many of our compatriots fail at it, to live up to our amazing luck in being citizens of the greatest nation on Earth, one founded on the belief that individuals can be self-governing and are the bosses of their own government.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

All Are Created Equal, But Not in Every Regard

For John, BLUF:  Another case of too much is too much.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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If You Demand Rights That Aren’t Unalienable, You Don’t Get America

The readily observable fact that we no longer think politically in terms of unalienable rights is a perfect measure of how much we have abandoned the Founders’ vision.

From The Federalist by Mr Robert Curry, the 8th of February of this year.  The lede:

Others before the American Founders had dreamed of a political order of liberty and justice, but every previous attempt ended in failure.  That men again and again, admittedly fitfully and never successfully until the Founders, struggled to hold that ideal above the dreadful historical reality is perhaps Western civilization’s most honorable claim to greatness.  The Founders’ solution is the crowning glory of that noble tradition.

Basically, if we don't ground rights in something, and limit those rights, we risk the American Experiment.

Read the whole thing.

Regards  —  Cliff

Happy Independence Day

Thanks, Tom, and Ben, and all you others, for a wonderfully radical document with a wonderfully radical idea.

Regards  —  Cliff

The Declaration of Independence

For John, BLUF:  At the end of the day, it is about The People, not SCOTUS or POTUS or Congress.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Law Professor Glenn Harland Reynolds, writing in USA Today, gives us a discussion of the Declaration of Independence, "Declaration should still wake the powerful up at night".

Before the declaration, the standard political theory went something like this: God anointed a king, who is the locus of sovereignty on earth.  Though the king is supposed to rule decently, it is the duty of everyone else to submit to the king, who is answerable only to God.  The king might grant you rights, but if he did so that was an act of generosity on his part, not an entitlement on yours.

Divine-right political theory was understandably popular with kings and their supporters and hangers-on, and a form of it survives in assorted variations today.  But the declaration takes a different approach.  It says that rights come from God, not from the king, and that they are "unalienable" — that is, incapable of being sold ("alienated") surrendered, or given away.

What's more, rather than rights coming from the government, government exists to protect rights.  Government, in the declaration's explanation, exists to protect rights, and rather than subjects enjoying rights with the consent of the government, the government itself rules only by the consent of the governed.  And when the government fails to live up to its duties, and the people no longer consent to it, it becomes illegitimate and subject to replacement by something the people like better.

Read it all.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Patriotic Decoration

For John, BLUF:  Lowell is a pretty patriotic city.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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One of our neighbors decorated their home for Independence Day, and did a good job of it.

Thanks, neighbors.

Oh, and nice paint job.

Regards  —  Cliff

Who Are Those Republicans Throughout History?

TO MAKE MEN FREE:  A History of the Republican Party
Heather Cox Richardson
Basic Books (September 23, 2014)
418 pages
ISBN: 0465024319

For John, BLUF:  Parties have a place.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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In the Sunday Book Review from The New York Times, we have a review of Professor Heather Cox Richarson's recent book, To Make Men Free:  A History of the Republican Party.  The reviewer is Mr Jonathan Rauch, who is a Senior Fellow at Brookings Institution.  The review suggests the reviewer likes the book, but doesn't like the Republican Party.  Or maybe doesn't understand it.  At any rate, his lede is:

America does not have a broken political system.  It has a broken political party: the Republicans.

As an example, Mr Rauch criticizes the Republican Party for not giving us immigration reform.  Maybe the Republicans on Capitol Hill recognized that the Grass Roots Republicans didn't want reform on the terms that Senate Majority Leader Reid and President Obama wanted it.

I did like this from the review's second paragraph.  I think it goes directly to the concerns expressed by some on City Life regarding the value of political parties:

In 1962, the political scientist James Q. Wilson wrote that parties “perform, to some degree, at least three functions in a democratic government.  They recruit candidates, mobilize voters and assemble power within the formal government.”

And, they reduce the effective factions to just a few, allowing for at least some legislation, like the CROmnibus Bill, which is funding the Federal Govern, and some state and local programs, for Fiscal Year 2015. Speaking of the founders Jefferson and Hamilton, as types of the two sides of the Republican Party, author Richardson says:

Both, unlike the political left, believe that equality comes from freedom, rather than the other way around.

I think this is an important point and one that points to our Declaration of Independence, a document cherished by Republicans out in the Grass Roots.  The other view, that if the Government gives you equality you will have freedom doesn't provide the same hope.

Political parties tend to be a bit chaotic.  Even monolithic parties, like the Communist Party and the National Socialist Party, tend to have divisions and factions.  I think Will Rogers summed it up thusly:

I am not a member of any organized party — I am a Democrat.

The same truth probably goes for Republicans, although the Democrats of today are a bit more organized than they were in the 1920s and 30s.

Hat tip to my Brother Lance.

Regards  —  Cliff

French National Celebration

For John, BLUF:  That would be 1789.  That was the year that George Washington was sworn in as President and John Adams as Vice President.  It was also the year Fletcher Christian lead the mutiny on HMS BOUNTY.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Happy Bastille Day.

Yes, this is sort of like our Fourth of July.  But not quite.  The storming of the Bastille, a prison in Paris, led to the freeing of seven prisoners.♠  More important, it provided the people of Paris with arms, and more important still, with ammunition.

Note the importance of the Second Amendment in this action, before there was a Second Amendment on paper.♥

But, back to the French, the Revolution lead to Napoleon Bonaparte, not to a French George Washington.  Sad for France and sad for Europe.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  The crowd missed the transfer of the Comte de Solages (the Marquis de Sade) by ten days.  On the 2nd of July he tried to foment a riot by shouting to the crowd outside that the Government was killing the prisoners.  On the 4th of July he was transferred out.
♥  Although inherent in the words of the Declaration of Independence.

Lowell and Independence

For John, BLUF:  Belvidere, not Belvidere Village.  Just saying.

On this Independence Day, which built on the victories at Lexington and Concord, it is interesting to note that Lowell's own Pow-Wow Oak has its own page on Wikipedia.

Regards  —  Cliff

Celebrating Independence Day

For John, BLUF:  Is Cheapskate TD Bank North YOUR bank?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

I noticed, today, that TD Bank North is open on this Thursday, Thursday the 4th of July, until 1:00 PM (1300).  I asked myself, isn't the Fourth, Independence Day, a Federal Holiday?

So, I used the Internet to go to the Web Site of the Federal Office of Personnel Management, which provides the authoritative list of Federal Holidays.  Sure enough, Independence Day was on the list and scheduled for Thursday, 4 July.

But, I had been pretty confident even before I got home and looked it up.  So, I asked some questions?

• Isn't it a Federal Holiday?—TD Bank North is a Canadian firm.
• Did you get Canada's National Day (Canada Day, 1 July) off?—No.
• Are you getting special "holiday premium pay" for this?♠—No.

Well, that doesn't look too good.

I might consider changing banks, but I remember my Father's experience as he tried to escape Bank of America.  BofA kept buying up the bank he would switch to.

Maybe someone at "Corporate" is responsible for surfing the web to make sure there isn't anything bad out there about TD Bank North and they will give us reason to update this posting.

In the mean time, looking at Lowell, I agree with City Life Producer John McDonough that the City Manager should give everyone (less the four people to put out the City Council Packet, and essential staff) Friday off.  A Happy, rested, workforce is a productive workforce and one that is a pleasure to interact with from a customer point of view.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Like with the US Department of Commerce.

The Natives Are Restless?

For John, BLUF:  There is unhappiness out there with the Federal Government and not just within the Tea Party.

Here is a call to abolish our Government, with a proposal of when to start, Saturday, 13 August of this year.  Lots of references to the Declaration of Independence and our Founding Fathers, including President Thomas Jefferson.

What country ever existed a century and a half without a rebellion? And what country can preserve it's liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance?

Thomas Jefferson, 1787

Those Tea Party folks are just totally out of control!

Wait, wasn't that Nation of Change, which has folks like the Honorable Robert Reich♠ and Broadcast Journalist Amy Goodman♥  writing for it?

So, Big Sis needs to look to her left as well as to her right.

Better would be for the Congresscritters to get their act together, including being frank with us when they don't really know the answers to some of the problems we face today.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Former US Secretary of Labor and former Democratic candidate for Governor of Massachusetts.
♥  For those who watch City Life here in Lowell, if you are slow on the clicker, she is the person who comes up at 0800.