Happy Fourth!

This July 4th in NY there are a lot of summer patriots, minus much of the sunshine.  Two hundred and thirty-eight years later, it's strange to think that only a third of America's colonists wanted independence.  Another third preferred loyalty to Britain.  The remaining third either couldn't be bothered or just waffled.

When I was an eleventh grader, I found an unlikely hero in John Adams.  He was introduced to me through the film 1776.  Sometimes, I still here him ask, "Is anybody there?"  The answer has always been "yes."

Sherman Edwards, who briefly served as a high-school history teacher after returning from WWII,  wrote the music and lyrics for 1776.  Edwards, majored in history at NYU, but made his name as a jazz pianist, playing with the likes of Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey and Louis Armstrong.  He also wrote music sung by Elvis Presley in several of his films.  When Edwards decided he "wasn't into the rock songs any more," he left to write 1776, the winner of 5 Tony Awards in 1969, including Best Musical.  The play also won the  NY Drama Critics' Circle award that year.      

The actor William Daniels as John Adams

I suppose there are still lessons to be learned from the American Revolution.  Our experiment in democracy is constantly evolving.  People's liberties may come under attack at any place and time and in many different forms.  And when the odds and even an empire are against you, the future may still be bright.  People may one day celebrate your feat--two-hundred and thirty-eight years later.    

Let me conclude with some famous words by the radical Thomas Paine, the man who made even Jefferson seem relatively tame.  Despite their age, these words seem no older than the day they were written.  

When it can be said by any country in the world, my poor are happy, neither ignorance nor distress is to be found among them, my jails are empty of prisoners, my streets of beggars, the aged are not in want, the taxes are not oppressive, the rational world is my friend because I am the friend of happiness. When these things can be said, then may that country boast its constitution and government. Independence is my happiness, the world is my country and my religion is to do good.”