Fighting for freedom

  

Continental Army’s North Carolina Brigade marching through Philadelphia on Aug. 25, 1777

This is a great drawing of the American Revolution, showing women and children in the wagon, taking their parts in the conflict.

This 250 year long experiment in democracy by a republic called the United States of America is not doing so well at this time.

Whether it shall long endure has become a question in many people's minds. In the months until the November election there are strange and awful possibilities to be thrown at the world from the current authoritarian clown.

We shall see...

Me visiting my second son and his family in Atlanta for the Fourth sometime in the  early 2000s. This year he and his family will be in Philadelphia at a World Cup Soccer game!

The frequent and well populated demonstrations show that many many Americans are opposed to the actions coming from the White House.

What is the United States of America? See Rebecca Solnit's article in The Guardian.

that article link is worth reading!

Years with questions or answers

 

This was an excellent floral display based upon the painting above. At the Black Mountain Center for the Arts 2025.

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A lovely cool morning (in the shade) at Four Sister's Bakery in Black Mountain - eating a chocolate croissant with an Americano. That was my celebration of Independence Day this year.

I did check the heat around 1pm when I was about to eat lunch, did I want to sit out on the balcony? Nope, too hot.

Teresa had a late' with almond milk, and a strawberry rhubarb bar.

That's it for me celebrating (on Independence Day last Friday). Teresa and her hubby were planning to go to the baseball game in Asheville later. It included hot dogs and fireworks.

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Today's quote:

There are years that ask questions and years that answer.

Zora Neale Hurston

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An old photo:

Happy Independence Day

 

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'Union 50 Stars,' by Janet Nolan

Stars made from various beverage cans...arranged as they are on the American flag.

Asheville Art Museum

Apologies for blurry photo.

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Yes, these are Americans. And this happened in 2024. It was shared on Facebook I believe from Ohio.

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Thanks to Facebook posting byAnna KosterLessons from Georgia O'Keeffe's Art, Life, Landscape

 “In anticipation of July 4th, I'm sharing O'Keeffe's The Flag. This watercolor, made in 1918, reveals her troubled feelings as war was raging around the world.

Her favorite brother was a a soldier and a victim of toxic gas, used as a weapon by both sides in WW1. He suffered from it the rest of his life and died young (in 1930 at the age of 37).”

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Today's quote:

Perhaps the most radical act of resistance in the face of adversity is to live joyfully.

Ari Honarvar (Daily Om)

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My old photos: 10.2.21 WOMENS MARCH in AUSTIN, TEXAS The many No Kings marches/demonstrations in this year of 2025 show that the will of the people is definitely not that of the present president, who controls the Republicans. ------------------------ And I must say hat's off to Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat Representative from NY, who delayed the vote which was expected around noon whereby Republicans would put a very  unpopular budget in place. The delay meant many Republican's flights for the holiday weekend had to be changed. Democrats too, but they were cheering Hakeem on through out the speech. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) spoke on the floor of the chamber for the longest time in U.S. history in protest of President Donald Trump’s big bill, breaking a record previously held by then-Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). Jeffries began shortly before 5 a.m. Thursday by saying he was going to take his “sweet time on behalf of the American people.” And he did. The New York Democrat took advantage of a House custom that allows party leaders unlimited speaking time, known as a “magic minute.”  McCarthy’s “minute” lasted over eight and a half hours back in 2021, when he was protesting legislation championed by then-President Joe Biden dubbed “Build Back Better.” Jeffries beat the record just before 1:30 p.m. Thursday. He ended his remarks at 1:37 p.m., setting a new record of 8 hours and 44 minutes. “I’m here today to make it clear that I’m going to take my time and ensure that the American people fully understand how damaging this bill will be to their quality of life,” Jeffries said at the beginning of his marathon speech. (Yahoo News) I only watched about the last 2 hours, and was very moved by his effort, the sincere support by the other Democratic representatives, and thinking of how each of them were elected by the people who will now be effected by this new law. ---------------- Sharing with Skywatch Friday (for the header of course)

Raging into action

Happy Independence Day - Americans!

This is not your Independence Day of the GOP! This is the Independence Day of the free women and men who will take back the power that the MAGA crazies have been usurping. We the people! Not the brain-washed zombies who follow whatever the big business CEO's want.

I'm going to take part in a webinar this afternoon by Starhawk, one of the founders who teach about permaculture and other things. I like ritual and the idea of Starhawk addressing our anger sounds good.

The ritual will help me transform my rage into action! That's my goal at least! Not violence!

And a lot of women and men are aching to do just this thing. I hope many of my friends will also watch this zoom ritual. 

Then there will be a lot of my friends downtown watching the local fireworks. I'll keep my windows closed so I can hear them as low as possible.

Last Saturday night I took part in this ritual about improving my meditation. I liked this presentation by Craig Hamilton. Just what I needed this week! However I didn't sign on for the twelve week course. Puleese, I don't have funds for that, and what I do in my meditation is just fine!

Connecting the self-evident truths to political action

 

Not very patriotic these days!

I love what this country was founded on...not the way it's being run these days.

So to remember why we started a republic!

The United States Declaration of Independence is the statement adopted by the Second Continental Congress meeting at the Pennsylvania State House (now known as Independence Hall) in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776. The Declaration announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with the Kingdom of Great Britain would regard themselves as thirteen independent sovereign states no longer under British rule. With the Declaration, these new states took a collective first step toward forming the United States of America. The declaration was signed by representatives from New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.

The Declaration was passed on July 2 with no opposing votes. A committee of five had drafted it to be ready when Congress voted on independence. John Adams, a leader in pushing for independence, had persuaded the committee to select Thomas Jefferson to compose the original draft of the document,^[2]which Congress edited to produce the final version. The Declaration was a formal explanation of why Congress had voted on July 2 to declare independence from Great Britain, more than a year after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War. Adams wrote to his wife Abigail, "The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America"^[3] – although Independence Day is actually celebrated on July 4, the date that the wording of the Declaration of Independence was approved.

After ratifying the text on July 4, Congress issued the Declaration of Independence in several forms. It was initially published as the printed Dunlap broadside that was widely distributed and read to the public. The source copy used for this printing has been lost and may have been a copy in Thomas Jefferson's hand.^[4]Jefferson's original draft is preserved at the Library of Congress, complete with changes made by John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, as well as Jefferson's notes of changes made by Congress. The best-known version of the Declaration is a signed copy that is displayed at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., and which is popularly regarded as the official document. This engrossed copy was ordered by Congress on July 19 and signed primarily on August 2.^[5][6]

The sources and interpretation of the Declaration have been the subject of much scholarly inquiry. The Declaration justified the independence of the United States by listing colonial grievances against King George III and by asserting certain natural and legal rights, including a right of revolution. Having served its original purpose in announcing independence, references to the text of the Declaration were few in the following years. Abraham Lincoln made it the centerpiece of his policies and his rhetoric, as in the Gettysburg Address of 1863. Since then, it has become a well-known statement on human rights, particularly its second sentence:

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.

This has been called "one of the best-known sentences in the English language",^[7] containing "the most potent and consequential words in American history".^[8] The passage came to represent a moral standard to which the United States should strive. This view was notably promoted by Lincoln, who considered the Declaration to be the foundation of his political philosophy and argued that it is a statement of principles through which the United States Constitution should be interpreted.^[9]

The U.S. Declaration of Independence inspired many similar documents in other countries, the first being the 1789 Declaration of Flanders issued during the Brabant Revolution in the Austrian Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). It also served as the primary model for numerous declarations of independence in Europe and Latin America, as well as Africa (Liberia) and Oceania (New Zealand) during the first half of the 19th century.^[10]

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Declaration_of_Independence

That is an extensive article about the Declaration over on Wikipedia.

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Notes:

1.  Becker, Declaration of Independence, 5.
2. ^ Jump up to: ^a b "Declaring Independence", Revolutionary War, Digital History, University of Houston. From Adams' notes: "Why will you not? You ought to do it." "I will not." "Why?" "Reasons enough." "What can be your reasons?" "Reason first, you are a Virginian, and a Virginian ought to appear at the head of this business. Reason second, I am obnoxious, suspected, and unpopular. You are very much otherwise. Reason third, you can write ten times better than I can." "Well," said Jefferson, "if you are decided, I will do as well as I can." "Very well. When you have drawn it up, we will have a meeting."
3. Jump up ^ Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 3 July 1776
4. Jump up ^ Boyd (1976), The Declaration of Independence: The Mystery of the Lost Original, p. 438.
5. Jump up ^ "Did You Know...Independence Day Should Actually Be July 2?"(Press release). National Archives and Records Administration. June 1, 2005. Retrieved July 4, 2012.
6. Jump up ^ The Declaration of Independence: A History, The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
7. Jump up ^ Stephen E. Lucas, "Justifying America: The Declaration of Independence as a Rhetorical Document", in Thomas W. Benson, ed., American Rhetoric: Context and Criticism, Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press, 1989, p. 85.
8. Jump up ^ Ellis, American Creation, 55–56.
9. ^ Jump up to: ^a b McPherson, Second American Revolution, 126.
10. Jump up ^ Armitage, David (2007). The Declaration of Independence: A Global History. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. pp. 113–126. ISBN 0-674-02282-3.