Herb’s Blog, Herbdate 23890 – 1321
Dear Fans, Friends, Fiends, Foes, Regular Readers, and My Fellow Americans,
I have a sort of idea thingy floating around in my head-bone of what I am going to do, schedule-wise. For the time being, I will post memes on Mondays and an actual post on Fridays, and if I can, I will squeeze something or the other in on another day. I think it’s something I can do consistently. And now,
Here’s the Haps:
Today is the day Americans celebrate their independence from Britain. Unlike some other countries, constitutional monarchies and commonwealth realms, with the British monarch as their head of state, which were granted the right to control their own constitutions and affairs by a benevolent monarch, Americans had to fight and fight hard. Then, a few years after a peace treaty was signed, they tried to take it back, and we had to fight and fight hard, again. Many blood sacrifices were made, but we don’t have the British monarch as our head of state.
In this post, I have my favorite Sousa march, some memes, both serious and otherwise, and at the end is a reading by Max McLean of the entire Declaration of Independence. It’s a little over 10 minutes, but I think it’s worth giving a listen to. He has a great voice, and while he does read with feeling, he doesn’t over-dramatize. The drama is not in the reading, although having a good reader helps, but the drama is in the words themselves. The passion of the men who pledged, “…to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
First, let me share my favorite Sousa March with you, The Stars and Stripes Forever, by John Philip Sousa, performed by the US Army Field Band. The lyrics appear in the Closed Captioning. My favorite line is, “Let tyrants remember the day/When our fathers with mighty endeavor/Proclaimed as they marched to the fray/That by their right and by their might it waves forever.”
Comments
6 responses to “United States Independence Day With Memes, Music, and More”
Happy No Kings Day, Herb!
Exactly! Thank you!
JD Vance’s is the best. How easy it is to forget.
It is so very true!
I feel like such a failure – I celebrated the 4th by cleaning my garage and cutting the grass when I should have been grilling burgers and eating ice cream.
I wasn’t going to take the time to listen to the entire Declaration, but once I began I realized that I have probably never actually read it. Thanks for this!
Well, I didn’t do a whole lot of anything on the Fourth. Your comment surprised me but I’m happy to help. Max McLean is an excellent reader. I listen to his reading of the KJV and he doesn’t over-dramatize it but it isn’t flat, either. Even in the Begats.