Burke: Declaration’s grievances with king have a modern echo
Published 1:30 am Wednesday, July 5, 2023
By Tom Burke / Herald columnist
It was a Glorious Fourth with a parade and a cookout and fireworks, and I was 7 and the sky sparkled, shimmered and shined all around; the booming rumble of the aerial bombs thudded in our tummies; a waterfall of dancing colors went on and on and on as did the oooohs and ahhhhs; and we were allowed to stay up “late” to celebrate. It was a Glorious Fourth in 1954.
It was also a glorious Fourth on our Westerly sailboat in Annapolis harbor; anchored off the Naval Academy seawall circa 1984; watching the fireworks and praying we wouldn’t get rammed by one of those accursed (to us rag sailors) stinkpots turning a night of celebration into moments of nail-biting terror as overstuffed Bayliners drunkenly dodged and ducked in alcoholic abandon across the waters of the Chesapeake Bay as the sky came alive for what seemed like hours. (Note: we celebrated all subsequent Glorious Fourths on land at the Eastport Yacht Club with the other refugees from the nautical demolition derby that that night had become.)
And it was a Glorious Fourth in 2013 and our first year here in Western Washington where, unlike in suburban Maryland and New York, personal “fireworks” are not limited to sparklers. Here the display of patriotic zeal was massive, began early, lasted late and we could look in any direction and ooohh and aaaahh to our hearts content.
But this year the Glorious Fourth seemed different. There was, perhaps, a noticeable lessening of the revolutionary fervor in the celebration, as selected municipalities banned anything that goes bang, blam, or KER-BOOM!
But also, perhaps, because I’m not thinking of the Glorious Fourth as it’s celebrated today — with food, fireworks, and shopping — I’m thinking of the real meaning of the commemoration, memorializing a step so bold that the men who signed the Declaration of Independence, and the women who supported them, feared for their lives.
I’m thinking of the courage it took to declare, “That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States … and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved;” knowing full-well that England was the most powerful nation on the planet and a third of their fellow-colonists wanted to stay British and a third could’ve have cared less.
And I’m thinking of how the actions of those 56 men in 1776 Philadelphia have reverberated on Fourths through the years:
• How on July 4, 1827 slavery was abolished in New York state;
• How Booker T. Washington’s Tuskegee Institute opened its doors on July 4, 1881;
• Or how the Statue of Liberty was presented to the United State in Paris on the Fourth of July in 1884.
• Or how 1889’s Glorious Fourth saw Washington state’s first Constitutional Convention begin.
I’m thinking of other things that happened on July Fourths:
• That both Thomas Jefferson and John Adams passed from life into history on the that day in 1826;
• That on the Glorious Fourth of 1863 the traitor Robert E. Lee and his army of insurrectionists slunk back across the Potomac River after three days of terrible fighting and defeat at Gettysburg;
• That also in 1863 the South was spit in two by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s victory at Vicksburg, essentially dooming the rebels to destruction;
• Or that hope was kindled in the fight against Hitler and fascism, when on July 4, 1942, the first American bombers — B-17s, built in Seattle — flew their first mission into Nazi-occupied Europe.
And I’m thinking about (lamenting?) the red/blue contradiction dividing us on 2023’s Glorious Fourth.
How the MAGAs try to don the mantle of the Founding Fathers, saying they espouse the cause of liberty.
But their lack of self-awareness is startling. Try reading quotes from the Declaration (below in italics), substituting Trump, MAGA or Republican for King George III (“He”) and see how far the authoritarians have strayed from our founding:
Specifically:
• Think of the gerrymandering used to ensure Republican rule in red states: “He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.”
• Think of the jihad against immigrants: “He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither… .”
• Consider the impropriety of Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices accepting gifts and money from rich (involved) R benefactors: “He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.”
• And then consider the recent Supreme Court rulings on abortion, student loan forgiveness, LGBTQ+ rights, and affirmative action, when “taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments,” was considered grounds for separation.
• And finally how Trump tried to overthrow our democracy on Jan. 6: “He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us,” and how he’s flaunted all norms, “A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.”
We are a still a free people.
But the fight to stay free is hard.
It must be fought every day, in every way against the MAGA puppets of Putin, the Christo-fascists of the religious right, the political grifters stealing from fellow citizens, and the cult-worshipers at the altar of Trump and his disciples.
Mostly what I’m contemplating around this Glorious Fourth are the final words of that seminal document, “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
Those words, written facing a rebel’s fate — the hangman’s noose — echo today in the commitment of those fighting for our democracy in town councils, state legislatures, the halls of Congress, the White House, and wearing the uniform of the United States of America to keep us free.
God bless them.
Slava Ukraini.
Tom Burke’s email address is t.burke.column@gmail.com.
