On this day, July 4th, 1776, 230 years ago, America declared its independence from England. Let us celebrate with pomp and parades, fireworks and food. For this is our national birthday!Well, not exactly.
The Second Continental Congress actually voted to declare independence on July 2nd. Only John Hancock signed the written declaration (a document, most people would be surprised to hear, with absolutely no legal relevance) on July 4th. Even after the declaration, we were merely a loose agglomeration of 13 individual states; we didn't become an actual nation until 12 years later, with the ratification of the Constitution.
The sad truth is that history is not accurately taught in American schools. Instead, we get a bunch of half-truths and outright falsehoods, packaged as "history", but hardly accurate. Philosopher and poet George Santayana wrote, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Our current global military situation is proof, for even as we celebrate our freedom, Americans in uniform are being killed overseas, not for our freedom, but for the tyranny of our current power brokers.
Let's be clear, our troops are serving our country. But the politicians who order them around are serving the cause of tyranny. And like all tyrants, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Peter King, William Bennett and other unpatriotic types are trying to rewrite history even as it is being made. And in addition to creating their own version of "history" out of whole cloth, these would-be tyrants and their minions are also working to prevent anyone else from writing the truth.
True freedom fighters have courage to stand up to those who would abuse their power. In this case, the freedom fighters are newspapers such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and others who tell the truth.
For too long, self-described journalists have acted as though "fair reporting" consisted merely of parroting both sides' press releases. Fair reporting consists of telling the truth. When journalists report that George W. Bush is spying on Americans without warrants and without oversight, when they grill his press secretary over statements that proved to be lies, when they show names and pictures of some of the more than 2,500 Americans who have been killed in Iraq and question our presence there - that is fair reporting.
The Bush administration and their Republican allies in Congress and on television and radio talk shows will continue to revise history. They will continue to attack those who tell the truth, even to the extent of calling these journalists traitors. They will continue to try to whitewash their disgraceful record. They must be stopped.
Thomas Jefferson wrote, "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." By this he meant that each generation must earn its freedom. It is time for the baby boomers, who now have both numerical and economic power in this country, to earn freedom for ourselves and make possible the beauty and grandeur of freedom to our posterity. We must remove the Republicans from power, and write the truth about recent history.
Copyright 2006, Dan Jacoby
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