A short (true) story for the weekend

When I was in 10th grade (American history) our teacher assigned us to poll local residents on their degree of agreement with the following statement, by hanging around the polling places in our town on Election Day. The statement was this:

"..to secure these rights [life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness], governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. [But] whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the RIGHT of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness."

What a ration of abuse we took in our poll! Voter after voter opined that we were crazy kids, bent on revolution (yeah!), and that such ideas had no place in a law-abiding society. (It was the 70s, but the memory of the 60s was still fresh.) A few tried to have our little polling experiment shut down by the authorities.

And that is how Needham's Corner, at the tender age of 15, realized that the electorate had no idea wtf they had tacitly agreed to by being citizens in this amazing country, and a part therefore of this amazing experiment in democracy. (Mrs. Doyle was an inspired teacher - what would happen if teachers assigned this today??)

So, beyond the fireworks, and the flag, and the hot dogs and good ol' 'merican beer, I invite you to take a moment this weekend and reflect on the last 233 years. We have not been invaded, nor our villages fire-bombed and our people massacred. We are free to gather in the streets and in meetings and online to express our opinions about our leaders and government. Our press (when they are not hunting the elusive almighty dollar: Nelson, nota bene!) can report the facts and express their opinions. We can worship as we like. We can petition the government about our grievances. All these freedoms are guaranteed to us in our Constitution.

Perhaps we take them for granted, yet these freedoms were hard-won and defended with blood. These blogs (annoying as they can be) are symbols of these freedoms. Blog on, patriots!