Slices of Life: Revolutionary Thoughts

Written by Belmont Patch columnist Lisa Gibalerio

When I was a kid, I was under the impression that the 4th of July celebrations marked the end of the Revolutionary War. The fireworks, parades, and assorted festivities all seemed consistent with our country having officially won the war and, with that, our independence from Great Britain. The last battle and resulting victory, I assumed, took place somewhere around July 4, 1776. My hypothesis must have taken root in the summer of 1976, during the Bicentennial celebrations.  

You can imagine my surprise to learn, sometime in high school, that the Revolutionary War officially ended on September 3, 1783. I remember asking my teacher a series of questions: Why did we celebrate our independence from England before we knew it was a sure thing? How did we know we would even win the war?  After all, I reasoned, England was a powerful nation staking claims in land around the globe. And finally: what the heck happened on July 4, 1776?

What we are celebrating on July 4th is not our victory in the Revolutionary War, my history teacher explained to me, but rather the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Does that ring any Liberty Bells? he teased.

Of course, I must have exclaimed, the Declaration of Independence! The document which asserts that the 13 American colonies would form a new, independent union and would no longer be a part of the British Empire. This did ring a few bells, as at some point I had been required to memorize the oft-quoted section:“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.”

For many years, I’ll admit, I remained basically unfamiliar with the document. Then I married my husband, Kevin, who can be found every 4th of July reading The Declaration of Independence. While not something I ever engaged in, I am not all together unfamiliar with traditions such as this, after all, I read A Christmas Carol every December. Somewhere along the line, I adopted his July 4 tradition and read the document – not quite yearly – but certainly often.

It really is an inspiring piece of writing. I love that our founding fathers, in expressly creating a government, declared that individual rights triumph state’s rights. I love that they took the time to write out their issues with King George III and his tyrannous regime.

“I love”??

Well, hold on a minute. For all that it did do, the Declaration of Independence did next to nothing to empower Native Americans, African-Americans, or women.  This makes me more than a little sad. For such progressive thinkers, they really dropped the ball on major chunks of the populace of the time. But these omissions of our young government were harbingers of more omissions that would follow. In fact, it took too many years, until last week, for one of those wrongs to be righted.

So, this week, my husband and I – and maybe the kids if we can rouse their interest – will once again read the document that begins with the line “When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another . . .”

Abraham Lincoln said it best when he reflected on the spirit of that document over 100 years later, hoping fervently that “the government of the people, for the people, and by the people, shall not perish from this earth.”