Although the American Revolution was officially launched at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, in April 1775 (in Massachusetts), a small minority supported complete independence from Great Britain for some time. But, killing and being murdered to convince everyone that the other side is irredeemable monsters is better than nothing. Public sentiment was in favor of a complete break by June 1776.Now that we are 245, it seems like we should be old enough for us to look honestly at the dumb and terrible things about our lives and stop believing in absurd myths.America, Happy Birthday! Today, July 4, 2021 marks the 245th anniversary of our founding. It might seem like we'd have trouble lighting all the candles, but we can still use the Sikorsky S-97 Raider downdraft, a prototype attack helicopter that has two rotors which spin in opposite directions.Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence, and several other people, including John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, made edits. It contains the kind of unpredictable capitalization that was common before English was standardized. King George III is accused of trying to impose absolute Despotism on the 13 Colonies. Many of the complaints seem to be the type of exaggerated language that you use to justify a decision you've made, with the benefit of hindsight. King George, for example, called in legislative bodies to meet at unusual places with the sole purpose of fatiguing them and forcing them into compliance. Americans still use this kind of exaggerated rhetoric today, claiming that the elimination of incandescent lightbulbs is exactly what Hitler did.Two complaints are the most important parts of the declaration. One made it into the final version, and one did not. One of the last entries on the list of indictments of George is the one that made it into the final version. It is this complaint that caused the declaration to be deleted. It is possible that he has never heard of George Washington. He once said to a friend that Native Americans in the Americas were just as prey as wolves, despite their differences in form.There is also the clause regarding slavery in Jefferson's initial draft of the declaration. Jefferson said that King George had waged a cruel war against the human nature, violating their most sacred rights, and capturing and transporting them to slavery in another part of the world. It is not presentism to judge those who participated in it. We impose our moral standards on the past.Jefferson owned at most 600 slaves in his lifetime. He must have understood that they weren't working on his plantation because they wanted to give him more time for philosophical thinking. Jefferson completed the circle by condemning King George for encouraging those people to rise in arms and buy that liberty which he had denied them. He also murdered the people who he obtruded to Jefferson's plantation. These enslaved people were now made to believe that it was horrible to be enslaved by King George, something they would never have discovered on their own. This was Tyranny at its most pure form.In 1821, Jefferson wrote that in agreement to South Carolina's and Georgia's removal of the slavery clause, the entire Continental Congress had done so. My belief is that our Northern brothers felt a bit tender under these censures. Although they had very few slaves, their people were quite significant carriers of them to others. GOP controlled state governments today might try to ban Jeffersons first point, but highlight his second to own the books. New York City was the capital of liberalism. It had one of America's largest slave markets on Wall Street during the 18th century. Many streets are named after famous families who made a fortune in the trade.This does not mean that the U.S. is unique in its abysmalness. Other countries' foundings were equally bloody and hypocritical. It does not mean that we shouldn't boast about our unique goodness, but it does mean that we need to be careful not to.There are many good parts to the Declaration of Independence. They are so inspiring that Ho Chi Minh copied them when he wrote the Proclamation of Independence for Vietnam. America was so moved by the Declaration of Independence that we even considered giving France nuclear weapons to drop on Vietnam a few years later.Today's declaration is located at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. Although it's not legible, it's worth a visit to get a sense of our pasts. It was not created by perfect angels. Instead, it was made by people who were as confused, sweaty, and sometimes drunk as us. They had a lot of faults, but also had noble aspirations. We can also change the world if they did it, which they certainly did.
