Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for July 04, 2022

The last thing agreed upon

You have to cut the Patriots some slack, they had no idea what Taxation WITH Representation would look like.

I think we are back to taxation without true representation.

He’s right. King George III was a loony tunes, his son was a j e r k and his granddaughter would have made a great queen but she died in childbirth.

Of course it is July 2nd which should be celebrated – not July 4th. The Declaration was passed by the Congress on July 2 – it just 2 days to have a copy written out to sign.

Our reenacting unit moves to the year 1776 from the year 1775 on the third Sunday of July. That is the approximate date that the news and text of Declaration arrived in the township and was read out to the public. The information being carried from community to community by riders on horseback starting in Philadelphia and that is how long it took to get to Suffolk County, Long Island, NY.

When it “arrives” my husband reads the document to the crowd and not the standard dry reading. There will be commentary from him and from “the public” (which modern public is welcome to join in) as he reads (he will make comments as he is reading such as “listen to this!”, etc as if he is seeing/reading it for the first time). We then, as actually happened, burn an effigy of the king. We cannot tear the king’s arms from our flag, so we raise a period Union Jack (newer flag – period appearance of UJ) at the start and then take down same and raise the local Liberty flag which was hanging with the kings arms on the back originally). (Original Liberty flag was carried during World War II to Germany by a local unit and was captured there- not sure if still exists or not as the museum it was in had a bad fire since.)

What ghost haunted King George III?

The spirit of ’76!

It was Parliament that was abusing its authority and the King let them.

Happy Indy-day Usonia!

HIPPY 4TH OF JULY!!

There were bad kings in England like there were bad presidents in the U.S.!

Oh, I am sure there are those who do disagree

Happy birthday, America!

… and gas prices are too high and …

Frankly, I would trade Washington DC for George III in a heartbeat.

He didn’t take much, he didn’t spy on us hardly at all, he mostly didn’t get us in wars that didn’t benefit us any. And so on.

Yay Arlo! So true! Happy Independence Day everyone!

I love how Arlo implies it’s a personal grudge he’s been holding instead of history.

More like a Nation of divisiveness.

The point of view of the oppressed:“What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July?" —Frederick Douglass; (July 5, 1852)“I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sound of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants brass fronted impudence; your shout of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanks-givings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy—a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour.”

Did you read “Taking Paris”. Martin Dugard?

And so, is the USA so much better off than the Canada today? Knee-jerk over-reactions seldom produce the best results.

So did Custer.

One of my ancestors served in the revolutionary army, and I have visited his grave in Kentucky.

I often wonder what he would think about the changes this country has experienced since his time

A few years back there were some who bristled at the term “American Exceptionalism” as being elitist, condescending and mendacious! The term was not coined as some egocentric boast, such as one might describe an exceptional athlete or as some nation of supermen and better than any others, but rather it refers to the fact that our Nation was founded on the principle of individual freedom and self-governance! You see, before this, there existed monarchy’s, feudalism and imperialism. No one gave a thought to the possibility that one man or one woman had enough sense to live in a society with their own intellect and industry to survive without harm to themselves or others. And they certainly had no clue what to do if they owned property!

The founding of this Nation changed that. Not only did it recognize the right of the individual to “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”, it established a government to protect and defend those individual rights! And that was exceptional!

We only all agree on that after the fact. There were plenty of Tories then, and there are plenty now.

A couple of Washington’s officers were watching the British soldiers load up to head home and one said, “We ought to keep the Scotties….they’d make great Americans.”

What’d we be today if George knew how to play us to play along..

Today’s politicians make George III look not so bad, by comparison.

Notwithstanding the fact that King George had it coming, can you just imagine what the Founding Fathers would thing of the mess we are in now?

George makes a good face, but he was too loopy and out of touch to have been the real problem. The problem was Parliament and their refusal to take us seriously.

Ben Franklin was sent by the First Continental Congress to present our grievances to Parliament, and they talked down to him like he was a naughty child. They were rude, dismissive, and TOTALLY condescending.

To THE Dr. Benjamin Franklin.

He walked into that meeting a loyal Englishman with a few issues and walked out a rebel firebrand.

Turns out the majority of Americans during the revolution were actually pro monarchy. As always, Americans couldn’t agree on anything.