Tomorrow will be Independence Day. We refer to it by the date, “The 4th of July.” Similarly, a Mexican military victory over the French is called “Cinco de Mayo”. And “Juneteenth '' is how we refer to the day that the emancipation proclamation finally reached Galveston TX.
But exact dates can be sketchy. Was the Declaration of Independence signed on July 4th or 2nd? Scholars disagree. Some suggest the celebration should be in August and not July.
Even in the Bible, there is not always a consensus on important dates. No one thinks Jesus was born on December 25th. The four gospels do not all agree on the date of the death of Jesus.
Maybe what is most important is not when something happened but what happened. A new nation was born. An experimental government, “of the people, by the people, and for the people,” began. The present political shenanigans warn us that the fate of that experiment is still in the balance.
But there is a clue to the correct date for Independence Day. Three of the founding fathers who became presidents died on the 4th of July, Jefferson, Adams, and Monroe. They and others had lived and died for something besides their own interests and egos. We need them now.
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Mark Ross
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