“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.” - Thomas Paine
Happy Fourth of July!
Today, as it is Independence Day for the USA, something appropriate. A march by John Philip Sousa, the famous “Stars and Stripes Forever”. This is one of my favourite Souza marches, especially the lyrical second part beginning at 1:10.
And to stay in an American mood, today is also the birthday of Stephen Foster (1826 – 1864), the “Father of American music” and composer of many classic songs such as “Oh, Susannah!”, “Old Folks at Home”, Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair”, “Camptown Races”, etc. Here is a lovely lullaby, “Beautiful Dreamer”, sung by another great Roy Orbison:
Enjoy your weekend!
Thank you for the blog. I can really identify with the quote by Thomas Paine. Yesterday, I watched episodes one and two of an HBO docudrama of John Adams. It won a lot of praise and awards when it was first shown. And I was pleased to see that Abigail Adams got equal billing with the founding fathers.
ReplyDeleteWhat I found very interesting about this particular take on the lead up to our Declaration of Independence (god knows the subject has been done and redone by Hollywood) the many weighty issues that confronted the colonies and those attempting to lead them.
There is no greater burden then great opportunity. And we again sit on a cusp. History will decide if we do right or wrong. I heard an interesting term yesterday from the talking heads - social democracy. A middle ground between democracy and socialism or a democracy with regulations and laws to protect the many from the few (i.e. big investment banks).
It is a very interesting thought and I find myself wondering what John Adams and Thomas Jefferson would think. And most especially Abigail.