When America showed Britain the door

Just my luck. I stepped on some chewing gum last Thursday, and stepping on gum in June is like stepping on mucilage glue. It really sinks into the treads of your shoe and hard as you might work to clean it out, for the rest of the day each step you take makes a clicky noise from little bits of grit stuck in there.

Most of it has rubbed off by now, but this being July and the first day of the Dog Days of Summer, I might not go outside again until September.

Fun fact: Dog Days was thought up by the Greeks and Romans to denote the period when Sirius, the Dog Star, rose just before or at sunrise. The Romans believed the rising Sirius was responsible for the sultry summer weather, and to avert a blight of wheat rust, they sacrificed a brown dog to appease Robigus, the god of wheat.

In this country, we scare dogs to death with a night of fireworks.

It’s the 4th of July, the exclusively American holiday, marking the day 249 years ago when we showed George III the door, “Begone, you and your powdered wigs! Take your tea and crumpets and redcoats back to England!”

“And don’t come back until you bring The Beatles!”

I have a reproduction of the original Declaration of Independence, and looking at it, I first thought two things: first, it was written in cursive; and two, that it might not be readily appreciated in this day and age. I mean, I’m wondering if the common vocabulary and reading comprehension of today are lower than in 1776.

As written, it is poetic, if not passionate: “When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”

Now, I don’t mean to be flippant or smart-alecky, but a rewrite nowadays might go something like this: “Sometimes one group of people decides to split off from another group and to become an independent country, as the laws of Nature and of God say that they can. But when this happens, if they want other people to respect them, they should explain why they are splitting off.”

And then there’s the tl;dr A.I. version: “When it becomes necessary to end one political process due to lack of representation, it’s only fair to list the reasons why.”

The declaration’s list of over 27 specific grievances was a snub to mad King George, calling him to his face, “A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.”

This makes me wonder what I would be up to if I was a colonist back in the 1770s. I mean, weren’t we all British citizens, more or less? Yes, but...

I’d like to think I’d be one to ride my mule to Boston and join up with the Sons of Liberty, or pick up a musket and enlist with the Continental Army to drive those pesky Redcoats back to England.

We drove ‘em out again in 1814 when “we took a little trip along with Colonel Jackson down the mighty Mississip…” or so the song by Johnny Horton goes.

Then there was the British invasion of 1964, but that’s a whole other song and dance.

But it seems to me Independence Day is not the only day we should commemorate with a legal holiday. I’m talking about August 2. Although the Declaration of Independence was printed and ratified by the Continental Congress on July 4, it wasn’t until August 2, 1776, a whole month later, that it became a legal document, when John Hancock put his John Hancock on it, followed by Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Adams and 52 other patriots we aren’t taught the names of.

That singularly American document continues to inspire people around the world to fight for freedom and equality.

I’ve seen many Independence Days come and go in my lifetime and have to admit the all-day wing-ding at the City of Socorro’s Sports Complex is one of, if not the best, get-together when it comes to blending food, music, and a terrific fireworks show.

As a matter of fact, President John Adams thought that the 4th of July “ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.”