Happy Fourth of July!

Some people prefer the official name of the holiday, Independence Day.  I prefer the Fourth of July.  Independence Day should July 2.  In the words of John Adams:


"The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America.  I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival.  It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty.  It 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."


Most Americans have no idea what John Adams was talking about.  And they probably don't know what happened on July 4, 1776 either.  So here's the history.  In June 1776, Richard Henry Lee (a great patriot who doesn't get the credit he deserves) introduced a resolution with three parts.  On July 2, the colonies voted in favor of the first part of the Lee Resolution (the other two parts were approved later), which said:


"Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved."


So by a vote of 12-0-1, the colonies voted in favor of independence from Britain.  We should be celebrating Independence Day on the day we voted for independence.  Many people think that we celebrate Independence Day on July 4 because the Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4.  With the exception of John Hancock, that's probably wrong.  Most historians believe that the Declaration was signed by most of the signers on August 2 (some of them weren't even there on July 4).


So why do we celebrate July 4?  For one thing, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin had bad memories.  They all later claimed that they signed the Declaration on July 4.  But there is a good reason to celebrate July 4.  It was the day that the Declaration of Independence was approved (but not signed) by Congress.  In my opinion, July 2, 1776 is more significant historically than July 4, 1776.  But we should celebrate July 4.  The Declaration of Independence might be the most important document ever written in the English language.  And this might be the greatest sentence ever written in the English language:


"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."


If you know your Declaration of Independence, you might think I made a mistake there.  If you look up the text of the Declaration of Independence, you'll see the word "unalienable" instead of "inalienable."  The two words mean the same thing.  The copies of the Declaration in Jefferson's handwriting use inalienable.  Copies in Adams's handwriting use unalienable.  Jefferson wrote the Declaration, so I prefer to use his word.


So we have a problem.  We're celebrating a day that deserves to be celebrated for the wrong reason.  And we're celebrating something that deserves to be celebrated on the wrong day.  I solved baseball's Opening Day problem, and I'm here to solve this problem:  Three day holiday, July 2-July 4.  I'm a teacher, so it doesn't really matter for me.  But if you don't have your summers off, you know you want more summer holidays.  The greatest American holiday deserves should be more than just one day.  We can celebrate everything that should be celebrated on the right days.  If we end up with a situation where July 2 is a Saturday and July 4 is a Monday, Tuesday also becomes part of the holiday.  Or if July 2 is a Friday and July 4 is a Sunday, we can add either Thursday or Monday to the holiday.  That way everybody gets at least two weekdays off to celebrate our independence.

Whatever day we celebrate, we should always be thankful to live in the greatest country in the history of the world.  God Bless America!