The Date Is July 4th, But It’s Called Independence Day
Every Independence Day – and that’s really what we should refer to July 4th as instead of the innocuous date, I and my family sit down to watch the HBO mini-series John Adams. While it does have some “Hollywood” added in in places, it is a spectacular recollection of the struggles – both intellectual and physical – that our Founders, Framers, and revolutionary patriots went through in attaining our nation’s independence.
It stars Paul Giamatti as John Adams, Stephen Dillane as Thomas Jefferson, the late Tom Wilkinson as Benjamin Franklin, and Laura Linney as Abigail Adams. I would say Giamatti and Linney gave Oscar-worthy performances (they did), but everyone involved with the work deserves kudos for outstanding work.
I have compiled a series of clips to give you a taste of the production. Giamatti's speech as Adams in support of independence is some of the best acting I have seen to date, bar none (forgive some of the quality, as YouTube was the source).
What isn’t Hollywood about this production is the intellectual battles about slavery and personal sacrifice our Framers and Founders had to suffer. While today’s uneducated activists want to smear the Founders as “old white men” and “slave owners,” they conveniently ignore the reality of the times. The slave trade, while abhorrent, was a global business – including big business for African nations and tribal leaders who financially benefited from the slave trade. The United States would eventually go to war – the only nation to do so – to finally eradicate the immoral practice at the expense of over 600,000 lives.
Many Americans don’t comprehend the enormity of what it took to achieve American independence. I blame those who have diminished and compromised our education system and the accurate teaching of fact-based history. Our independence was no small feat and, in fact, most improbable.
Yet, those who wanted freedom, self-determination, and individualism prevailed. That is why today’s progressives must fail in their attempt to centralize government, limit our freedoms, and fundamentally transform the United States of America from the Constitutional Republic our Founders and Framers bequeathed to us to a system of democratic socialism.
By correcting the current course this November, we can start preserving our republic and our right to independence.
I wish you a reflective and appreciative Independence Day.
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