Sylvanna Devlin

The anniversary day the declaration of independence was signed.

It’s easy now to miss just why that’s significant and in what way is this holiday more than backyard barbecues and sparklers.

Don’t get me wrong. This are awesome things.

I am vegan but I ate meat when my body wasn’t as big an asshole.

Ahh the classic American German hamburger

Ahhhh

Well America improved on the hot sandwiches

But my younger fellow countrymen might miss the big deal.

Some guys declared independence a very long time ago and now we shoot off fireworks? What gives. Why do we even celebrate a dusty old document. It’s not like it was the constitution.

Think about a parent, teacher, boss, soon to be exe, actual exes, some other authority making you wriggle.

Otherwise know in your head by some variety of “that asshole”

Imagine you get a hint of what it’s like to live without that fucking asshole. You moved out, moved on, quit, quit the county, etc.

You’re mostly out of their eye and reach and it feels pretty damn good. You’re free of that bastard.

But ooooooh no. They send someone to tsk and “help” you regain their favor. Just change who you are now, everything you do and they’ll “love you again”.

OMFG

What nerve right? Who the fuck does he think he is?

Why should you give a rats arse what he thinks or wants?

You’re just quietly enjoying self governance and that’s apparently “not English enough”

(Okay yeah, they were assholes)

What fucking gall!

Fuck that guy.

You are experiencing a freedom to make decisions for the first time. A band has popped off you feel like you can breathe

And that assumptive asshole announces that you can regain your standing with him.

Who fucking wants to?

Well. That guy is a king. You grow up obeying that king in a fealty based structure. The Magna Carta might have inspired the lower masses to seek representatives. Thus there’s a parliament. How special “England is”

The Magna Carta was the first set of rules developed by those involved in colonization. It’s an American document (its name is latin). The British parliament was based on an idea of the colonies, self governance.

So already America is leading the way for self rule and they kinda like it.

The French Native American war has just happened. England had to send people traipsing through the colonies to defend “England” as that “asshole views everywhere Britain has conquered as an extension of Britain.

We’ve been there in our personal lives haven’t we? Some guy, girl or in-between acts like he should get a say.

You’ve bugged out. WTF?

So Britain, busy fighting invasion and flattening the colonies who resent their freedom to self govern being suppressed

What’s more troops were just forcing individuals to house and feed them like each one of those regal redcoats was a demigod or something.

What’s more. The colonists spent their physical resources putting up with this shit and good old mad king George sends a bill to “pay for the war”

Excuse me?

Dick Soldier here ate my limited food every night. And guzzled my beer. And now you want me to pay the jerk I’ve been housing?

“You can start by paying your back taxes o. Tea.”

Oh gee thanks.

We know how well that turned out.

Fuck that fucking king.

But he was the king. Don’t you see? Only by being brave enough to sail into the unknown, have the wherewithal to build and settle an entirely new village. The cleverness to adapt to east coast humidity. Hunt those big weird land birds (turkeys) and once it was pointed out, till the soil and plant corn.

It didn’t really look edible at first. But maize corn was tasty once cooked. Those were your ancestors.

Your lineage was the descendent of the courageous and bold, and new settlers surviving that awful boat.

You have the endurance you need to build and self govern.

And some assholes who just sucked your towns dry of food and resources now want to hand you a bill. Oh and by the way. Rule are rules even if they chafe. Behave yourselves.

I would like you to envision some asshole soldier forced his way into your life. You don’t know him, don’t trust him, don’t like him.

But that little oinker now says he’s the boss of you?

Fuck off.

At night men secretly meet to sign a Declaration of Independence.

A what?

No one in the known world had ever just said “you’re not the boss of me” to royalty.

“Royalty is royalty and whatever you do better be with his approval”

But Americans were basically sending the message that they no longer see the king as their leader. His troops shat on your happiness and he’s beginning to hassle those who can’t cough up. What’s more those unreasonable taxes we’re getting levied against your land. Your home. Your sanctuary.

Okay one: it was a difficult life but you were so free to do things your way creatively and as a group you were the content kind of happy.

Two: land ownership was a big part of that pursuit of a personal sanctuary and you had your own patch to feel safe in.

Fuck that king George! He knows fuck all about the colonies, how they like to run things and have limited resources.

You were kind of enjoying having a say over who is in charge.

So the next time someone doesn’t see the big deal of this holiday, understand the Americans were rejecting a king – the head of church!

Or they Feels a bit wormy about the pursuit of happiness as it lost it’s meaning by the “me first” generation. It was never intended to be antisocial.

Any escape of the yoke of the nasty boss (or whatever) will give you a taste of the kind of “breath in fresh air)

And the best of the worst “it was over taxes” Nope that part was just the most insulting

That is the significance of the Declaration of Independence.

Hold on to this history. Cling on. Because America was indeed founded by exceptional people. And the news today makes us feel anything but. Naturalized citizen or one born here.

It’s easy to get bogged down and not feel as celebratory as everyone else. Or just view it as “another day”.

Try not to lose the original reason we celebrated. The ferocity and courage. The determination our lives should be more self determined. The creativity and resourcefulness of the forefathers.

And the importance of freedom

Which is treated as a watered down word – because we don’t pause to imagine the American dream.

Freedom.

It was such a revolutionary concept the French Revolution soon followed suit.

Freedom

Let go a little today and hug the ideas and concepts that changed the world for the better.

Happy July 4th, Independence Day.