So we've been watching John Adams, the long, HBO special thingadoowop. We've only seen two of the 7 segments so far - and I'm excited to see the rest. The second segment ended with the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The film does a great job de-simplifying and un-romanticizing the events that we learned so hastily in High School - which surprisingly adds to the incredible wonder of it.
It's really amazing that we declared independence to begin with. Then won the war. And have managed to grow and stay together. That, today, we fight fiercely for our political candidates, and when the election is done, like it or not, we accept the outcome without violence.
I haven't been able to survive singing the Star-Spangled Banner without tears ever since visiting Mali for a mere eleven days. And I'll never forget the way many people I met in Lithuania spoke when they said, "You're from America? What's it like to live in America?" It is good to live in America. It is good.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Thanks
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Hi. This is Katie, Joey, Pat & Steve. We are sitting at breakfast and read your poem and this neat post about America. We loved both very very much. My mom actually brought John Adams and we just watched the 1st one. We are LOVING it and excited to watch the rest. The acting is so incredibly real. Anyway, thanks for your posts. You are a neat sister.
it is good.
So true! Isn't that series amazing? You really don't appreciate what they went through. I love the Declaration scene: it shows how simply the history of the world was changed forever in a single moment. God. Bless. America.
The miracle to me is that all those men changed their minds about how they felt about their mother country--way ahead of their countrymen. And that they had the intellectual depth to create an entirely new system of government! Do we have those kind of braniacs as our politicians today? No, I don't think so, but it makes that birth of our country all the more inspired that such men were assembled for that moment in history.
Post a Comment