Anybody remember the Bicentennial? [View all]

[misanthrope]

This Substack and all of its links stirred a lot of memories. It made me wonder how the nation as it was in 1976 would have met with the kind of hostile takeover that is currently going on.

https://open.substack.com/pub/kevinblee/p/bye-bye-bicentennial-hopes?r=56tow&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Our class headed into downtown Birmingham in the late May heat to walk through the Freedom Train, a touring trove of 500-plus American artifacts that chugged across the nation from 1975-76. I was wide-eyed looking at George Washington’s personal copy of the Constitution, Ben Franklin’s handwritten notes for the Articles of Confederation, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s robes and pulpit, Judy Garland’s Wizard of Oz costume, Edison’s light bulb, Wilt Chamberlain’s basketball shoes and so much more. They ladled out the national mythos and I gulped it down.

It firmed up my beliefs. Self-governance required diligence and education. Literacy is vital, as is rational thought. The town hall meeting was the essence of our nation, a place where all had a chance to weigh in and cast equal votes. We didn’t desire or relish an aristocracy or monarchy. Those were the values I heard in the stories of our founders.