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Storytime Tapestry Newsletter
The newsletter devoted to spreading love and cultural
awareness throughout the world.
Extra Special Treat – Hart Dowd
July
14, 2006
INDEPENDENCE DAYS
The long, hot month
of July gives us not one but three days of independence to celebrate:
Canada Day (July 1) - Canada's birth in 1867 was the result of years of hard work by the Fathers of
Confederation
Independence Day
(July 4) - In the United States, July 4 marks the day in 1776 that the
Continental Congress approved the Declaration of Independence, after three days of spirited debate. -
Bastille Day (July 14,
1789), - civilians in Paris seized the fortress prison known as the
Bastille. The British ambassador there summed up the significance of this event
in a letter to his king: "Thus, my lord, the greatest Revolution that we
know anything of has been affected."
BASTILLE DAY: A NATIONAL HOLIDAY IN FRANCE
Bastille Day, on the
Fourteenth of July, is the French symbol of the end of the Monarchy and the
beginning of the First Republic. The national holiday is a time when all
citizens can feel themselves to be members of a republican nation. It is
because this national holiday is rooted in the history of the birth of the
Republic that it has great significance.
France asserted its identity as a nation with the Revolution of 1789. On 14 July
1790, a year after the
fall of the Bastille, delegates from all parts of the country flocked to Paris to celebrate the F?te de la F?d?ration
and proclaim their allegiance to one national community. This was the first
example of a people in a European country expressing their right (in modern
times) to self-determination apart from an hereditary ruler, a right the French
claimed for themselves and then offered as a model to all the nations of Europe
and the world. This display of national unity was deliberately organized on the
first anniversary of the fall of the Bastille, the first revolutionary act by
the people against the arbitrary power of the royalty, an act that stamps France as one of the cradles of liberty.
In contrast the United States government remains today, even though it
may at times seem frail. The US
Declaration of Independence says much about the original causes of
separation from the British monarch, Parliament and the establishment of a more
legitimate representative government. American (Federal) leadership, since
1789, has always had an unbroken record of accountability, through the
framework of a written, observed Constitution. It, of course, calls for the
regular election of key officials, who represent the people. More important is
the division of powers among branches and persons. The Constitution avoids a
concentration of powers in the hands of a few persons who could, over time,
abuse those powers.
The storming of the Bastille set off a chain of events. It deserves celebration
in remembrance of all that occurred. It is not just a symbol of freedom, but a
warning about the dangers of revolution.
Hartson Sager Dowd
hsdowd@telus.net
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