Pic of the Day

Independence Day 🇺🇸

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness…

In the United States, the Fourth of July commemorates the ratification of the Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, establishing the United States of America. The Second Continental Congress declared that the Thirteen Colonies were no longer subject to the tyranny of British rule under King George III and were now united, free, and independent states.

 

Resistance to British rule began in 1765 with Parliament’s passage of the Stamp Act that became a catalyst for a group colonists to convene the Stamp Act Congress to articulate a response. Its "Declaration of Rights and Grievances" argued that taxation without representation violated their rights as Englishmen.

 

In 1767, tensions increased following the British Parliament's passage of the Townshend Acts, a group of new taxes and regulations imposed on the thirteen colonies. In an effort to quell the mounting rebellion in the colonies, which was particularly severe in Massachusetts Bay Colony, King George III deployed troops to Boston. An  altercation with these British troops resulted in the killing of five protesters in what became known as the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770.

 

Tensions continued to rise with further taxes imposed on the colonists by Parliament resulting in various protests and boycotts, such as the Boston Tea Party on December 16, 1773. In 1775, King George III declared the Massachusetts Bay Colony to be in a state of open defiance and rebellion. In April 1775, the first battles at Lexington and Concord resulted in the first major military campaign of the American Revolution.

 

In July 1776, the Second Continental Congress denounced King George III as a tyrant who trampled the colonists' rights as Englishmen, passed the Lee Resolution for national independence on July 2, and on July 4, 1776, adopted the Declaration of Independence, which embodied the political philosophies of liberalism and republicanism, rejected monarchy and aristocracy, and famously proclaimed that "all men are created equal.”

 

From that point on, men and women of the United States have fought and died to resist tyranny and authoritarianism. While the Declaration of Independence stated that "all men are created equal,” the United States have not always lived up to those ideals, but in each subsequent generation, Americans have worked towards making all men and women equal.

 

Sadly, the Republican Party has veered away from freedom into the realm of authoritarian rule. Because they have become the minority party in the United States, they have tried to curtail the rights of Americans in an effort to solidify their power under an oligarchy of the rich who have systematically begun brainwashing Americans with news media such as Fox News and Newsmax, bought Supreme Court justices and members of Congress, and have solidified seemingly wholeheartedly behind a bombastic buffoon who seems only able to spout lies and grievances.

 

We must continue to fight tyranny, oppression, discrimination, and authoritarianism at every turn. We cannot become complacent and allow wealth, greed, and hatred rule this nation. Furthermore, for all the people calling for President Biden to step aside and allow the Democrats to choose another nominee need to realize that it’s too late for a course correction and must consolidate behind Biden’s reelection campaign. If they change course now, I firmly believe it will irreparably damage any hopes of the presidency or Democratic gains in Congress. We have to support Biden with the same fervor as Republicans are supporting Trump.

 

It’s too late to change our minds now, but it needs to be a lesson that we need younger leadership in this country. Generation X needs to step up and replace the aging Baby Boomers. We need to learn our lesson. We will not be able to progress as a nation and continue to resist tyranny, if we don’t look to younger generations. We need to work to be a nation where all people are created and treated as equals.

 

LGBTQ+ Americans are especially at risk of losing hard fought gains for equality. Conservatives in this country are intensifying their plans to dismantle the framework that guarantees our freedoms.  They are advocating to infuse the government with elements of their warped version of Christianity. They want to criminalize pornography, remove legal protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and terminate diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.

 

In this Independence Day, we need to think about what freedom means to us. Is it the freedom to think for ourselves, be equal, and rejoice in our freedoms, or is it freedom from thinking independently, allowing for legally sanctioned inequality, and the celebration of tyranny. Do you want democracy or tyranny? It’s a simple choice. We must choose freedom!

 

Happy Independence Day, America!

Let’s truly be the “land of the free and the brave.”

Pic of the Day 🍒

Doesn’t this look like a great time? Eating fresh cherries while working on your tan at the beach…

Always remember to wear sunscreen!

One More Day

There’s only one more day until I get a four-day weekend because of the Fourth of July holiday. I need some time to relax, not have anything I have to do, and enjoy my time with Isabella. Other than Saturday when we might have some rain showers, we’re supposed to have nice weather. Maybe I’ll decide to get out and about in nature, but that will depend on how lazy I decide I want to be. More than likely, I’ll spend the time reading, and Isabella will spend her time sleeping. It’s become our pattern. It’s always been Isabella’s routine, but she’s a cat. They tend to sleep 12-16 hours a day. What a life!

With just one workday left this week, I am hoping that it will be a fairly quiet one today (✊on🪵). I have a document to finish preparing for an upcoming exhibit, and that’s about it. The research is mostly done, and all I have to do is put it all together in another document. But, when I get back to work on Monday, I’ll have to hit the ground running. It’s going to be a busy day. I have one meeting after another starting at 10 am and ending with a work dinner that evening.

Have a wonderful day!

Pic of the Day

Love Retuned

Love Returned
By Bayard Taylor

He was a boy when first we met;
  His eyes were mixed of dew and fire,
And on his candid brow was set
  The sweetness of a chaste desire:
But in his veins the pulses beat
  Of passion, waiting for its wing,
As ardent veins of summer heat
  Throb through the innocence of spring.

As manhood came, his stature grew,
  And fiercer burned his restless eyes,
Until I trembled, as he drew
  From wedded hearts their young disguise.
Like wind-fed flame his ardor rose,
  And brought, like flame, a stormy rain:
In tumult, sweeter than repose,
  He tossed the souls of joy and pain.

So many years of absence change!
  I knew him not when he returned:
His step was slow, his brow was strange,
  His quiet eye no longer burned.
When at my heart I heard his knock,
  No voice within his right confessed:
I could not venture to unlock
  Its chambers to an alien guest.

Then, at the threshold, spent and worn
  With fruitless travel, down he lay:
And I beheld the gleams of morn
  On his reviving beauty play.
I knelt, and kissed his holy lips,
  I washed his feet with pious care;
And from my life the long eclipse
  Drew off; and left his sunshine there.

He burns no more with youthful fire;
  He melts no more in foolish tears;
Serene and sweet, his eyes inspire
  The steady faith of balanced years.
His folded wings no longer thrill,
  But in some peaceful flight of prayer:
He nestles in my heart so still,
  I scarcely feel his presence there.

O Love, that stern probation o’er,
  Thy calmer blessing is secure!
Thy beauteous feet shall stray no more,
  Thy peace and patience shall endure!
The lightest wind deflowers the rose,
  The rainbow with the sun departs,
But thou art centred in repose,
  And rooted in my heart of hearts!

Bayard Taylor (1825-1878) was an American poet, novelist, travel writer, literary critic, diplomat, lecturer, and translator. He was a frustrated poet who, even though he published twenty volumes of poetry, resented the mass appeal of his travel writings, because his desire was to be known as a poet. Even his travel writings have been relegated to the dustbin of literary history, and he is known today solely for his translation of both volumes of Goethe’s Faust.

Bayard was born on the January 11, 1825, in the small town of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania into a Quaker family. His parents were reasonably well-off farmers and could afford to give their son a decent education at academies in West Chester and Unionville. Although he entered the printing business as an apprentice, he was a keen writer of poetry and took great inspiration from the influential Rufus Wilmot Griswold. Encouraged by Griswold he published his first volume of poems at the age of 19 and called it Ximena, or the Battle of the Sierra Morena and other Poems. It sold badly but was noticed by the editor of the New York Tribune.

He worked as a journalist on the New York Tribune and other publications, and this profession turned out to be his gateway to extensive worldwide travel when sent on assignments abroad. He even turned his hand to lyric writing for famous singers and completed a period of diplomatic service in St Petersburg, Russia.

He was lucky that his first commission was a European trip covering Germany, Italy, France, and England. He spent two years happily traveling at a slow pace, sending reports back to the Tribune. He was also engaged by other publications such as The Saturday Evening Post and The United States Gazette. On his return to the States, he was encouraged to publish his first travel book, based on his recent adventures. Views Afoot, or Europe seen with Knapsack and Staff was published in New York in two separate volumes in 1846. Further assignments followed but this time within the United States and Mexico. Taylor was now comfortably established in both journalism and as an author. He also had some success with a set of lyrics written for a visiting Swedish singer called Jenny Lind which were sung at concerts around the country. Within a few years he was off again on his travels, this time to Egypt and other countries in the Middle East. 

In 1853, Taylor started from England and sailed to India, China, and then Japan. He was back in the States at the end of 1853 and then began a successful lecture tour. Two more years passed before the next overseas trip and this time he chose the countries of Northern Europe such as Sweden. Here he was inspired to write a long poem in narrative form called Lars.

Incredibly he found the time to serve as a diplomat and was appointed chargé d’affaires at the United States embassy in St Petersburg in 1863, accompanied by his second wife Maria. The following year they were back home at Kennett Square and Taylor wrote four novels with limited success. Poetry was his forte.

Taylor confided to Walt Whitman that he found in his own nature “a physical attraction and tender and noble love of man for man.” Taylor’s novel Joseph and His Friend: A Story of Pennsylvania (1870), which depicted men holding hands and kissing, is considered the first American gay novel by modern scholars. It presented a special attachment between two men and discussed the nature and significance of such a relationship, romantic but not sexual. Critics are divided in interpreting Taylor’s novel as a political argument for gay relationships or an idealization of male spirituality. This novel is said to be based on the romantic relationship between poets Fitz-Greene Halleck and Joseph Rodman Drake. In Keith Stern’s Queers in History, it is revealed that the love of Taylor’s life was George Henry Boker, although both men married women. The American banker, diplomat, and poet George Boker wrote to Taylor in 1856 that he had “never loved anything human as I love you. It is a joy and a pride to my heart to know that this feeling is returned.” 

His traveling days were not finished, and he was appointed to another diplomatic post, this time in Berlin. Unfortunately, he died only a few months after arriving in the German capital. Bayard Taylor died in Berlin on the December 19, 1878, at aged 53.

Pic of the Day

Migraine Monday

I woke up with a bad migraine, so this is going to be a short post, since I’m going back to bed.