Just sayin’
4th of July
Tick Tock America
Great Day
Had wonderful time with my friend George who treated me to brunch at Elmo. The french toast is amazing!. We then took a stroll on The High Line; the weather was great. We also had a great discussions.
Later on I met my friend Joseph and walked around Chelsea and the Flatiron District for a few hours. I had not seen Joseph in a while; it was great to catch up with him.
My life is really starting to change while being in recovery; for so long I kept myself in isolation only venturing out when I needed more drugs. I had lost touch with many friends and family members. Now I am slowly working on rebuilding the relationship and starting new ones. I am not missing out on life by being independent from dependency.
Truly a great 4th of July!
Soldier leaves legacy much larger than 'he was gay' - CNN.com →
Amazing story!
Cpl. Andrew Charles Wilfahrt, 31, is believed to be the first gay U.S. soldier to die in battle since President Obama signed the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” the policy forcing gays in the military to hide that part of their lives or risk being kicked out. READ MORE
What do July 4th and Alice in Wonderland have in common? →
by C. M. Rubin
July 4, 1776 is known as American Independence Day, the day that commemorates the adoption of America’s Declaration of Independence. It is the day on which thirteen colonies from Maine to Georgia, (which today consist of Maine, Georgia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia, New York, and Rhode Island) overcame many obstacles and finally declared their freedom from the Kingdom of Great Britain. On this most beloved of national holidays, wherever you happen to be, you will see patriots participating in picnics, arts and crafts events, barbecues, carnivals, fireworks, parades, sporting events and many other public and private events as they celebrate the significance of this important day in the history of the United States.
While some argue that July 4 is not in fact the actual day that the Declaration of Independence was signed, no one denies the bigger significance - 13 states declared themselves free. Freedom at last from British rule. Freedom to start anew. Freedom to pursue life and happiness inspired by Thomas Jefferson’s eloquent words that the first all important step forward had been made. Many years later, Jefferson wrote that the Declaration of Independence was “intended to be an expression of the American mind, and to give to that expression the proper tone and spirit called for by the occasion.” I also imagine the colonists thinking, much like Alice in Wonderland might have wondered in her time, “Which way from here?”
July 4, 1862 is also known to many as Alice in Wonderland Day, the day that commemorates Lewis Carroll’s first telling of the famous children’s story to his young inspiration, Alice Liddell. It is the day on which Carroll sent his child friend Alice down a rabbit hole in his far-fetched tale, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. During the course of her journey, Alice finds the courage to overcome the strange, often intimidating characters she meets in the kingdom of wonderland, realizing they are just ridiculous obstacles in her path.
Some years ago, the Story Museum in Oxford, England created an annual event to celebrate the birthday of this most beloved of children’s stories either on July 4 or as close to the date. If you happen to be in Oxford, England for what is called Alice’s Day, you will see Alice in Wonderland fans participating in picnics, arts and crafts events, barbecues, theater workshops and many other creative events as they celebrate the significance of this important date in the history of English literature. While some argue that July 4 is not in fact the first time Carroll told the story to Alice Liddell, it is hard to deny the bigger significance of this day in her life. Carroll created the story to free his heroine. In an age when neither children nor educated young women had social rights, Carroll’s fantastical story provided the first all important clues to the way Alice might claim her freedom. Many, many years later when the President of Columbia University publicly honored Alice Liddell with an honorary doctorate, acknowledging her as “the moving cause of this truly noteworthy contribution to English literature,” I believe Alice had come to fully understand the meaning of freedom. In her moving acceptance speech she remarked, “I love to think, however unworthy I am, that Mr. Dodgson - Lewis Carroll — knows and rejoices with me now.”
And so, “Which way from here?” All that remains to be said is in the pictures and in this updated sentiment, originally expressed by the Virginia Gazette (with my thanks). ”Thus may the 4th of July, that glorious and ever memorable day, be celebrated through America and England, by the sons and daughters of freedom, from age to age till time shall be no more. Amen, and Amen.”
Alice Liddell as the Beggar Maid and as distinguished honoree
C.M. Rubin has more than two decades of professional experience in development, marketing, and art direction for a diverse range of media businesses. She is also the author of three bestselling books, including The Real Alice In Wonderland.
Declaration of Independence - Transcript →
When this was read before the Super Bowl it made me feel like we needed to start a revolution against our current US government. Read it to see if you get the same feeling at certain parts.
The Declaration of Independence: A Transcription
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
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. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor