By Vincent F. Safuto Staff writer
July 15, 2002
I f there's one phrase I've had ringing in my ears in my life, it's the admonition, usually from someone in authority, to "quit complaining."
It's one I've gleefully ignored. When I worked for the post office, I took my complaints and ideas right to the tippy top of the organization by daring to directly address the postmaster general in letters detailing management incompetence, misconduct and corruption.
Usually, I'd get an angry letter from some lower-level functionary, demanding that I stop bothering the boss with things he'd rather not know about, and occasionally relaying threats of dire consequences.
Which brings me to Independence Day. The festivities should include a reading of the Declaration of Independence, a brilliantly reasoned list of complaints and grievances.
Most people know the first words and perhaps the last words, and that John Hancock signed his name large so King George III would be sure to see it. But how many people have really read this document?
My blood stirs as Thomas Jefferson lists, one after another, the offenses the king committed: the usurpations, the violations of rights. The anger and frustration show in every word, as a system of governance hitherto never successfully challenged is taken apart phrase by phrase.
What did the representatives at the Continental Congress want? Their rights. Their rights as Englishmen. And if they couldn't have those rights from the current boss, why they'd set up their own nation and secure those rights for themselves and their fellow citizens.
I marvel at the audacity of these men, flinging down the gauntlet on a pre-eminent British Empire.
It's a lesson for us all that, instead of suffering in silence, bowing and scraping to a distant ruler, they did it. They wrote it down for all to see, and for posterity to wonder at, and threw it in King George's face.
We need to recognize the events of the summer of 1776 not just on one day, but every day. Enemies not only foreign but also domestic would love to take our freedom and prosperity from us, just as King George sought to effect the financial ruination of those 13 colonies.
We need to have in our lives the heart and soul of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and those brave signers when we decide that we will be the arbiters of our fate.
We need to remember what they risked everything for when we tell our elected officials what we need them to do and if they don't do it, to send them packing.
There are those who want us just to be quiet, not to make waves, to let the people in charge handle things. Folks, I have news for you: We are the people in charge.
A young man once asked ex-slave Frederick Douglass what he should do with his life.
Douglass replied: "Agitate, agitate, agitate!"
That's what we all should do, to be true to our heritage.
Vincent F. Safuto is a copy editor for the Press Journal. Reach him at (Vincent.Safuto@scripps.com).
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