Start a new ritual…
Recite the Preamble of the Constitution during fireworks

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I’m into relatively quiet celebrations myself. But there is one ritual to which I am faithful annually. When the “rockets red glare and bombs bursting in air” commence for 4th of July celebrations… whether I am there to watch, or just hear in the distance in the quiet of the eve… I always recite the Preamble of our US Constitution. (I guess because these senior moment brain cells can’t manage to retain the 273 words to the Introduction/Preamble of the Declaration…)

I do so specifically to remind me that the 4th of July is not about the BBQs we enjoy, or the colors dancing in the sky that we never associate with bombs of war, but instead fill us with awe and excitement. These simple pleasures of our daily lives are merely the fruits of what many brave souls secured for us when thirteen colonies decided to defy England, and create a new nation on July 4th, 1776.

Resulting from our predecessors’ signatures on the Declaration of Independence, and their extraordinary dedication to creating “the land of the free, and home of the brave,” our current US Constitution – creating an entirely unique government of “We the people” – was drafted 11 years later.   Our place in history as a nation was born.

As a child of 1950s-60s education, we were required to memorize the Preamble to the Constitution… and to this day, I’ve never forgotten. So if you’re looking for a private and quiet reminder of the true importance of this day, I invite you to share my own, longstanding ritual. Perhaps we can start a trend, yes?

If you’ve forgotten, it’s posted below to remind you. And may this Independence Day be filled with the blessings of Freedom for you all.

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

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As a child of 1950s-60s education, we were required to memorize the Preamble to the Constitution… and to this day, I’ve never forgotten.

Niiiice….

As a child of the 70’s, this is the way we kinda-sorta-more-or-less memorized it:

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Not part of the preamble, but important nevertheless…

“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.”

“right”
“duty”

Them’s big words. Should not be forgotten. Ever. Even if not applicable at any particular moment of history.

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Actually, Suek, these are indeed some of the last sentences in the Declaration’s Preamble. The first paragraph in the document is called the Introduction, and the 2nd paragraph is the Preamble. The one I recite (for brevity and memory ability) is the Preamble to the Constitution.

I learned all kinds of interesting tidbits about the document’s prose, rhythm and language of the times from the Lucas article I linked to in my Add your name to the Declaration post. It’s a long read, but really fantastic.

But since you mention it, the language of the Declaration’s Preamble is knock your socks off stuff, and worthy of a repeat here in it’s entirety.

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 shown 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.

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