Thursday, October 2, 2008

Declare Yourself

Declaration of Independence.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Excellent! And not a single squirrel was harmed in the making of that video.

Utah Savage said...

Hahahaha. Excellent indeed.

Steve Emery said...

The point made before the performance, that this document has been something we've fought and struggled to reach in reality, would not have been lost on Jefferson. He was a complex and messy individual, but brilliant and idealist enough to craft that document. And he knew enough of his legacy, and what really matters, to ask for the following epitaph, which is on his tomb stone at Monticello:

HERE WAS BURIED
THOMAS JEFFERSON
AUTHOR OF THE
DECLARATION
OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE
OF THE
STATUTE OF VIRGINIA
FOR
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
AND FATHER OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
BORN APRIL 2, 1743 O.S.
DIED JULY 4. 1826

No mention of being Governor of VA, or President of the United States. No mention of the Louisiana Purchase, or of sending Lewis and Clark to explore it and discover what lay beyond it. He wanted to be remembered for two documents of freedom and the founding of a public university.

Thanks for posting this - I hadn't seen it before. And in this house we ALL love Morgan Freemen.

Utah Savage said...

Steve, what a lovely comment. I did not know that about the epitaph on his tomb. I wonder what will be on George Bush's.