Independence Day 2009

Independence Day 2009, in the blogosphere reveals the scope that the social media has advanced in providing commentary and information to everyone who has access to the Internet.

Back in 1776, word of the adopting and signing of the Declaration of Independence was spread by dispatch riders who would announce the news in each hamlet and town they passed through. Almost every town had a publisher who as a side line to his regular business would publish a pamphlet or newsletter to be read and distributed around the community. These pamphlets would be read aloud in taverns for the benefit of those who could not read as a way of engaging in raucous debate.

After Congress approved the final wording of the Declaration on July 4, a handwritten copy was sent a few blocks away to the printing shop of John Dunlap. Through the night between 150 and 200 copies were made, now known as "Dunlap broadsides". Before long, the Declaration was read to audiences and reprinted in newspapers across the thirteen states. The first official public reading of the document was by John Nixon in the yard of Independence Hall on July 8; public readings also took place on that day in Trenton, New Jersey, and Easton, Pennsylvania.[110] A German translation of the Declaration was published in Philadelphia by July 9.[111]

President of Congress John Hancock sent a broadside to General George Washington, instructing him to have it proclaimed "at the Head of the Army in the way you shall think it most proper".[112] Washington had the Declaration read to his troops in New York City on July 9, with the British forces not far away. Washington and Congress hoped the Declaration would inspire the soldiers, and encourage others to join the army.[113] After hearing the Declaration, crowds in many cities tore down and destroyed signs or statues representing royalty. An equestrian statue of King George in New York City was pulled down and the lead used to make musket balls.[114]

British officials in North America sent copies of the Declaration to Great Britain.[115] It was published in British newspapers beginning in mid-August; translations appeared in European newspapers soon after.[116] The North ministry did not give an official answer to the Declaration, but instead secretly commissioned pamphleteer John Lind to publish a response, which was entitled Answer to the Declaration of the American Congress. [117] Thomas Hutchinson, the former royal governor of Massachusetts, also published a rebuttal.[118] These pamphlets challenged various aspects of the Declaration. Hutchinson argued that the American Revolution was the work of a few conspirators who wanted independence from the outset, and who had finally achieved it by inducing otherwise loyal colonists to rebel.[119] Lind's pamphlet included an anonymous attack on the concept of natural rights written by Jeremy Bentham, an argument he would repeat during the French Revolution.[120] Both pamphlets asked how slave owners in Congress could proclaim that "all men are created equal" without then freeing their own slaves.[121]

Read more:

United States Declaration of Independence

Today in the electronic media age we are moving beyond the narrow aspect of information filtered and directed by mainstream sources whose size and influence would boggle the imagination of the Founding Fathers. This past month we have been reminded of the role that social media in the form of blogs, and outlets like Twitter and Facebook have come to play in reporting events as they unfold. The world was able to watch green clad Iranians demonstrate and die as they protested an election that reasonable people would find was a fraud.

Imagine what the world and even the average Englishman at home in London would have thought if they were able to view the opening shots of our American Revolution in Boston in 1770 or at Lexington Green in 1775 via a Twitter link. Would open war have been averted? Of course this is too counter-factual to qualify given the differences in temperament and the conditions, IE, an armed citizenry able to resist.

In honor of this day here is a look at how my fellow bloggers have chosen to honor this day.

Happy Independence Day by Thomas Barnett

Spending The Fourth of July in China by tdaxp.com

Celebrating Freedom by Steve DeAngelis of Enterra Solutions

Independence Day and From Our Archive: The Spirit of Independence Dedicated To Those Who Dare by United States Naval Institute Blog

Forecast: Death of the American Constitution by Fabius Maximus

The Message of July 4th by The Bellum: A Stanford Review Blog.

For July 4, Fix the Jefferson Memorial! by Nick Kristoff blog

What I’ve Learned About Blogging So Far by It's The Tribes Stupid! to illustrate the value of social media in a free society.

And to remind us that America is a work in progress. Freedom to Steal and The Evils of Democracy by Committee of Public Safety

Enjoy this day by taking the time to peruse the thoughts assembled above, much in the manner of our fellow citizens took the time out of their daily lives to consider the news that had just arrived from Philadelphia in 1776.

What We Fight For, and Why We Lead.

Where In The Hell Is Matt?

Books Authored by LtC Robert Bateman, USA

Economic Freedom Map 2008

Todays, two Americans, both great lovers of their country, take center stage here at HG's World. The first article is by Lieutenant Colonel Robert L. Bateman, USA, who describes himself as an infantryman, historian and prolific writer. I admit that Colonel Bateman has ruffled my feathers a few times in the past, but this time he hit a homerun, and in the words of the editors of the SWJ Blog was "spot-on." I totally concur and recommend, What I Fight For by Robert Bateman.

The story in Bateman's words:

Recently on an e-mail based discussion group in which I participate, there was some extended debate about how much language training was enough and which was more important, language training or history/culture education, for deploying soldiers. It was an informed and interesting squabble, with practitioners from every American war since Korea piping in with opinions and points of evidence. Then one fellow, a former-soldier-turned-photojournalist named Jim, plopped down the Truth. His simple formulation? "It's a people thing."

Now I am not a big one for the whole "emotional" thingeemabob. In most debates I want footnotes, documentation, and fracking proof for everything. People who know my history know this about me. But there are limits, and Jim's simple statement hit the mark. Sometimes, some very rare times, you don't need proof. You don't need evidence. You need only know how to feel, and be human. Jim, I knew instantly, was right.

.....OK, so a few years ago this doofus Seattle kid, a 20 something named Matt, decided he wanted to see the world. He took off, and it being the internet age and all, he updated his friends with short snippet videos from all over. The hook was that all of his friends firmly believed that this fellow, Matt, was quite possibly the worst dancer in all of human history.

They were probably right.

But because young Matt had a sense of humor, the snippet videos he sent to his friends from around (that time) South and SE Asia, were all of him dancing his somewhat, ahhhh, unique "dance" in various locals.

Then somebody tied all the videos together. It went "viral"...meaning that people across the planet watched it. Millions upon millions of them. Including some very saavy marketers at an Australian gum company called "Stride." They wrote to Matt and said, "Hey mate, like to do it again on our dime?" So Matt went around the world again, doing his doofy dance. That video was even bigger. Matt was inundated with mail, and Stride saw a global marketing boost, so they (being Aussies) said, "Double down mate." And Matt fused the two...all of the e-mail he had from around the planet...people who loved his video, and a travel expense account that his unemployed butt could have never supported.

This video was the upshot: Where The Hell is Matt?

And THIS, ladies and gentlemen, is what we fight for. Or at least it is one part of what I fight for. Your mileage may vary, but for me, the vision of the world that this dumb-ass, 20-something, no-talent Muldoon gave us through his genius is enough. Our world is farked up, or at least large parts of the world...the parts that we Soldiers (and our brothers, the Marines) see, are often farked up. But young Matt, with this effing magnificent, transcendent, unifying-the-whole-goddamned-planet vision, which he demonstrated to the world all by his lonesome far better (judging by the 26 million hits on this video) than DoD, or State, or than any part of our government ever has, is a vision of the planet that represents what I want for our collective future.

My friend Jim is right. "It's a People Thing."

I hope this is what you fight for as well. Regardless of your nationality.

Watch this video.

Colonel Bateman gets it totally right. The essence of this story goes hand in hand with this next post by Thomas Barnett in his weekly column. His topic is that America's role has not diminished so much that it is poised to reclaim the traditional role of moral leadership, that we have had for the past century.

Barnett begins:

Wise men tell Americans that our nation no longer leads this world: We bankrupted ourselves first ideologically through unilateralism, then militarily through "global war," and now financially through the debt crisis. Rising great powers, we are told, now lead the way.

But where do we locate this new leadership?

In Europe's self-absorption over its rising Muslim quotient?

In Russia's self-inflicted economic penance for its smackdown of Georgia?

In India's crippling obsession with Pakistan?

In China's super-cooling economy and the social unrest it'll trigger?

In Japan's - whatever Japan is doing nowadays?

So which foreign leader has captured the world's attention with his promise of changed leadership?

Read the whole column to find out.

Barnett: World still needs America to lead

Barnett closes with this observation:

We can't borrow any more and thus can't police anywhere else without a dramatic renegotiation of that great power compact.

Furthermore, both aging West and rising East must come together to create and nurture markets among globalization's bottom-of-the-pyramid populations, for there will be found, in China's and India's rural interior as well as Africa's untapped labor pools, tomorrow's dramatically expanded global middle class. That's where our economic competition with China truly lies: seeing who captures the most new markets in coming years.

In the end, this unfolding drama we call globalization cannot advance without its chronically ambivalent lead - its Hamlet. For, if America does not lead the world's great powers against today's sea of troubles, there will be no fortunes preserved - much less won - and only further slings and arrows to be suffered.

These two converging ideas represent the best America has to offer the world. The crusty, evidence demanding soldier-historian Bateman gets it. Barnett has been preaching this message for the past two decades. To see the pen and the sword both understand, that it is in the words of Bateman's friend Jim, "It's a people thing" the future however currently in doubt, will sail on and our human resilience will meet the challenge.