Selena,SelenaKittyn said:
neonlyte said:
General Wolve stands cast in stone on ridge in Greenwich Park looking down across London sprawled at his feet. Behind him is the deer enclosure of the former Royal Park. To his left is the Greenwich Royal Observatory through which the Greenwich merdidian runs dividing the world into Eastern and Western hemispheres. It now houses Harrisons H4 watch, the first watch made to operate at sea which enabled navigators to work out precisely where they were on the worlds oceans.Roxanne Appleby said:Thanks, Brits and formerly-fellow colonials! You've been awfully big about it all ever since you burned down our Capitol in 1812 - maybe we all needed that to clear the air.
I think many here had been reading of things like Locke and Algernon Sydney, and such. Also, 144 essays called "Cato's Letters" by Brits John Trenchard & Thomas Gordon in the 1720s, (I think they styled themselves a "True Whigs") which distilled many currents of Enlightenment-era political theory into condemnations of current corruption and lack of morality within the British political system, and advancing Locke's principles of freedom of conscience and freedom of speech. Then came the Seven Years War (triggered by George Washington in a frontier wilderness skirmish near Pittsburgh - really!) , a true world war known as the French and Indian War here, because those were the chaps who residents on the fringes of the 13 English colonies could expect to bury a hatchet in their skulls, with the remarkable (an somewhat surprising) development that Wolfe took Quebec, the lynchpin of France's position in North America. In the peace negotiations it looked for a while like the Brits might give Canada back in return for a sugar island in the Caribbean, but that didn't happen, and for the first time ever the 13 colonies had no dastardly French lurking on their Northern and Western borders, which opened their minds to the concept that they didn't really need the military power of mother England to protect them. (BTW, the French and Indian War was really about who would control the Ohio valley, meaning the Mississippi watershed, meaning North America between the Appalachians and the Rockies - worth fighting for, if not explicitly understood by many at the time.) Well, then the king and parliament started acting boorishly, clumsily trying to exact some piddling amounts of revenue from the 13 colonies to help pay war debts, and acting in ways that appeared to (and did) validate all of Trenchard and Gordon's warnings, and - the rest is well known history. Well, it used to be well known, but sadly, they stopped teaching real history in the schools here around 30 years ago, but that's another revolution . . .
One paragraph!
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THAT is a lot of historical memorabilia packed into a small area - it sounds lovely, and wonderful. Being truly enlightened, freedom-loving Americans, our most treasured mementos take a different form, of course:neonlyte said:General Wolve stands cast in stone on ridge in Greenwich Park looking down across London sprawled at his feet. Behind him is the deer enclosure of the former Royal Park. To his left is the Greenwich Royal Observatory through which the Greenwich merdidian runs dividing the world into Eastern and Western hemispheres. It now houses Harrisons H4 watch, the first watch made to operate at sea which enabled navigators to work out precisely where they were on the worlds oceans.
On the banks of the Thames lies Christopher Wrens (architect of St Pauls Cathedral) Royal Seamans Hospital, now the National Maritime Museum and behind that is the Queen's House, original design by Inigo Jones, commissioned by Anne of Denmark, wife of James 1st. Unfortunately Anne died before the house was completed, something she shares with today's populous waiting for the builder to turn up. Anne was given the Royal estates at Greenich after James swore at her in public - they were out hunting and she accidently shot his favourite dog.
I tell you all of this so that you understand you would have been better remaining under English protection, with a proper history unsullied by tea bags.
Well, you have to admit that when a group of Enlightenment-era intellectuals who were also practical men and unencumbered by the baggage of class systems, aristocracy, etc. got together to figure out what principles a new nation should be based on, and to work out the details of creating a goverenment within the constraints of political, economic and social realities of the day (ie, slavery), they did a pretty darned fine job!Rumple Foreskin said:Symbols are important for any country. But for those in the Americas, who don't have multi-centuries of history to look back upon, they have special significance. Thus the Fourth of July celebration and the fixation on the flag (bless you, Selena) here in the States. Truth be told, I'm not as impressed with the final outcome of the American revolution (in large part a function of US good luck and gov. bungling in Britian) as I am by the fact that, often despite our best efforts, we've managed to hang around for so long.
Rumple Foreskin
