What We Said Before The Fireworks

Actor Bill Barker reads the entire Declaration of Independence in full, as Thomas Jefferson — the man who drafted its boldest words, yet failed to live them.

This 10-minute video blends voice performance with period art, bringing to life the fiery letter that broke the colonies from Britain.

It’s a powerful piece of writing. As for the writer? Let’s just say history is more complicated than fireworks make it seem.

📜 Full Text: National Archives

Share
Avatar photo

Author: craigcrawford

Trail Mix Host. Lapsed journalist, author & retired pundit happily promoting nothing but the truth for Social Security checks.

39 thoughts on “What We Said Before The Fireworks”

  1. Thank you, Craig, on this momentous day.

    Bill Barker is the most amazing Jefferson-interpreter. In his regular presentations from Monticello, it’s as if you’re seeing the real-life Thomas Jefferson. He doesn’t shy away from the tough topics.

  4. https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/

    America: An ongoing struggle between our better, worst angels
    By David Horsey
    Seattle Times cartoonist
    At a Pride parade in Half Moon Bay, Calif., a few days ago, my daughter bought a pink T-shirt with a hand-printed design. As she draped the garment on her arm to dry the ink in the sun, an older woman came up to her, looked at the Spanish words on the shirt and asked what they meant.
    My daughter interpreted the seemingly unobjectionable phrase as “Together, we rise.”
    “To heaven?” the woman asked. Then, caustically, she added, “Well, you’re going to the other place.”
    Welcome to the United States in 2025, a nation where some citizens would happily send other citizens straight to hell rather than rise together.
    Politicians and pundits habitually employ phrases such as “the American people have spoken” or “the American people support this” or “the American people oppose that,” but the reality is that the American people have never been unanimous in making any choice or holding any belief. A current cable TV ad that is promoting the American Civil Liberties Union declares that the U.S. Constitution is the one thing that all Americans agree upon.
    Even that is not so.
    From Christian Nationalists to certain tech bros in Silicon Valley, there are some Americans who openly state their preference for a system run by a leader with dictatorial powers, whether a God-anointed king or a CEO with a high IQ. Right now, a significant number of Republican members of Congress are freely giving over their constitutional prerogatives to the executive branch while proposing legislation that would curtail the powers of the judiciary. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is boldly ignoring constitutional provisions that are meant to limit the power of the president and uphold the rule of law — perhaps most egregiously in the cruel campaign to round up undocumented immigrants in their homes, their cars, their workplaces, their schools, their churches and, in the case of one young woman who has resided in the United States since she was eight years old, upon her arrival home from her honeymoon.
    In this summer of discontent, a great many Americans are appalled by what they see as an assault on the Constitution and American values. Yet, plenty of others believe Trump’s policies are necessary correctives aimed at upholding a vision of America as white, heterosexual and Evangelical Christian.
    Today’s division is stark, but it is not new. American unity has been — for most of two-and-a-half centuries — an illusion. Competing conceptions of what America is all about have been manifested since the beginning.
    Back in 1775, certain Southern colonies hesitated before teaming up with the sons of liberty in the North. The Deep South’s planter aristocracy first had to judge whether their slave system would fare better under a decentralized American government or under the continuing rule of the British king. For the next nine decades, white Americans in the South enslaved other Americans whose skin was dark until American armies in blue and gray fought each other in a horrifically bloody war that led to the abolishment of slavery.
    The Civil War, however, did not end the stark divisions in this country. For the following century, the Southern states reconstituted a system of oppression that was as vicious as slavery. Thousands of Black Americans were lynched and otherwise terrorized. They were kept in poverty and in their place, unless they could migrate north in search of a better life. It took the courage of a small legion of young civil rights activists who were ready to put their lives on the line to finally defeat the Jim Crow system.
    It may have been in the South where divisions over the nature of America were most pronounced, but, as my friend Timothy Egan revealed in his book, “A Fever in the Heartland,” the Ku Klux Klan was a truly national organization in the 1920s. In states such as Indiana, the KKK took full control of the levers of government. My own father told the story of how a cohort of hooded KKK members marched into a band concert at his high school and presented the principal with an American flag.
    That was in 1929 in Mount Vernon, Wash.
    We tend to think of America as most united during the Second World War. In truth, before the war there were millions of Americans led by prominent citizens, such as Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh and Chicago Tribune publisher Robert McCormick, who believed the U.S. should not fight the Nazis or rescue oppressed Jews in Germany’s empire. Pro-Nazi groups were active from California to New York; the most extreme plotted to overthrow the U.S. government. There were even members of Congress who actively disseminated pro-Nazi propaganda. And, even after Hitler’s defeat, there were American politicians who opposed the Nuremberg trials that held Nazi leaders accountable for their atrocities.
    Wisconsin’s Republican Sen. Joseph McCarthy is most famous for his bogus investigations into alleged communists in the federal government in the early 1950s. But a less known fact is that, in the late ‘40s, the senator took the side of a group of German soldiers who had executed American prisoners of war. McCarthy promoted the Nazi conspiracy theory that the execution was fake news and that the Germans had actually been tortured by American soldiers with suspiciously Jewish names.
    McCarthy, for a time, was one of the most popular men in America.
    These are just a few of countless disturbing episodes from our history and I bring them up, not to put a cloud over the celebration of our 249th Fourth of July, but as a reminder that Americans have lived through many dark periods. The United States is in so many ways a good and great country, but our goodness and greatness are not a result of some fabled unity, they are the result of the ongoing struggle between the better angels of our nature and the worst.
    Perhaps it is the spirit of 1775, rather than the formal independence of 1776, to which we must rally today. It was 250 years ago in 1775 that our revolution began in great uncertainty. We are now in another time of uncertainty and our best hope lies in carrying forward our revolution. As I have told my daughter since she was a teenager, the struggle never ends.
    And, as she would say, “Together, we rise.”

    Liberty-ONLINE

  5. Yes Ivy, Barker corned the market on doing Jefferson. I am cutting 30 sec shorts of his readings with my edits of period art.
    🔥 The opening spark →

  11. Monticello is about to start a live stream on FB for any who care to tune in.

    Ken Burns is speaking.

    Naturalization Ceremony.

  12. Even though the sale of public lands was removed from this bill (thanks to the Senate parliamentarian), they will try to sell off this country in bits and pieces.

    Orange Adolf got a huge tax break yesterday, on all of the crypto he’s made since January. What I don’t understand is if someone sells their cryptocrap and gets real US dollars, does the tax break vanish? I also don’t understand that if the crypto gains were just fees for his cryptocrap, which would be in US dollars, does that qualify him for the tax break?

    Now that fossil fuels are back, baby, China will lead the world in wind and solar. Yeah, MAGAt Repugz gave China a big win yesterday.

    BB & anyone with antenna TV, STORY TV is airing the US Revolution all day. It’s probably the same on HISTORY TV for those with cable.

    We will need to be revolutionaries to overcome this administration. Protests. Boycotts. Strikes.

    We will need help from the rest of the world. The US is in the grasp of fascists. Sanctions. Other?

    Happy 4th. Well, 4th.

  14. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/del-monte-files-for-bankruptcy-as-its-canned-fruit-and-vegetable-sales-slide

    Del Monte Foods, the 139-year-old company best known for its canned fruits and vegetables, is filing for bankruptcy protection as U.S. consumers increasingly bypass its products for healthier or cheaper options.

    Grocery inflation also caused consumers to seek out cheaper store brands.

    And President Donald Trump’s 50% tariff on imported steel, which went into effect in June, will also push up the prices Del Monte and others must pay for cans.

  15. Glad I watched. Hadn’t known a naturalization ceremony is a Court Proceeding. Speeches are inclusive in tone. 🇺🇸❤️

    The newly sworn citizens are speaking, very moving.🙏🏻

    Court is adjourned. 🇺🇸

  16. Happy 4th, formerly a traditional greeting in the U.S.
    Now that we are formally in the fascist state under the fist of a demented, delusional, diseased and senile moron (true use of the word) we no longer need to try to not see this day. It is planning for what to do when he no longer is dear leader.

    Will Vance take the oath? Or will we be in a different form of government? Will the thirty percent take their guns to attempt to force the seventy percent to accept someone else. Apocalyptic? I tend to think Vance, with some questions about his fitness for office, something different than sfb as he is not insane.

  17. finished the series, 4 shorts and a full length video…

    🇺🇸 They put tyranny on trial — with receipts.
    Every line still hits. Some harder than ever.
    🎙️ Featuring Bill Barker as Thomas Jefferson
    🧠 Relevance by… 2024
    📜 Watch the full reading or hit the highlights →
    Declaration: Words That Still Hit

  18. Happy 4th everyone!

    Rick and I are going to a family reunion at the family camp. Despite what’s happening politically, I feel thankful for what I’ve got and will celebrate it.

  20. i feel like a Von Trapp

    especially because of my angelic voice

    but also because i’m watching my country be consumed by fascism

  21. bid- unfortunately The Revolution is on a channel my little antenna does not pick up.

    And another thing – mangomoron was spewing, in a senile random way, some thoughts about redecorating the Oval Office into something beautiful, with lots of gold and garbage. The very sad thing is all that crap becomes “presidential history’ and has to be stored forever. He fought that in the first terror so we can expect the fight again, probably by jr.

  23. The following is an essay by Ken White, author of The Pope Hat Report.
    Sorry for the length but I couldn’t edit it without taking away from it’s message. Craig If it is too long for the comment section remove it and just leave the link.
    Jack

    THE FOURTH OF JULY

    Nearly thirty-five ago, in the hot summer of 1992, I was working as an extern for Judge Ronald S.W. Lew, a federal judge in Los Angeles. One day in early July he abruptly walked into my office and said without preamble “Get your coat.”

    Somewhat concerned that I was about to be shown the door, I grabbed my blazer and followed him out of chambers into the hallway. I saw he had already assembled his two law clerks and his other summer extern there. Exchanging puzzled glances, we followed him into the art-deco judge’s elevator of the old Spring Street Courthouse, then into the cavernous judicial parking garage. He piled us into his spotless Cadillac and drove out of the garage without another word.

    Within ten awkward, quiet minutes we arrived at one of the largest VFW posts in Los Angeles. Great throngs of people, dressed in Sunday best, were filing into the building. It was clear that they were families — babes in arms, small children running about, young and middle-aged parents. And in each family group there was a man — an elderly man, dressed in a military uniform, many stooped with age but all with the bearing of men who belonged in that VFW hall. They were all, I would learn later, Filipinos. Their children and grandchildren were Filipino-American; they were not. Yet.

    Judge Lew — the first Chinese-American district court judge in the continental United States — grabbed his robe from the trunk and walked briskly into the VFW hall with his externs and clerks trailing behind him. We paused in the foyer and he introduced us to some of the VFW officers, who greeted him warmly. He donned his robe and peered through a window in a door to see hundreds of people sitting in the main hall, talking excitedly, the children waving small American flags and streamers about. One of the VFW officers whispered in his ear, and he nodded and said “I’ll see them first.” The clerks and my fellow extern were chatting to some immigration officials, and so he beckoned me. I followed him through a doorway to a small anteroom.

    There, in a dark and baroquely decorated room, we found eight elderly men. These were too infirm to stand. Three were on stretchers, several were in wheelchairs, two had oxygen tanks. One had no right arm. A few relatives, beaming, stood near each one. One by one, Judge Lew administered the naturalization oath to them — closely, sometimes touching their hands, speaking loudly so they could hear him, like a priest administering extreme unction. They smiled, grasped his hand, spoke the oath as loudly as they could with evident pride. Some wept. I may have as well.

    One said, not with anger but with the tone of a dream finally realized, “We’ve waited so long for this.”

    And oh, how they had waited. These men, born Filipinos, answered America’s call in World War II and fought for us. President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked the men of the Philippines to fight, promising them United States citizenship and veterans benefits in return. 200,000 fought. Tens of thousands died. They weathered the brutal conditions under Japanese occupation, fought a valiant guerrilla war, and in some cases survived the Bataan death march.

    In 1946, Congress reneged on FDR’s promise. Filipino solders who fought for us and their families were not given their promised citizenship, let alone benefits. Many came here anyway, had children who were born U.S. citizens, and some even became citizens through the process available to any immigrant. But many others, remembering the promise, asked that it be kept. And they waited.

    They waited 54 years, until after most of them were dead. It was not until 1990 that Congress finally addressed this particular stain on our honor and granted them citizenship. (Their promised benefits were not even brought to a vote until 2008, when most of the happy men I saw that day were dead.) Hence this July naturalization ceremony.

    After Judge Lew naturalized the veterans who were too infirm to stand in the main ceremony, he quickly took the stage in the main room. A frantic, joyous hush descended, and the dozens of veterans stood up and took the oath. Many wept. I kept getting something in my goddam eye. And when Judge Lew declared them citizens, the families whooped and hugged their fathers and grandfathers and the children waved the little flags like maniacs.

    I had the opportunity to congratulate a number of families and hear them greet Judge Lew. I heard expressions of great satisfaction. I heard more comments about how long they had waited. But I did not hear bitterness on this day. These men and their children had good cause to be bitter, and perhaps on other days they indulged in it. On this day they were proud to be Americans at last.

    Without forgetting the wrongs that had been done to them, they believed in an America that was more of the sum of its wrongs. Without forgetting 54 years of injustice, they believed in an America that had the potential to transcend its injustices. I don’t know if these men forgave the Congress that betrayed them and dishonored their service in 1946, or the subsequent Congresses and administrations too weak or indifferent to remedy that wrong. I don’t think that I could expect them to do so. But whether or not they forgave the sins of America, they loved the sinner, and were obviously enormously proud to become her citizens.

    I am grateful to Judge Lew for taking me to that ceremony, and count myself privileged to have seen it. I think about it every Fourth of July, and more often than that. It reminds me that people have experienced far greater injustice than I ever will at this country’s hands, and yet are proud of it and determined to be part of it. They are moved by what Lincoln called the better angels of our nature to believe in the shared idea of what America should be without abandoning the struggle to right its wrongs. I want to be one of them.

  24. I’m torn today. I have this feeling that the America I grew up in and have loved is in the rear view mirror. 16 months from now I may have a different view but for now I’m not optimistic about the future of this country. But because I could be wrong, Happy 4th.

  25. Pogo
    I look at the world I grew up in and say “thank God” it is gone. God, the racism, sexism that came out of our mouths is hard to describe to a modern listener. Yes, it came out of our mouths, each one of us, there is no boomer out there who is sin free, fortunately we changed. It is a better world for it.
    Jack

  26. About Renee’s meme, When you know whoever is in charge is going to screw you anyway, getting some of your own back so others are just as fucked as you are may be the only satisfaction you get.
    I know that old guy in that meme, he has children and grandchildren he is worried about and there ain’t nobody wanting to help in any real way.

    Jack

  27. In the most republican counties in this state for every 6 voters that walk though the door one is a Democrat. That is where you start building your movement, not some performance art “protest” movement. Protests get attention but they don’t build movements. Real movements are built on the retail level, in neighborhoods one voter at a time. Republicans learned this and do it well.
    Jack

  28. It is worth remembering Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both died on the same day, the 50th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

    James Monroe also died on July 4.

    Today I am remembering my daughter today whose birthday it would be if she was still here.

  29. In the most republican counties in this state for every 6 voters that walk though the door one is a Democrat

    It’s because it’s very hard to go against the herd and most people don’t have it in them

  30. what liberals did wrong was make college prohibitively expensive and a status symbol

    you got a bunch of dummies running around now that you have to share a society with, smarty-pantses

  33. jack, thanks for that Ken White essay. when I read it couldn’t help but think of the Latinos who served in the military and promised a pathway to citizenship now being rounded up by ICE or these folk who put their lives on the line for our troops in Afganistan:
    https://youtu.be/hfQFslLhynE?si=V1gifTlo3FcoM8TB

    In mid-April, the Trump administration announced plans to revoke 9,000 Afghans’ temporary protected status (TPS), which currently protects them from being deported to dangerous and unstable countries. TPS also allows those under its protection to seek lawful employment, a critical need for impoverished immigrants.
    Last week, the Department of Homeland Security sent emails to Afghan refugees telling them to “self-deport” back to Afghanistan. At the same time, according to multiple people active in the Afghan-American community who requested anonymity due to fear of reprisals, two Afghan refugees were improperly detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and remain in custody.
    […]
    While America’s Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program receives significant media attention, most Afghans in the United States are protected by TPS or humanitarian parole. The SIV program, initially established in 2006 for interpreters, was later expanded to include any Afghan who had worked for the U.S. government for at least a year. This program provides a pathway to legal permanent residence. There is no similarly structured pathway for those here under TPS, although they can apply for a green card.
    Some of the people potentially facing deportation are dear personal friends of mine—including women and children, female commandos and pilots—as well as men who stood by America’s combat veterans for twenty years of war. Lieutenant General Haibitullah Alizai, the last head of the Afghan National Army, is the co-founder of the Afghan-American Veterans Alliance and has been an exemplary guest in America. When he isn’t working tirelessly to support his family, he writes passionately and speaks publicly about the need to support those the United States abandoned—for his country’s benefit as well as America’s.
    Should any trusted Afghan ally be deported, the Taliban will almost certainly execute them. Over the last three years, the Taliban has executed a stealth decentralized campaign targeting Afghans who worked with the United States. The Taliban and al Qaeda run Afghanistan now. And they have brought back all of their greatest hits: public executions, floggings, and government-sponsored sexual assaults.

  36. Jack, I hear you. Yes, certainly the racism and sexism of our youth was wrong. I know my childhood attitudes on those issues changed, and I know yours did too. But over the last 50 years it felt like that was changing nationally, and thankfully so. Arc of justice and all that. Well, seems a whole lot like we’ve made a u-turn and are back in the early 60s, and it pisses me off. Maybe it was just snoozing. I tend to think not. I believe the pot’s been stirred and the RW has taken up the mantle of the pre 60s & 70s and all 3 branches of our government have embraced it.

  37. NBC just aired the first winter Olympics ad.

    When it’s time for the 2028 Olympics, I hope they decide to hold it someplace other than the US. Can’t you just see the MAGAts goose-stepping through the opening ceremony.

  38. OK, they are doing the medley of military songs & now there’s a Space Force song. Huh.

  39. well, I just heard on BBC that Black Sabbath is playing its final show ever next week

    RIP 🦇

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

The maximum upload file size: 100 MB. You can upload: image, audio, video, document, spreadsheet, interactive, text, archive, code, other. Links to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other services inserted in the comment text will be automatically embedded. Drop files here