[ti:Independence Day Has Been a Time to Celebrate, to Think]
[by:www.21voa.com]
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[00:00.04]July 4, 1776 is the day the Continental Congress
[00:06.12]officially approved the Declaration of Independence.
[00:10.20]Celebrations began soon after with parades,
[00:14.44]public readings and other events.
[00:17.72]Fighting in the nation's war for independence had already begun.
[00:23.48]But it was not until 1870 that the U.S. Congress passed a law
[00:30.04]to set July 4th as the national observance of Independence Day.
[00:36.00]The law was updated in 1938 and again in 1941.
[00:43.76]Recently, another holiday to mark American independence
[00:48.52]was established by the U.S. Congress.
[00:52.64]The Juneteenth National Independence Day Act
[00:57.12]observes the end of slavery in the United States.
[01:02.64]The U.S. now officially observes 11 yearly holidays.
[01:09.56]State and local gatherings for Independence Day
[01:13.80]and other holidays are as old as the country itself.
[01:19.60]The Pulitzer Prize winning historian Eric Phoner
[01:24.40]said national holidays
[01:27.12]were a way to unify the nation after the Civil War.
[01:31.92]"The Civil War consolidated national power in all sorts of ways,
[01:37.68]and national holidays are an illustration of that," he said.
[01:43.12]Some observers point out that Independence Day has been caught up
[01:48.48]in the country's divisions from a very early time.
[01:53.60]In the 1780s and 1790s, two political sides argued
[02:00.24]over who should get credit for writing the Declaration of Independence.
[02:05.44]The document famously declares that "...all men are created equal."
[02:12.80]The Democratic Republicans led by Thomas Jefferson
[02:17.64]thought that he should get the credit
[02:20.52]while supporters of a strong central government,
[02:24.20]the Federalists, said others helped too.
[02:28.24]In the years before the Civil War,
[02:31.60]Black Americans were often not included in official July 4 events.
[02:38.28]Instead, they would celebrate on July 5.
[02:43.24]The Black writer Frederick Douglass gave his well-known speech,
[02:49.04]What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July, on July 5, 1852,
[02:56.64]at an anti-slavery gathering New York.
[03:01.76]There is discussion in the U.S. about whether it is right
[03:05.80]to observe July 4 as Independence Day.
[03:09.68]The debates involve questions about the country's beginnings
[03:15.20]and the ideas expressed in the Declaration of Independence.
[03:20.64]Some say the meaning of July 4 continues to change over time.
[03:27.44]They note that Franklin Roosevelt and George W. Bush
[03:33.20]were among the presidents who honored the military
[03:36.68]in Independence Day speeches.
[03:40.20]Last year, former President Donald Trump
[03:44.08]gave a speech at Mount Rushmore in the state of South Dakota.
[03:50.00]At the time, the coronavirus health crisis was intensifying
[03:55.80]but there also were protests across the country.
[04:00.20]The Mount Rushmore memorial includes huge sculptures
[04:05.76]of the faces of four American presidents: George Washington,
[04:12.24]Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt.
[04:18.08]Trump praised those leaders and criticized people who would damage
[04:24.20]or deface statues representing the nation's founders.
[04:29.96]At the time, then presidential candidate Joe Biden released a video.
[04:36.48]In it, he said that the country had not yet lived up
[04:41.32]to the promise of equality.
[04:43.96]He noted that Jefferson was a slaveholder.
[04:49.32]"America is no fairy tale," Biden said.
[04:53.60]It struggles with two forces, he said:
[04:57.92]"The idea that all men and women — all people
[05:02.40]— are created equal and the racism that has torn us apart."
[05:10.28]I'm Mario Ritter Jr.
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