Motley Moose – Archive

We remember the blue skies and the warm temperature

We remember thinking it would be a beautiful day

We remember it all being shattered

We remember where we were when we heard and we saw

We remember those who rushed in when everyone else was running out

We remember the unspeakable toll

We remember the smoke and the ashes

We remember the fliers

We remember the photographs

We remember the bereaved loved ones

We remember the hole in our skyline that will never go away

We remember the pain of our city

We remember when everyone was a New Yorker

We remember when life started going back to normal

We remember those for whom life will never be normal again

We remember that beautiful Tuesday morning

We will never forget

Those were the words written 235 years ago today by George III in his personal diary.  Of course, with transoceanic communications being very different back in 1776 than they are today, he had no way of knowing that his American colonies, already in rebellion, had formally declared their independence.  By the time the delegates to the Continental Congress voted on Jefferson’s text, Rhode Island had already declared its independence two months earlier on May 4, 1776.  Meanwhile, New Yorkers remained British subjects for an additional five days before New York’s legislature ratified the Declaration of Independence on July 9, 1776.

Something of importance did happen that day.  It marked the first time colonies broke from their mother country to become a nation in their own right.  Within 50 years, most of the Western Hemisphere would become independent – only Canada, most of the Caribbean and the northern coast of South America would remain controlled by their European mother countries.  Little more than a decade later, America’s revolution would inspire France’s.  It marked an important point in the world’s slow, but steady, shift towards republicanism, whether de jure or de facto.