by Richard Gwynallen
As with every 4th of July there will be fireworks, parades, and picnics celebrating what is now 242 years since the American colonies achieved independence from Great Britain. In my childhood I watched 4th of July fireworks in Japan, San Francisco, and Baltimore; from army bases, from fields, and from shopping center parking lots. It was always an exciting show. The actual 18th century revolution was only faint in my mind.
For most Americans, the historic document that lies at the foundation of the United States, the Declaration of Independence, might not be in the forefront of our thinking on the 4th of July, but it at least rests in the back of our minds, almost myth-like in its importance in the American narrative.
When I was in high school we studied American history as did every other American student. But it was the early 1970s and the counterculture movement, Civil Rights Movement, Anti-War Movement and other social change efforts were still underway. So, perhaps the era created the conditions for some of us to wonder a bit, and to look at things from a different angle. In any case, when I read the Declaration of Independence, probably not for the first time, for a class assignment, something very contradictory stood out for me. Continue reading Can there be a common memory in a post-colonial country? →