We are presently living in troubled times, as has happened throughout the history of the United States. But today, July 4, 2021, may we take a moment to recall those men who served in the Second Continental Congress? Those ordinary men, those remarkable men, whose vision was so strong they dared to risk being executed for treason to bring a new nation into an old world. I believe it's acknowledged what they did was unparalleled in human history.
Wherever we are today on this nation's journey,
I choose to hold fast to their belief in the future.
From my author's note for the musical drama 1776,
which I was privileged to direct for Pocono Lively Arts in 1989:
"They were men of human shortcomings, yet
they were undoubtedly the most extraordinary group of men in all of history to
have gathered together in one place and at one time. According to Arthur
Schlesinger, Jr., in his book The Birth of the Nation, they were 'fearless,
high-principled, deeply versed in ancient and modern political thought …
convinced of man’s power to improve his condition through the use of
intelligence, and unafraid of experiment. They were men of vision.'
“To this day the nation and the world are
committed to the unending quest to unfold the ultimate meaning of those quiet
phrases, written over two centuries ago by a young man in a small room in an
unknown city on the margin of Western civilization: 'We hold these Truths to be
self-evident, that Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty,
and the Pursuit of Happiness.'”
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