Taking Action 4 US🇺🇸🇪🇺🇺🇦🇩🇰🇬🇱🇨🇦🇩🇪📚📗

@takingaction4us.bsky.social

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Interests: democracy—is it crumbling beyond repair at home🇺🇸& where I live🇩🇪,history, ethics, science, foreign policy, education, communication, art, leadership, food… Big fan of 13th, 14th, & 15th Amendments My dog’s name is Ginsburg

Book cover "Takes its place as the definitive statement of the Declaration of Independence as the embodiment of the American mind and historical experience." —The New York Times Book Review AMERICAN SCRIPTURE Making the Declaration of Independence NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR NONFICTION PAULINE MAIER
Book Cover "Takes its place as the definitive statement of the Declaration of Independence as the embodiment of the American mind and historical experience." —The New York Times Book Review AMERICAN SCRIPTURE Making the Declaration of Independence NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR NONFICTION PAULINE MAIER
Book cover "Takes its place as the definitive statement of the Declaration of Independence as the embodiment of the American mind and historical experience." — The New York Times Book Review AMERICAN SCRIPTURE Making the Declaration of Independence NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR NONFICTION PAULINE MAIER
Book cover "Takes its place as the definitive statement of the Declaration of Independence as the embodiment of the American mind and historical experience." —The New York Times Book Review AMERICAN SCRIPTURE Making the Declaration of Independence FINALIST NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR NONFICTION PAULINE MAIER
The Resist! Historians, as you might call them, would not be possible if not for the American center-left's increasingly romantic view of expertise.
Service programs for Pray Like it’s 1776 Saturday,July 4, 2026 9 A.M. The feast of Independence Day Saint James Episcopal Church A Holy Eucharist using the first American prayer book on the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Black and white cover A mash up from The Declaration of Independence AND from the Anglican Prayer Book of 1776
But the day is past. The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epocha in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward, forevermore. You will think me transported with enthusiasm, but I am not. I am well aware of the toil, and blood, and treasure, that it will cost us to maintain this declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet, through all the gloom, I can see the rays of ravishing light and glory. I can see that the end is more than worth all the means, and that posterity will triumph in that day's transaction, even although we should rue it, which I trust in God we shall not.
WSJ OPINION OPINION COMMENTARY AOC Could Turn Back the Blue Wave Bumptious radicals like her are the GOP's best hope in a tough midterm election. By Karl Rove May 13, 2026 at 4:57 pm ET
THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON Emily - Thank for the wonderful letter. My mom died of cancer too, so I know how you feel. I’m sure your mom and mine are both in heaven, and are both proud of you. I am too! Dream big dreams. Barack Obama
BOOK COVER WITH A NEW PREFACE BY THE AUTHOR CREATION of the AMERICAN REPUBLIC 1776 -1787 GORDON S. WOOD
The New Yorker cover from July 22, 2024 A cartoonish painting depicting SCOTUS as 6 robed frowning Donald Trumps along with reservedly smiling Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan & Sonia Sotomayor
Book Cover The text below is printed on a photograph of President Obama on the left of the frame Standing in front of a wall with a painting of Abraham Lincoln in a gold frame in the foreground the back of a sofa and back of Cody Keenan’s head the photograph taken through a windowo GRACE PRESIDENT OBAMA AND TEN DAYS IN THE BATTLE FOR AMERICA CODY KEENAN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE SPEECHWRITER
Jefferson took all this amiably enough and suggested that people did not differ in religious opinions as much as was supposed. He agreed with Priestley, who had declared that if people candidly examined themselves, "they would find that Unitarianism was the religion of all." It was "too late in the day," Jefferson said, "for men of sincerity to pretend they believe in the Platonic mysticisms that three are one, and one is three; and yet the one is not three, and the three are not one."59 Along with the French Revolution, religion was a major issue that divided the two men. Both Jefferson and Adams agreed in the belief in a supreme being who organized the universe, and both, like many other enlightened rationalists of the age, denied the divinity of Christ and thus the central Christian doctrine of the Trinity. For Jefferson, Jesus was just "an extraordinary man," and for Adams, claims for the divinity of Jesus had become an "awful blasphemy."60 Nevertheless, Adams had a much more acceptable view of religion than Jefferson. Although he did not put much stock in creeds or ecclesiastical authorities, he never became as hostile to organized religion or to orthodox Christianity as Jefferson. Adams certainly agreed that ancient Christianity had been corrupted and debased by "Greeks, Romans, Hebrews, and Christian Factions, above all the Catholicks"_ "Miracles are
Book cover Ich bin Marie Curie Brad Meltzer Christopher Eliopoulos
when the FBI could pursue domestic security and intelligence investigations and aimed to better balance the free speech protections of the First Amendment. Even the U.S. Postal Service issued a series of reforms, meant to limit the long-standing practice of "mail covers" that allowed the FBI and others to surveil the mail of targets and suspects. One of the biggest cultural changes, though, came in the press. After a generation of journalists that had probably trusted government too much came a generation of journalists who seemed to believe that Watergates existed inside every government office and corporate headquarters. "This post-Watergate fervor left the feeling that the only government reporting worth doing was government screw-ups and venality," one media history explained." Nixon left all his worst enemies emboldened. As journalist Teddy White wrote in his 1975 history of the era, Breach of Faith, the news media in the capital would never look at the White House the same again: "If Nixon has bequeathed to his presidential successors a permanently hostile news system, he has cursed them all." White's worst fears indeed came to pass-and more."
Book cover photo NANCY MITFORD Wigs on the Green Introduction by CHARLOTTE MOSLE
The Bureau of Engraving and Printing’s director, Leonard Olijar, with Linton and Mnuchin. Photograph: Jacquelyn Martin/AP background in 2017
“Through a crack between the tarp and the wall, photographers caught a few images of letters coming down shortly after 3:00 AM—Cliff Owen of the Associated Press got an iconic shot of a worker loosening the P from the wall”
Photo of Book Cover with following Text "A deeplysatisfying account of the political world from which the United States Constitution issued. —The New York Times Book Review Original Meanings WINNER OF THE E PULITZER PRIZE Politics and Ideas in the Making the Constitution Jack N. Rakove
jeffjacksonnc • 13h A few days ago, I told you about our new case to stop the 15% rate increase Duke Energy is proposing. The interest was huge, so here's some more detail: - Duke Energy Carolinas - which serves mainly central and western NC - is asking permission to raise rates by about 15%, to begin early next year. (Note: Duke Energy Progress serves mainly eastern NC.) - It has to ask permission because it's a monopoly. That's how our state law is written. • 688 Q36 50→ 10 jeffjacksonnc • 13h - Author Duke gets to be a monopoly, but the check on their power is that rates are set by our Utilities Commission. - The Commission has five members. Two are appointed by the Governor, one by the State Treasurer, and two on the recommendations of the Speaker of the House and the Senate President Pro Tempore. All must be confirmed by the General Assembly. - Our law says rates must be "fair both to the public utilities and to the consumer." 197 Q2 G2 jeffjacksonnc • 13h - Author It uses a rough formula that takes into account the value of the utility's property, its expenses, its revenue, and a "fair return for its shareholders." 07 Q1 GI jeffjacksonnc • 13h - Author - What constitutes a "fair return for its shareholders" is open to debate, but our law goes into some detail: "[E]nable the public utility by sound management to produce a fair return for its shareholders, considering changing economic conditions.... to maintain its facilities and services in accordance with the reasonable requirements of its customers in the territory covered by its franchise, and to compete in the market for capital funds on terms that are reasonable and that are fair to its 07 Q2 G2
Hours after he was removed, Dr. Kahn received an email from the American Diabetes Association stating that his behavior had violated the conference's code of conduct. "You were respectfully informed that distribution of materials was not permitted and given the opportunity to remain in the meeting if you stopped handing out the materials," the email read. "When you continued the behavior, we had no choice but to remove you for the remainder of the meeting." The email went on to note that there are "a lot of logistics and security measures taken when a federal official is in attendance." A spokesperson for the N.I.H. did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Several of the researchers said they believed they were removed partly because the association feared repercussions from the Trump administration. A spokesperson for the American Diabetes Association wrote in an emailed statement that the conference's code of conduct "expects that all participants will conduct themselves in a professional and respectful manner. This ensures that the meeting remains safe, productive, and centered on advancing diabetes science." Dr. Kahn said that the editorial aimed to advance science. "It is no longer enough to stand idly by or work behind the scenes with lawmakers," the experts wrote in their editorial. "Moreover, it is no longer appropriate to fret about political backlash. Now is the time to recognize and fight to reverse the spiraling fall of the United States of America's status as the foremost nation in health care innovation."
Picture of the outside of the Kennedy Center with water fountains and public. Picture caption that reads as follows: For the past several months, the Kennedy Center has been preparing to close for two years of renovations. Kent Nishimura for The New York Times Subheading in bold font reading: Preparations for the closure won't easily be reversed. 1st paragraph The order halted the decision by the Kennedy Center board to "wind down" programming and "entirely" close the center's doors for two years starting after the Fourth of July. But for the past four months, the center's leadership has been preparing for a shuttered building.
Photo of cover of Jack Ravove’s book Original Meanings with the following text WINNER OF THE E PULITZER PRIZE "A deeply satisfying account of the political world from which the United States Constitution issued . —The New York Times Book Review Original Meanings Politics and Ideas in the Making the Constitution Jack N. Rakove
But this bulwark won't hold forever. It will fall. Democrats, who may sweep into power this fall, wasted their last chance at accountability. The results, unfortunately, are all around us. They waste this next one, if it comes, at their peril — and ours.
For now, Trump and his allies are insulated from scrutiny by a mostly feckless and supine Republican majority in Congress. And Trump, as we just witnessed in the Louisiana Senate primary for Bill Cassidy's seat and the Kentucky House primary for Thomas Massie's, is still kingmaker in Republican politics. He is still able to end careers with a few posts on Truth Social.
Ultimately, political reform will take the shape of a partisan project — a specific, party-driven gambit and not a broad bipartisan compromise. This could be passage of a stronger, revitalized Voting Rights Act along with a national ban on partisan gerrymandering and mid-decade redistricting — in other words, some combination of the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the stillborn For the People Act - or it could be something more radical, like expanding the size of the House (which has been capped at 435 members for nearly a century), legalizing electoral fusion or moving the country toward proportional representation. Whatever Democrats do, they must do something. If the aim of our political system is fair and meaningful representation for all Americans, then we are far from the target and receding even further. You could even, to paraphrase the words of an old socialist saying. argue that American society stands at a crossroads: either transition to democracy or regression into barbarism. Which will we choose?
Ultimately, political reform will take the shape of a partisan project — a specific, party-driven gambit and not a broad bipartisan compromise. This could be passage of a stronger, revitalized Voting Rights Act along with a national ban on partisan gerrymandering and mid-decade redistricting — in other words, some combination of the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the stillborn For the People Act - or it could be something more radical, like expanding the size of the House (which has been capped at 435 members for nearly a century), legalizing electoral fusion or moving the country toward proportional representation. Whatever Democrats do, they must do something. If the aim of our political system is fair and meaningful representation for all Americans, then we are far from the target and receding even further. You could even, to paraphrase the words of an old socialist saying. argue that American society stands at a crossroads: either transition to democracy or regression into barbarism. Which will we choose?
Ultimately, political reform will take the shape of a partisan project — a specific, party-driven gambit and not a broad bipartisan compromise. This could be passage of a stronger, revitalized Voting Rights Act along with a national ban on partisan gerrymandering and mid-decade redistricting — in other words, some combination of the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the stillborn For the People Act - or it could be something more radical, like expanding the size of the House (which has been capped at 435 members for nearly a century), legalizing electoral fusion or moving the country toward proportional representation. Whatever Democrats do, they must do something. If the aim of our political system is fair and meaningful representation for all Americans, then we are far from the target and receding even further. You could even, to paraphrase the words of an old socialist saying. argue that American society stands at a crossroads: either transition to democracy or regression into barbarism. Which will we choose?
Germany has approved a plan to spend up to a trillion euros on defense and infrastructure. It has also set the goal of creating the strongest military in Europe by 2039 (ironically enough, the 100th anniversary of the German invasion of Poland).
Grassy Meadow along the Rhein River transitioning from dandelions to buttercups
A photo of North Carolina mountains
Screenshot from the article reads: Matt Duss, executive vice president at the Center for International Policy (CIP) and a former adviser to Sanders, Slammed Democrats like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) who voted to block the resolutions, for their "cowardly bullshit." Duss noted that just last September, Coons said that "if there is no change in direction from the Israeli administration, for the first time I would seriously consider" voting to block arms transfers to Israel. "Israeli behavior has only gotten worse since then," Duss said. Ben Rhodes @brhodes. Follow How can these Dems argue they're against the war while voting to ship weapons to Israel? → Adam Carlson @admerisn The 7 Senate Democrats who voted against blocking a proposed weapons sale to Israel: Richard Blumenthal (CT) Chris Coons (DE) Catherine Cortez Masto (NV) Jacky Rosen (NV) Kirsten Gillibrand (NY) Chuck Schumer (NY) John Fetterman (PA) 1:45 AM - Apr 16, 2026
Photo of book cover PROJECT 1933 FASCISM THEN AND NOW ADRIAN DAUB The graphic shows the numbers 1933 casting a shadow that reads 2025
James Martin, SJ @JamesMartinSJ I doubt Pope Leo XIV will lose any sleep over this, before he begins his pilgrimage to Africa tomorrow. But the rest of us should. Because it is unhinged, uncharitable and unchristian. Is there no bottom to this moral squalor? A screenshot of the response from James Martin, SJ apparently posted on the bad place to a post from the current POTUS defaming Pope Leo
But trying to understand motives is something of a hobby when the focus needs to be on consequences. We do not need to understand these criminals in order to try to contain and ultimately remove them. They will not last for ever, and we need to think about what happens when they're gone - to talk about the kind of reconstruction the US will face for the first time since the civil war, the reconstruction a ravaged and corrupted country has to go through to return to functionality. But not to return to the way things were. It's the antidemocratic weaknesses in our system that created the vulnerabilities that let this happen - the electoral college and voter suppression that gave Trump a minority victory in 2016, the gerrymandering that has given a minority party majority power in Congress and statehouses, a grotesquely corrupted and unaccountable supreme court and the corrosive influence of the ultra-wealthy in a system that gives them power on a scale that is a direct assault on democracy. We need to imagine a more democratic, more egalitarian, more generous country, one that operates in recognition of an abundance of wealth that should serve all of us - and nature and future generations too - rather than is driven by the moral poverty of billionaires. • Rebecca Solnit is a Guardian US columnist. Her newest book is The Beginning Comes After the End: Notes on a World of Change
From No Kings Düsseldorf 28 March2026 Sign reading Secularize the White House
Three people, one with the guitar on stage leading singing at #NoKingsDüsseldorf 28 March 2026
#NoKingsDüsseldorf ca 90 folks showed up in the cold 🥶 rain 🌧️ during Easter 🐣 vacation 3 people, 1 with guitar on stage leading singing This Land Is Your Land, We Shall Overcome, and other protest songs
I’m NOT Clowning when I say I LEFT my HOME in the USA Because of D. TRUMP Impeach. Convict. Remove. I Want My Country & Home BACK #NoKingsDüsseldorf 28 March 2026
Boy holding a sign saying rise up defend democracy With a drawing of the American flag rising over a sea of silhouettes of humans in all shades of the rainbow
3 people singing one playing guitar This Land is Your Land on stage
Photograph of a sign for the No Kings protest today in Düsseldorf Yellow background, three pointed crown drawn in black and crossed through with red
Photo of book cover With photo of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and text FDR JEAN EDWARD SMITH
Over 9,000 Americans had already returned from the Middle East in recent days, the department said, adding that it was assisting nearly 3,000 Americans who had reached out for assistance. The department said it would help book commercially available flights in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Egypt. The U.S. government's evacuation effort came after Americans were initially urged to leave on their own. On Monday, the U.S. State Department told Americans in more than a dozen Middle East countries, including Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, and the United Arab Emirates, to leave the region "using available commercial transportation." But much commercial air travel from the region has been halted or delayed since the United States and Israel launched a major bombing campaign against Iran, prompting retaliatory Iranian strikes that have hit sites in multiple countries, including airports and other civilian infrastructure. When asked about the slow response to evacuate Americans, President Trump said on Tuesday, "it happened all very quickly!"
The account by Ryan Schwank, a former ICE lawyer who worked at the federal government's law enforcement training academy, coincided with the release by Senate Democrats of several dozen pages of internal ICE records that suggest the Trump administration has curtailed the agency's basic training. "For the last five months, I watched ICE dismantle the training program," Mr. Schwank said at a forum held in Washington by congressional Democrats. "Cutting 240 hours of vital classes from a 584-hour program - classes that teach the Constitution, our legal system, firearms training, the use of force, lawful arrests, proper detention and the limits of officers' authority." He added: "New cadets are graduating from the academy despite widespread concerns among training staff that even in the final days of training, the cadets cannot demonstrate a solid grasp of the tactics or the law required to perform their jobs." Some of the previously unreported documents released on Monday indicate that ICE officers are now training for significantly fewer hours than they did before President Trump's hiring surge. Others suggest that several training classes appear to have been cut from the required syllabus, including one titled "Use of Force Simulation Training" and others on immigration law and ICE's legal authorities. Together, the new disclosures underscore concerns about the conduct and preparedness of Homeland Security Department agents, who have shot and killed at least three American citizens over the last year. Mr. Trump's decision to order immigration officers into major American cities has led to a rise in violent encounters with members of the public, leading to fears that poor training for new agents will produce more chaos.
Photo: A defaced poster of Assad is seen outside a Syrian Army recruitment center in December, after the longtime ruler fled the country as rebels advanced on the capital city. (Chris McGrath/Getty Images) Those banners have come down, as have the images of Causescu, along with those of innumerable other tyrants remembered and forgotten by history. Putting these images up feels almost like Chekhov's Gun, the adage about drama and narrative: "If you say in the first act that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third act it absolutely must go off." When you put this kind of image into democratic spaces, spaces untouched by the monochromatic shadows of unfettered state power, you set up the last act, which is when they inevitably come down. We are in Act I, and Act III will follow. What is troubling are the unknown events of Act II.
Photo: A banner of Syria's then-president Bashar al-Assad hangs on a building in Damascus in 2012. (Anwar Amro/AFP/Getty Images) The first time I visited a country where images of an autocratic leader were ubiquitous was in 2004, when I spent a week in the police state of Syria run by Bashar al-Assad. He was a tall, clean-shaven man with no chin. His photograph was often displayed next to that of his father, Hafez al-Assad, who resembled a low-level bureaucrat with a bad comb-over. They were ugly men, inside and out, murderous and brutal thugs. Their omnipresence on the sides of buildings, on banners hanging from lampposts, on the walls of every office no matter how inconsequential its purpose, made their ugliness feel a bit like the weather. You adapted to it, you complained about it (mildly, habitually), you joked about it (tired old jokes that functioned like shibboleths). If you were Syrian, you always cast a quick glance into the shadow spaces before you paid your grim compliments to the Assads.
As with so many developments in the past year, as the country slides deeper into a new era of authoritarianism, there is a darkly comic element to all of this that stirs a mix of complicated emotions. A year ago, this would have been an absurdity; now, processing that absurdity feels like a kind of compulsory work designed to distract the mind and numb the conscience. Democracies don't celebrate their national leaders in this overtly hagiographic fashion; but now our democracy does. As the mind moves from guffaws to outrage to the reluctant acknowledgment of a new reality, the shadow world of control, surveillance and uncertainty gains ground. Photo: A banner of Syria's then-president Bashar al-Assad hangs on a building in Damascus in 2012. (Anwar Amro/AFP/Getty Images)
Photo: The new sign adding Trump's name to the Kennedy Center. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post) The advance of this shadow has proceeded with shocking speed over the past 13 months. The president, whose business model is based on branding rather than construction or development, has placed his image not just on buildings, but on season passes for the National Park Service and on designs for coins that may be forthcoming (despite a law forbidding it from the U.S. Treasury. His name has now been added physically to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (a memorial to the 35th president) and the U.S. Institute of Peace. The new banner on Justice's Robert F. Kennedy building formalizes in iconography what is already the case in practice: The president has repurposed the agency as an instrument for personal political vendettas and partisan vengeance.
Runners pass the Labor Department during a Thanksgiving Day 5K. (Craig Hudson/For the Washington Post) The banner suggests by its placement and composition a culture of surveillance. By positioning it for maximum visibility, the Justice Department has also oriented it to suggest maximum oversight or supervision of the city, and by extension, the people and the country at large. The blue-gray color scheme makes the president seem like a shadowy presence, or omnipresence, in contrast to the sunlight associated with fundamental democratic values: transparency, openness and enlightenment.
A movie director looking to shoot a dystopian vision of American authoritarian fascism could hardly find a better spot to stage a speech or rally led by the great leader. This looks like Evita's balcony, an elevated porch beneath an enclosed space with long, vertical lines that create a tight focus on the banner and the president's face. The proportions of the building, the color of the stone and the stripped-down classicism of the architecture would make a good substitute for the setting of a famous 1989 speech given by Romanian autocrat Nicolae Causescu, who lied shamelessly to his people one last time before being booed offstage, overthrown and summarily executed a few days later by an ad hoc tribunal. Photo: Runners pass the Labor Department during a Thanksgiving Day 5K. (Craig Hudson/For the Washington Post)
Photo: The banner of Trump hanging at the Agriculture Department, on June 14. (Valerie Plesch/For The Washington Post) The banner, installed Thursday, hangs between two Ionic columns that define a large porch-like space over a ceremonial entrance to the building. The angle of the building makes this narrow facade unusually visible along Pennsylvania Avenue, the most important symbolic axis in the nation's capital, connecting the U.S. Capitol to the White House. This is the route followed by inaugural parades and major marches, protests and displays of state power, including the 1865 Grand Review of the Armies after victory in the Civil
Most of the buildings in the Depression-era Federal Triangle development have an irregular geometry. The Federal Trade Commission office, known as the Apex Building, is a right-angled triangle with its sharpest point rounded off. The Ronald Reagan Building, added in 1998, looks a bit like a stumpy meat cleaver. And the Justice Department building, named for the slain senator, former attorney general and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, is a four-sided polygon with corners beveled flat. It is on one of these short, angled planes of the building's Pennsylvania Avenue facade, that the Justice Department has hung a long, blue-gray banner featuring a gigantic portrait of President Donald Trump. The department, which by long-standing precedent has functioned independently of direct political or presidential control, now joins the Agriculture Department and the Labor Department buildings as a venue for grandly scaled images of the 47th president.
But Sartori's point is that insisting on full historical reproduction sets the bar so high that the concepts can no longer travel. Fascism becomes a museum category, not an analytical tool. Sartori's solution was not sloppy comparison, but controlled abstraction: thinning concepts just enough to allow comparison without emptying them of meaning. The danger today is not that we see fascism everywhere, but that we recognize it only once it has fully consolidated— when all the boxes are finally checked.
A 4 kg black Bolonka Zwetna wearing an orange fleece with a black harness with one snowflake on his nose and two on his head.
A 4 kg black Bolonka Zwetna dog wearing an orange fleece and black harness sitting on the sidewalk looking at the camera with his head tilted to his right with a snowflake on his nose and 2 snowflakes on his head.
In Virginia today, former representative and former intelligence officer Abigail Spanberger took the oath of office as the commonwealth's seventy-fifth governor, the first woman to hold that position. In her inaugural address, she celebrated the peaceful transfer of power and called for Virginians to work together to make life more affordable and embrace progress, writing a new chapter in the state's history. "As we mark 250 years since the dawn of American freedom: What will our children, grandchildren, and their descendants write about this time in our Commonwealth's history—this chapter—50, 100, and 250 years from now?" she asked. "Will they say that we let divisions fester or challenges overwhelm us? Or will they say that we stood up for what is right, fixed what is broken, and served the common good here in Virginia? Today, we're hearing the call to connect more deeply to our American Experiment—to understand our shared history, not as a single point in time, but as a lesson for how we create our more prosperous future. And so I ask-what will you do to help us author this next chapter?"
The official NC seal is a circle that features the robe-covered figures of "Liberty" & "Plenty" in its center. Liberty is standing & holding a capped pole in her left hand, and in her right hand is a scroll on which is written the word "Constitution." Plenty is seated with her right arm extended, holding three heads of grain in her right hand and the end of an overflowing cornucopia in her left hand. In the background are depictions of mountains and a three-masted ship floating on the ocean. The dates "May 20, 1775" (the date of the so-called Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence) & "April 12, 1776" (the date of the Halifax Resolves) appear at the top & bottom, respectively, of the center part of the seal. Around the outside border of the seal are the phrases "The Great Seal of the State of North Carolina" & Esse Quam Videri (To Be Rather Than To Seem)
The radicalism of the American revolution. By Gordon S. Wood. Knopf; 464 pages; $23 and £17.50. The heavy hitter It has become fashionable to dismiss America's revolution as a self-interested, slave-preserving project carried out by elite white men. This book offers a powerful counter-argument. The revolution was a radical act that created a new kind of society and social order, Mr Wood contends. He portrays late-18th-century America as deeply hierarchical, shaped by primogeniture and religious authority. Yet beneath the surface, republican ideas ran swift and deep, eroding old assumptions about status and power. The book is not an easy read, but it is a rewarding one. For those seeking to understand America's intellectual foundations, it pairs perfectly with Alexis de Tocqueville.