Monday, July 04, 2022

Independence Day: Would You Have Signed?

  I wrote this several years ago and post it each 4th of July:



The document is on the table. 

Although some of your colleagues are making jokes, each one knows that the signature places the signer's head in a hangman's noose. To sign means you will be regarded as a traitor by the nation that has held your loyalty since birth. Your livelihood may be destroyed and your family doomed to a life of isolation and poverty. Many of your friends and associates will be under suspicion. Others will shun you. Your side, which has feeble and poorly-trained forces, will be fighting the greatest military power in the world. Despite all of the grand talk, the odds of success are small. Even if your side is successful, your new nation will be vulnerable to internal disputes and attacks from predatory powers. This theory of self-government, however attractive, might not work.

It's your turn. Will you sign? 

4 comments:

Bloggophereo said...

I've been reading this once a year for a lot of years now. I keep coming back.

Of course, my ancestors were loyalists. One even got himself deported to the US for opposing the crown in a scottish uprising, then got himself deported to Canada for supporting the crown in the american revolution.

-Bobbocio

Michael Wade said...

Bobbocio,

Thanks for coming back. Some of the most disgraceful events during the Revolution involved the harsh treatment of the Loyalists.

Michael

Bloggophereo said...

Oh, I won't hold it against you.

Michael Wade said...

Thanks!

And yes, I would have signed.

Michael