What the hell goes on in New York?
It is Independence Day Weekend. And if I still had a Betamax player I'd get out my pirated copy of the musical "1776" and make my family watch it with me again.
Yes, I know. This comic opera version of the drafting and approval of The Declaration of Independence has all kinds of historical inaccuracies in it -- John Wilson wasn't a wimp. Caesar Rodney wasn't dying [yet]. Martha Jefferson was way too ill to come to Philadelphia. Richard Henry Lee wasn't going to be governor of Virginia.
But I love it anyway. And at least two bits of that play/movie's wonderful dialog seem not only accurate about then, but about now.
This first one, a bit involving Continental Congress President John Hancock and New York Delegate Lewis Morris, makes more sense than ever. [It helps to know that, throughout the play, New York always abstains. Courteously.]:
Morris: [as Hancock is about to swat a fly] Mr. Secretary, New York abstains, courteously.
[Hancock raises his fly swatter at Morris, then draws back]
Hancock: Mr. Morris,
[pause, then shouts]
WHAT IN HELL GOES ON IN NEW YORK?
Morris: I'm sorry Mr. President, but the simple fact is that our legislature has never sent us explicit instructions on anything!
Hancock: NEVER?
[slams fly swatter onto his desk]
Hancock: That's impossible!
Morris: Mr. President, have you ever been present at a meeting of the New York legislature?
[Hancock shakes his head "No"]
Morris: They speak very fast and very loud, and nobody listens to anybody else, with the result that nothing ever gets done.
[turns to the Congress as he returns to his seat]
Morris: I beg the Congress's pardon.
Hancock: [grimly] My sympathies, Mr. Morris.
Also, reading the statement from U.S. Rep. Eric Massa on why he voted against the climate change bill -- no funding for hydrogen fuel cell research -- reminded me of the pained complaint raised by one delegate who found something missing from Thomas Jefferson's draft of The Declaration of Independence.
Joseph Hewes: Mr. Jefferson, nowhere do you mention deep sea fishing rights.
John Adams: Oh good God! Fishing rights? How long is this piddling to go on? We have been here for three solid days! We have endured, by my count, more than eighty-five separate changes and the removal of close to four hundred words. Now, would you whip it and beat it 'til you break its spirit? I tell you, that document is a masterful expression of the American mind!
Indeed. Even without the songs. Read it here.
-- George Pyle/The Buffalo News
FYI George: 1776 will be on the Turner Classic Movie channel, 10:15pm, 4 July. You can also get it off the web.
Nice attempt to tie our nation's independence with the cap and trade bill... you idiot. Over 200 years ago our founding fathers (north and south) struggled with ideas that were completely foreign at the time. To declare our independence; to tell a king and parliment to take its shackles/taxes/laws and shove them where the sun don't shine. There was often loud and contentious debate. Climate change contenders and the "cap and trade" backers on the other hand allowed no debate. Scientists and others who disagreed were threatened with loss of jobs/funding. EPA reports and other documents questioning man-made global change were supressed. Our elected reps were not allowed to read, discuss, or debate the bill. This farce of legislation is not a "masterful expression of the American mind!"
Posted by: gravedancer | July 03, 2009 at 07:16 AM
If anyone believes our dullard State Assembly/Senate members or Congressmen can legislate us into prosperity and happiness, that person is insane.
Posted by: pgr88 | July 03, 2009 at 12:29 PM
The comparison is more than a little unfair. What current state legislature could compare to the delegates considering the momentous decision to rebel against the home country in 1775? Or what state legislature for that matter could compare to the delegates at the Constitutional convention some thirteen years later?
And as for the New York State Senate, have you listened to its members? They sound like ward heelers or precinct captains with expensive haircuts and endless self interest.
A few days ago the NY Times had an interesting take on the stalemate in Albany. Republicans, who lost control of the Senate during the recent election, apparently have come to believe that the demographics for the next 10 to 20 years foretells a long term minority status. And under the old Albany rules a minority in a legislative chamber is next to useless, the political equivalent of the appendix in the human body.
Hence, the unwillingness of Republicans to surrender any bit of power unless they get an ironclad deal to ensure they have rights to a fair share of the appointed offices, to the lulus handed out to members and to the power to move laws through the Senate.
Absent that agreement they foresee twenty years or more of political irrelevancy in Albany.
Thus, to hell with the current needs of towns and villages and people. They are concentrating on their own political survival.
Posted by: Barton Keyes | July 03, 2009 at 03:07 PM