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January 16, 2009
Every election and inauguration is an opportunity for retrospection — and that includes the important founding documents of the nation and those of ground-breaking national movements that followed. Abraham Lincoln, on whose bible Barak Obama will take the oath next week, stopped at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, where the Declaration of Independence had been signed in 1776, and said: "I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence. That sentiment gave liberty," Lincoln said, "not alone to the people of this country, but, I hope, to the world, for all future time."
A few years ago, the writer and producer Norman Lear — made famous by such celebrated television series as ALL IN THE FAMILY, THE JEFFERSONS and MAUDE — bought one of the original copies of the Declaration, printed on the night of July 4th, 1776. He toured it around the country to inspire a new generation with its message and mission through the "Declaration of Independence Road Trip."
"These people who signed that Declaration pledged their lives, their fortune, and their sacred honor, sacred honor — that phrase has always knocked me out. To be the citizens of this experiment in democracy...Sacred honor...
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That's the message and challenge Norman Lear is taking to the inauguration of Barak Obama. It's time, he says, for a new birth of patriotism as an act of personal commitment and not just sentiment. He commissioned Keith Carradine to write a song — "Born Again American" — that will be performed by singers and musicians from around the country. On its newly launched Web site you can hear the entire song and sign the pledge to revitalize and recommit to the principles behind the Declaration.
>And, don't forget to visit the founding documents online exhibit from the National Archives.
Published January 16, 2009.
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