When I was a junior in college, I interned for a Senator on Capitol Hill and got my first pocket Constitution. I carry a pocket Constitution with me in my laptop bag and have always had them in my office and my desk at home. It also has a copy of the Declaration of Independence in there. So on this 4th of July, I pull it out and give a read. The document that started it all—a 1776 version of Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It” if you will.
Growing up in the cradle of Liberty – Massachusetts – history is all around. It lives not just in museums but on the streets with a red line in the bricks to show the way; in the pubs where the tea party was planned; in the fields where the shots were actually fired. When I worked in Boston, we were closed for Patriots Day and Evacuation Day – distinctly Massachusetts holidays celebrating those first shots of revolution and the exit of the British from Boston.
When I passed the bar in Massachusetts, I was sworn in at Faneuil Hall where I took an oath to protect and defend the Constitution. I’ve studied government and law my whole life and now teach it. I give all my students in my Legal Strategies for Start-ups class their own pocket Constitution. I joke that it will come in handy should a feisty debate on the First Amendment come up when they are out at the Keys Bar some night.
But I always keep in mind – this is the American EXPERIMENT. And it is so often messy and flawed by the people in it. And during my lifetime, I’ve actually watched my rights under this Constitution diminished, which is saddening, maddening even, but fighting it at this point feels futile. In many way, my rebel spirit has been crushed by reality.
However, those core principles do provide a guiding light; a dream of democratic principles as a foundation for governing and those I still believe in. I’ve always liked those wise witty words of Winston Churchill:
"Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.…"
Do I still feel Democracy is the best form of government, except for all the others? Sure. But I also think we can do better. And I think the blockchain may be a way forward to a more better union. I get frustrated seeing DAOs try to replicate current governmental structures – we can do better than that, while using these special, enlightened documents as a foundation.
When my kiddo was 6 years old, we spent 4th of July at the National Archives and joined in a live reading of the Declaration of Independence, with actors portraying the founding fathers and prompts to yell “Huzzah!” It is still my favorite 4th of July memory. It was pre-2016 election; pre-Covid; pre-current day polarization. It was a pure celebration of our Republic. And I think of that joy each year.
Another favorite quote of mine came after the Constitutional Convention when Benjamin Franklin was asked: Well, Dr. Franklin have we got a republic or a monarchy?
“A Republic…if you can keep it.”
Happy Independence Day America. Hope we can keep it.
