作者:Michael Jay Friedman
2008-07-04
7月4日也是一个重要的公民日，体现深植于英-美政治自由的传统。
暑期假日
每年，大批游人会在独立日前后拥到国家草坪广场(National Mall)－－即美国国会山与华盛顿纪念碑之间的大草坪，参加一向在7月4日前后两个周末举行的史密森民间艺术节(Smithsonian Folklife Festival)。今年的民间艺术节展示不丹国的文化风情，得克萨斯州的音乐、饮食和葡萄酒，以及美国国家航空航天局(NASA)的发展史。2007年民间艺术节的国际文化主题曾是湄公河流域国家和北爱尔兰。
在7月4日这天，从首都的国家大草坪到地方城市公园，全美各地普遍举办大大小小的烟火晚会。在纽约市，梅西百货公司(Macy's department store)赞助的独立日烟火燃放活动已有31年历史，号称是美国7月4日最大规模的烟火表演。梅西30分钟的2008年烟火晚会将燃放35000枚礼花弹，由停泊在东河(East River)和纽约港的6艘驳船发射。据梅西估计，将有300多万人直接观看。近年来这项活动一直得到全国电视转播。
7月4日也是家庭欢庆的日子。人们通常到郊外野餐或者在户外烤肉。美国的7月夏日炎炎，成千上万美国人会利用这段时间去海滩或其他度假场所避暑。美国的很多法定假日固定在星期一或星期五，但独立纪念日例外。很多上班族会利用年假让自己享受一个长周末。
有时，一些重要的公共工程选择在7月4日开工。伊利运河(Erie Canal)、华盛顿纪念碑(Washington Monument)及美国第一条铁路巴尔的摩-俄亥俄铁路(Baltimore and Ohio Railroad)都是在7月4日破土动工，从而让这些改善民生的工程更具象征意义。
弘扬公民社会传统
民选官员和其他公众人物往往利用7月4日独立纪念日的场合发表演说，颂扬美国传统和价值观。独立节曾记录下美国一些最激动人心的自由言论。1788年，开国元勋詹姆斯-威尔逊(James Wilson)在费城举行的也许是当时这个新生国家建国以来规模最大的独立节庆祝集会上发表演说，呼吁公民同胞批准《宪法》草案。他说："一个自由、文明国家的人民，建立并批准一种政体…… 全国人民首次行使最高权力－－行使自己的主权，前所未有、无拘无束。"
1852年7月4日，黑人新闻工作者、废奴主义人士弗雷德里克-道格拉斯(Frederick Douglas)控诉了当时仍在美国南方盛行的奴隶制的罪恶，同时确定有一种力量"从《独立宣言》(Declaration of Independence)及其体现的伟大原则以及美国现行制度的优越性中汲取力量"，这种力量"必将使奴隶制崩溃"。
九十年以后，在第二次世界大战最黑暗的时刻来临前，弗兰克林-罗斯福(Franklin D. Roosevelt)总统提醒全国人民：对"精疲力竭、饥寒交迫、赤手空拳的美国革命军来说……7月4日是鼓起希望和激情的力量。现在仍然如此……。在这黑暗时刻为自由而斗争的坚韧不拔、不屈不挠的人们牢记着它的信息－－上帝面前人享有自由权利的保障－－所有的人、所有的种族、所有的群体，所有的国家，在世界所有的地方。"
2001年7月4日，乔治-W-布什总统在《独立宣言》诞生地费城独立厅(Independence Hall)外发表演说。他说，《独立宣言》继续体现"我们要求他人达到的标准，也是我们衡量自己的标准。我们不辜负这些理想，就能取得最伟大的成就。我们背离这些理想，就会经历最深重的悲剧。"
在这一天，全国各地－－即便是在最基层－－公民领导人会发出同样的声音，而他们的听众则深深感谢建国一代人为全体美国人民所赢得自由。
－－原载：《美国参考》，2008-06-30
http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-chinese
&y=2008&m=June&x=20080703101900JMnamdeirF3.489321e-02
U.S. Independence Day a Civic and Social Event
Americans celebrate July 4, 1776, adoption of Declaration of Independence
By Michael Jay Friedman
The United States celebrates its Independence Day on July 4, a day of patriotic celebration and family events throughout the country. In the words of Founding Father John Adams, the holiday would be “the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance. … It ought to be solemnized 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 forever more.”
The Fourth of July holiday is a major civic occasion, with roots deep in the Anglo-American tradition of political freedom.
A SUMMER HOLIDAY
Each year crowds of visitors flock to the National Mall -- the grassy expanse between the U.S. Capitol and the Washington Monument -- for the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, which always takes place on two weekends overlapping the Fourth of July holiday. This year’s festival celebrates the culture of Bhutan, the music, food and wine of Texas and the history of NASA. In 2007, the festival’s international exhibits focused on the Mekong River region and Northern Ireland.
Throughout the United States, Fourth of July fireworks displays are popular, from the spectacular exhibition on the National Mall to more modest fireworks shows in city parks across the land. In New York City, Macy's department store for 31 years has sponsored what it bills as the nation’s largest July 4 fireworks display. In 2008, the 30-minute show will feature 35,000 shells launched from six barges afloat in the East River and in New York Harbor. Macy’s estimates that more than 3 million will watch in person. The event has been televised nationally in recent years.
"The Fourth" is a family celebration. Picnics and barbeques are common. July is summer in the United States, and millions of Americans escape the heat at beaches and other vacation spots. Independence Day is not among the legal holidays fixed on a Monday or Friday, but many employees use vacation time to create an extended weekend.
Construction of important public works sometimes begins on July 4. The Erie Canal, Washington Monument and Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (the nation's first) all broke ground on Independence Day. The date reflects a desire symbolically to stamp these projects as true civic improvements.
A CIVIC OCCASION
The Fourth of July is a time when elected officials and other public figures often give speeches extolling American traditions and values.
Independence Day has provided some of this nation's most stirring words of freedom. In 1788, Founding Father James Wilson addressed a Philadelphia gathering that was possibly the largest July 4 celebration in the young nation's history. He exhorted his fellow citizens to ratify the proposed Constitution. "A people, free and enlightened,” he said, “establishing and ratifying a system of government … A WHOLE PEOPLE exercising its first and greatest power -- performing an act of SOVEREIGNTY, ORIGINAL and UNLIMITED.”
On July 4, 1852, the black journalist and abolitionist Frederick Douglass decried the evils of slavery, still prevalent in the American South at that time, but identified forces "drawing encouragement from the Declaration of Independence, the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions in operation" that "must inevitably work The downfall of slavery."
Ninety years later, near the darkest moments of World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt reminded the nation that for the "weary, hungry, unequipped Army of the American Revolution … the Fourth of July was a tonic of hope and inspiration. So is it now…. The tough, grim men who fight for freedom in this dark hour take heart in its message -- the assurance of the right to liberty under God -- for all peoples and races and groups and nations, everywhere in the world.”
On July 4, 2001, President George W. Bush spoke outside Independence Hall, Philadelphia, birthplace of the Declaration of Independence. That document, he said, continues to represent "the standard to which we hold others, and the standard by which we measure ourselves. Our greatest achievements have come when we have lived up to these ideals. Our greatest tragedies have come when we have failed to uphold them."
Across the nation, civic leaders of even the most humble station echo these words, and their audiences give thanks for the freedom and liberties that the founding generation won for all Americans.
Stumble It!