In The Room Where America Was Born

Signing of the Declaration of Independence by John Trumbull, 1819.
Click to enlarge.

Instead of the usual Friday assortment of several handsome men, today the Blue Truck features just one - which ought to satisfy everybody.

Independence Hall in Philadelphia is familiar to all Americans as the birthplace of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, as well as the original home of the Liberty Bell.  The Hall is in the care and custody of the National Park Service.  Those who remember fondly the denizens of Jellystone Park know that relations between bears and rangers have often been problematic.  

But now in this equal-opportunity era, here is Ranger Bigbear giving a really excellent and accurate narration of the events that occurred in the Assembly Room when the Founding Fathers gathered there.  Highly educational and enjoyable - if you can keep your mind on the history.

By the way, various authoritative sources tell me that the Assembly Room where the delegates met and debated is about 40 by 40 feet - more than twice the size of a typical high-school classroom today.  About 60 delegates attended in the summer of 1776; 56 of them signed the Declaration sometime in August - not on July 4th.  Believe it or not!

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National Park Service Centennial

The National Park Service turns 100 today.  In 2009, 320 million people, nearly equal to the entire population of the United States, visited one or another of the 413 parks, monuments, battlefields, recreation areas, and historic sites. The annual budget for the Park Service is about $3 billion.

1916 map of the then-existing national parks and railroad routes to them, in a time when paved roads were still very few and far between.  Click to enlarge.

1938 poster for Yellowstone National Park.

Stonewall Inn Now a National Monument

Last Friday, President Obama announced that he has designated the Stonewall Inn in New York City, along with Christopher Park across the street and some other properties in the vicinity, as America's newest national monument, commemorating the modern gay rights movement that began there 47 years ago last night.

The official text of the presidential proclamation is here. 

The Park Service site is here.

The New York Times article is here.

These two announcement videos overlap a bit:






And here's a report from CBS New York:




Ya know, guys, it continues to take my breath away to realize how far we've come just in my lifetime - when Stonewall happened, I was a closeted, totally isolated teenager in a world where merely the word homosexual was loathsome and unmentionable. But now that I'm an old man, the President of the United States has declared a gay bar a national monument.  Incredible.

And I have lived to see this day.