Posted on 07/04/2005 4:20:03 PM PDT by snugs2
Today is the 4th of July 2005 – America’s Birthday which commemorates the Continental Congress adopting the Declaration of Independence on 4th July 1776.
President George W Bush commemorated the day by visiting West Virginia University Morgantown, West Virginia, he gave an address and afterward he greeted the crowd by signing autographs and shaking hands of military personnel.
It was announced today that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will visit tsunami-hit parts of Thailand next week.
On Saturday Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld acted as Grand Marshall at the Pepsi 400 NASCAR Race at Daytona.
Enjoy your visit to Sanity Island
one of the "beauties" of living in Maryland, hon! :o)
"Which all news media are pretending never happened!!! so that the fiction can be maintained that he never communicates with "the people."
So true!! I still can't believe that NONE of the C-Span channels bothered to cover the event!!
From where I live, we can see them from Great America. My city doesn't allow fireworks displays, sadly. My ex and I used to be able to sit on the balcony of our apt. and see the ones at the lake that we used to be able to have.
For the genealogists on this thread tonight - a while ago I looked up the 1930 census for Prescott Bush (Ws grandfather) and found that the man we know as Bush 41, was listed as Walker, age 5, born in Massachusetts. He had an older brother, Prescott jr, 7, born in Maine, and a 4 yar old sister named Nancy, who was born in New York. At the time of the census, the family was living in Fairfield Connecticut. Prescott sr was born in Ohio, and his wife, Dorothy was born in Maine, although her parents came from Missouri. Quite a traveled family.
That means they are a well rounded family! :o)
MUST READS:
TRIUMPH OF THE RABBLE
By Suzanne Fields
July 4, 2005
Fantasy time: If I had lived in the colonies 229 years ago today, would I have stayed here in harm's way or returned to London to sip tea and nibble crumpets with Fortnum and Mason (or one of their forbears)? The temptation would have been great on the eve of the Revolution. Losers would have been traitors, to pay at the end of a British rope.
Would I have had the confidence in a ragtag army of farmers who knew how to use a pitchfork, but not necessarily a gun? Would I have trusted that the sailors and fishermen, artisans and tradesmen of town and country, shoemakers, saddlers, carpenters, blacksmiths and tailors could defeat the mightiest empire in the world? How seductive, given the final choice, would it have been to leave behind dresses of homespun cotton to aspire to the fine fabrics of London ladies?
Strong considerations of family life would have intruded, too. It wouldn't have been easy to encourage a husband or a teen-age son to go off to join a raw, undisciplined, inexperienced "rabble in arms," to follow a general who had never led any army into battle. Disease and hunger followed them. Fathers marched off with their sons; one Connecticut woman "fitted out" five sons and 11 grandsons.
King George III rode to parliament in a gilded chariot decorated with golden sea gods, symbols reminding the American colonies that Britannia ruled the waves, almost without challenge. Would I have imagined the king right, after all, when he announced to parliament that "to be a subject of Great Britain, with all of its consequences, is to be the freest member of any civil society in the known world?"
These are the questions that flood the reader of David McCullough's new book, "1776," where we learn that for all of our romantic notions that the colonies were guaranteed by destiny to win independence from Great Britain, the result was actually far from certain. This is the book to read on this Fourth of July as a complement to the barbecues and speeches and fireworks. Doubt and uncertainty threw a shadow over everything, from the eloquent and contentious debates in the House of Commons and the House of Lords to the dark and bloody ground where the ragged colonists camped.
You can read the rest of this article at
http://washtimes.com/op-ed/20050703-101055-5832r.htm
REMEMBERING
By Diane Horning
July 4, 2005 -- MY husband, my daughter, her friend and I spent this past Memorial Day in Washington, D.C., visiting memorials, not going to Memorial Day sales.
Our son wasn't with us on this pilgrimage because he was murdered on 9/11. The day filled our own personal need to remember and honor the events and the people to whom these memorials were dedicated.
You can read the rest of this article at
http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/49330.htm
You have FR mail
It sure is. One of my first cousins began researching our family tree in the late 70s when he was first a law clerk. He also made extensive notes from quite a few of my grandmother's family and I could not have gotten as far with it if not for his foundation. Also the internet has been invaluable.
I forgot to add that Dorothy's maiden name was Walker - of Walker Point, Maine. So they were well rounded and well grounded too.
Dolley Madison was great, wasn't she?!
Her maiden name was Payne and I am decended from some of the Virginia Paynes.
I got up too late this morning and got to read the thread from W's speech, I kept reading about a soldier standing behind him, clearly emotional. Have you seen any photos of this?
I haven't been quite as successful with connections and getting the chance to go out and do some researching as much as I'd of liked to, that's why it's taking me so long to get about 150 years in my dad's family and only 100 years in my moms.
The Bush family sure is-- I don't think they can claim to be from just one state for several generations.
Genealogy is great! My dad was born and raised literally down the road from where Washington was born.
How wonderful. It is amazing the ties you can find.
I too share several of Bush's family lines from N.E.
One of Lincoln's from Mass. several other prezs. also
some of the early Dutch lines of Roosevelt.
Lee goes back to Lighthouse Henry Lee.
What fun!!
Wasn't Dolly Madison first married to a John Todd and had 2 sons by him?
I know the one son was still living when she married James Madison but what happened to the other one?
Just a historical question.
I read somewhere that President Bush was related to several former presidents including Abraham Lincoln,that would be interesting to find out how they are relatd.
http://www.facesofthefallen.org/
Go to the bottom and click on Portraits and just watch. I warn you NOW, get a hankie first.
It's funny, I can go back --waaaay, waaay back-- on my grandmother's side but not my grandfather's. For him, I've been able to identify an original immigrant to Jamestown who was shipped here as a young adolescent because he was an "orphan" from a place in England called "Bridewell" which we think was a "workhouse" for orphans. Apparently it was a common thing to round up street urchins and ship them to Virginia at the time. He made his way to settle in Maryland but several generations hence some descendants moved back to Virginia where they largely remain (at least my branch!). Point being, you never know what you will find!
Here is Dolly Maddison bio from the White House Website it only says she had one son from her previous marriage.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/firstladies/dm4.html
I'm gonna keep digging!
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