Image
Yesterday was the 4th of July. For me and my fellow residents of the United States, that is a day for us to remember the official adoption of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 declaring the original 13 colonies as a new nation. A radio station in the US, NPR (National Public Radio), has a tradition of reading the declaration line by line on the 4th of July. They continued this tradition yesterday on the radio and via Twitter. The interesting part of their Twitter feed was the reaction by a number of Americans.
For those of you who do not know NPR, it is a publicly funded radio station that is considered to be "Liberal". They have been the discussion of some debate lately as the station is a target of defunding under the current president. Whatever their political leaning or source of funding, presenting the Declaration of Independence is a bipartisan act and something that any American should celebrate as it is a document we should all be familiar with. However, yesterday sparked a tweet-storm in response to NPR's presentation.
Some claimed that the radio station was calling for a revolution. Others called NPR's series of tweets "propaganda". For some people, the ignorant responses to NPR are a good way to mock those who thought the whole thing was some sort of cry for deposing the current president. Even though it is interesting that people believed the Declaration was attacking him, the tweets should not be a reason to mock anyone. It is a cry, one among many, that something is missing in what people in the US are being taught; or not being taught, in this case. It is a sign that our education system, one funded by the government which was founded upon the principals of the document in question, is lacking.
If you have never read it, it's a pretty amazing document. You can find a copy of it HERE.
sources
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/07/05/declaration-independence-tweets-confuse-donald-trump-supporters/
https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Declaration_of_Independence
https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/july-4th