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The day before tomorrow

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By STEVE OTTO Steve Otto

sotto@tampatrib.com sotto@tampatrib.com

Published: July 3, 2009

It must have been such a mixed and antsy feeling that July 3, now 233 years ago.

At least it was like that in those few colonies in the Northeast where so much attention was focused on those men gathered in a steamy hall in Philadelphia.

Emotions weren't the same in most of Florida, at the time divided into the British colonies of East Florida and West Florida. In those northern Florida settlements, the feeling apparently was strongly pro-British. Farther south, in the small fishing villages around Tampa Bay, nobody was paying much attention to rumblings more than 1,000 miles away.

The American revolution already had begun. In fact, at the moment the delegates were hammering out what would become our Declaration of Independence, thousands of British regulars were landing in New York and the situation for the Americans was dismal at best.

The unknown

On the eve of that momentous document's adoption, the air must have been heavy. Remember what it was like in the hours leading up to Desert Storm, when nobody was sure what it was going to be like? Sometimes the unknown can be as bad as the reality.

I only can guess at the emotions in England in those days leading up to the D-Day invasion of Europe. I remember years ago being stationed temporarily at what had been a World War II air base called Greenham Common.

When I showed up, the runway area was being used by a sheepherder and his flock. The sheepherder told me about the night before the invasion and the early morning of June 6 as the allies by the tens of thousands launched glider aircraft and other planes. He said it was like the world was coming to an end, and he wasn't sure at the time whether we were invading or being attacked.

Happy 2nd of July

Nobody was too sure that July 3, either. In his famous letter from Philadelphia to his wife, Abigail, John Adams looked to the future and figured later generations would remember July 2 as the day. "I am apt to believe," he wrote, "that it will be celebrated by succeeding Generations, as the Great Anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfire and Illuminations from one end of this Continent to the other from this Time forward ever more."

So here we are on another July 3, feeling a little antsy, but at least revolution is not in the air. On the other hand, I've seen a few "Don't Tread on Me" flags, and there are those tea parties going on across the country.

It might be a good time to take a look back at just what it was those men in Philadelphia produced and examine what relevance it holds for us these antsy days when men and women of goodwill aren't exactly coming together about anything.

Keyword: Otto Graphs, for more of Steve Otto's musings.

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