The message to King George III some 250 years ago bears repeating
By Dr. Joseph Felsen, Wellsville, pictured with his kite and some curious Americans
I recently portrayed Ben Franklin during our small town’s remembrance celebration of our country’s 250th anniversary. There was an emphasis on why the colonial people had to breakaway from the tyrannical King George III.
The event began with The Declaration of Independence was recited in its entirety. Our founding fathers felt compelled to state their grievances against the King.
” A decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare their grievances against causes which impel them to the Separation.”
One complaint against the Monarch seems as prescient today as it was then:
“He has called together Legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable and distant from the Depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.”
This is so analogous to the chaos and confusion that gerrymandering, mail-in-voting constraints, and threats of ICE presence at voting sites is having over our sacred right to vote.
Perhaps fewer car races and mixed martial arts events, but more readings of the Declaration of Independence would afford the populace a historical perspective of where we started and a warning of where we do NOT want to return???
I.e. “An absolute Tyranny over these States”
Joe Felsen M.D, a longtime family physician in Wellsville NY, recently portrayed Ben Franklin at a celebration of America’s 250th Anniversary, reading the Declaration of Independence in it’s entirety to a curious crowd. Read more about that event below:
