When colonists declared that they would no longer put up with the Sugar Act, Stamp Act and Tea Act, or with paying taxes but getting marginal benefits from the most powerful nation on Earth (Mother England), they decided it was time to cut the cable.
But colonial separatists simply didn’t have much public support. Colonists were protected from the natives and the French by the British Royal Navy; and they already had freedom of speech, press and assembly under English law. They were prospering. Why get into a fight?
Seems like it goes back to that No Kings thing. People preferred to determine their own best interests with a government run by local citizens, not a Forever Family. Some people, those favored by the royal family, had freedom. But people of every size, age, shape, neighborhood, gender and color were not free to be. And that’s what colonists craved – fairness. Fair labor, fair wages, fair access to farmland and the marketplace, fair reasons to be left alone.
American colonists had a philosophical shift. They insisted they be governed by each other, not by a family and tradition from far, far away. Money making opportunities were evident, but the popular question was why should we share what we created with those too complacent to sail over here and take a look?
So, they wrote up the paperwork declaring this a sovereign nation, won a war to make it so, and here we are, 250 years later, still touched by the foresight and energy of a document written by committee. July 4 is a birthday we splendidly celebrate.
Exactly one hundred and three years after 56 men signed the Declaration of Independence, Eureka Springs got its birth certificate. On July 4, 1879, this sponge of craggy, camouflaged terrain filled up with water miners, people drawn to the opportunity to get well and get rich. People knew something was up with the water here. It spurted out of the ground with a perfect combination of sub-atoms, atoms, molecules and rock minerals that made it so powerful it cured blindness and other unlikely-to-be-reversed conditions.
So, there was money to be made. When tourism is a town’s chosen method of income, money is made by everyone.
Going into business was a good bet – bankers, butchers, builders, innkeepers, entertainers, surveyors – they all put others to work so people could provide for themselves and live here. Taking care of new arrivals was how people spent their time and created their wealth.
Eureka Springs does have a tendency to re-create itself from time-to-time. Railroad, yes. Spa town, yes. Preservation, yes. Artists, yes. Convenient location, no. Motorcoaches, no. Motorcycles, maybe. Parking, not so much. People have learned about sinkholes, crumbling hillsides, and getting around in a town shaped like a discarded lariat.
On the Fourth of July we commemorate all who had the vigor to keep going despite plagues, worldwide combat, financial wreckage and Victorian hesitance.
And then there’s the Eureka Springs Independent, Vol. 15 No. 1. That means this is the first issue starting off our 15th year, and that makes it our birthday, too.
Actually, Vol. 1 No. 1 was published July 5, 2012, a leap year Thursday. We wanted ESI to come out on Wednesdays, but there was no slot at the printer except on Thursdays. When the printer’s schedule opened up for Wednesdays, we grabbed it.
Also, on July 5, when Jeremiah was a 6-year-old kid living next door, his mom, Perlinda, said let’s go get fireworks. Jeremiah didn’t care about the date, just the fireworks. They got $25 in fireworks for $8 or $9 at the day-after-sale.
They turned into their driveway and Jeremiah was bouncing, window down. He pulled the truck’s indoor handle and jumped down to the ground running with sparklers. “Mary Pat! Happy Fifth of July!”
So, this is special. It’s high summer, a reason and a season to congregate and celebrate. The 4th of July is nearly always hot, whether you’re starting a country, a town, or a newspaper.
As Risa writes in her astrology column this week, “We are all a dream yet to come true.”
Happy Birthday, Americans.