Charlie’s Corner is the domain of Charlie, the furry four-legged lady’s man of Market Common. Each month, he’ll share information to help all new, visiting, and existing doggie community members get the most out of life along side their human companions. Here, we’ll feature his reflections on what it’s like to be a dashing downtown doggie, as he reminds all of us how to play well together.
This month, Charlie dozes off on a languid day and reaps his reward.
“Happy Fourth of July everyone! I just love this holiday (think bbq table scraps), minus the fireworks (think overly-sensitive doggie ears). But I realized that for all of the good times that we celebrate with our family and friends, all of our military personnel that we salute for serving our country, we don’t think that much on this day about how our country was birthed into country-hood. (I think that’s a word. If it’s not, I just made it up and that’s okay. Because I have my own unsupervised column. Maybe one month I’ll fill the space with my paw-prints— abstract expressionism.)
So it’s time for me to pull out my research hat again (for reference that’s the green one that says “Charlie’s Corner” on it. It helps me concentrate all my energy into my head so I can ferret out facts).
Now that you can visualize me better, let’s go back in time almost 250 years ago and take a look at what life was like. (I can’t look that long however, it’s tough to imagine life before squeaky toys.)
So back on July 2, 1776, the Second Continental Congress voted, almost unanimously, to become independent from Great Britain. (New York conspicuously abstained from the radical idea. It took them a bit longer to grow into their reputation as trailblazers.) Two days later, on July 4, Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, the document which justified the break with Great Britain, authored mostly by Thomas Jefferson. The document was a manifesto, or creed, if you will, listing the grievances of the colonies, but most importantly, it eloquently expressed the necessity of withdrawing from the yoke of Great Britain to ensure their survival.
His simple, powerful words struck a cord then as they do now, and affected the rest of the world as well— they reveal a group of colonies ready to take responsibility for their own well-being, in full recognition of their right and capability to do so. Now that’s bound to breed success!
It laid the foundation for how to be survivors then, and it continues to be the foundation of our success today. Here you can be whoever you want to be and do whatever you want to do. And that’s a beautiful thing.
Myrtle Beach lays testimony to this fact as we continue to hear on an almost daily basis of the amazing variety and volume of small entrepreneurial businesses that set up shop here.
Now that’s something to think about and celebrate this Fourth of July!
Speaking of celebrations, apparently John Adams believed that July 2 should be the day that we all get together with
parades, parties, and pomp, but everyone else advocated for and moved forward with the date of July 4. He took a stand in protest, staunchly sticking to the 2nd, and refused all invitations and appearances on the 4th to garner support for his beliefs. It didn’t work out for him though, and the 4th stuck as our day to celebrate. I hope he eventually came around though— just think of all that great bbq and fun he missed out on otherwise.”
Until next time,
P.S. Follow me on Facebook @CharlieParkersCorner and on Instagram @charlieparkerscorner to keep up with all my latest news.
