READING, Pa. \u2013 The Berks County Commissioners on Thursday used the commissioners\u2019 comment portion of their weekly meeting to comment on the 250th\u00a0anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.<\/p>\n
Commissioner Christian Y. Leinbach reminded people that the holiday is not about the American flag or the Constitution or several other patriotic things.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s about one thing; it\u2019s about the Declaration of Independence that was ratified on July 2 (1776) which was a Tuesday,\u201d Leinbach said. \u201cAnd you might wonder, OK, so why do we celebrate on July Fourth?\u00a0\u00a0Because on Thursday, July 4 the president of the delegation and the secretary signed the document and on Monday July 8, many counties- not just Berks, had the very first reading of the Declaration of Independence.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cJohn Adams wrote a letter to his wife Abigail on July the 2nd, 1776, and there’s two paragraphs from that that are so prophetic and incredible,\u201d Leinbach said.\u00a0\u00a0Leinbach then read from Adams\u2019s letter talking about July 2: \u201cI am asked to believe 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 shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other from this time forward, forever more. You will think me transported with enthusiasm, but I am not. I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure that it will cost us to maintain this declaration and support and defend these states. Yet through all the gloom I can see the rays of ravishing light and glory. I can see that the end is more than worth all the means, and the posterity will triumph.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leinbach also read a quote from a speech of Abraham Lincoln, which ended with the statement: \u201cI charge you to drop every paltry and insignificant thought for any man’s success. It is nothing. Do not destroy that immortal emblem of humanity: The Declaration of Independence.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Leinbach announced that the county is hosting a ceremony on July 8 at noon in front of the County Services Center to commemorate the 250th\u00a0anniversary of the first local reading of the Declaration of Independence.<\/p>\n
The event will include the ringing of the historic Berks Liberty Bell and a reading of the Declaration of Independence by descendants of Sheriff Henry Vanderslice, who made the original local reading on July 8, 1776.<\/p>\n
Commissioner Dante Santoni Jr. added a thought.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not about politics,\u201d Santoni said. \u201cIt\u2019s not about what religion you are, what color you are or what party you are. \u201cIt\u2019s about enjoying what we have in front of us, the greatest country on the face of the earth, despite all its warts and problems.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pastor Evelyn Morrison commented on the same topic during the public comment portion of the meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just wanted to say that we can really look at where we need to be as human beings,\u201d Morrison said. \u201cIt doesn’t matter color; it doesn’t matter gender; it doesn\u2019t matter status; it doesn\u2019t matter status, but the important thing is that we are moving together. There was a time that they said, well, we came over in different boats, but we’re all in the same boat right now and it\u2019s really important that we are able to look for justice with one another. That’s the key. Justice starts within our hearts.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"READING, Pa. \u2013 The Berks County Commissioners on Thursday used the commissioners\u2019 comment portion of their weekly meeting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234008,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[40018,10200,65538,58365,3933,58220,1055,128,130,129,101039],"class_list":["post-234007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-4th-of-july","tag-christian-y-leinbach","tag-county-services-center","tag-dante-santoni-jr","tag-evelyn-morrison","tag-independence-day","tag-john-adams","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-sherriff-henry-vanderslice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}