America’s Most Disagreeable Holiday

July 4 (Bloomberg) -- This Fourth of July in theConnecticut town where I live, a small group of residents, manyof them veterans, will gather on the green to read aloud theentire text of the Declaration of Independence. This solemn andsalutatory ritual serves as a reminder that if we want to knowwhat America is all about, the Declaration, rather than the U.S.Constitution, is the place to start.

For America, Independence Day has always had a symbolicimportance that Constitution Day lacks. July 4 has been selectedas the date for any number of historically important events inU.S. history: the start of the American bombing campaign againstNazi-occupied Europe in 1942, for instance, and the effectivedate of the abolition of slavery in New York state in 1827. Andit was no accident that boxing promoters chose July 4, 1910, forthe “Great White Hope” fight between Jack Johnson and James J.Jeffries.