Pic(k) of the Week: Flags in window.

In 1776, John Adams —Constitutional Convention delegate from Massachusetts and future American President— believed that the 2nd of July should and would be celebrated as American Independence Day.

The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt 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 Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.

Why 2 July?

Because it was on 2 July, 1776, that the Second Continental Congress actually voted for independence. It would not be until two days later, on 4 July, 1776, that the body would approve a Declaration of Independence. And, it would not be until 2 August, 1776, that the delegates would actually sign the Declaration.

In 1855, a few years before he would become the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln wrote this:

Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we began by declaring that 'all men are created equal.' We now practically read it 'all men are created equal, except negroes.' When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read 'all men are created equal, except negroes and foreigners and Catholics.' When it comes to that I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty — to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy.

Two days from now, on the 4th of July, 2016, the United States of America will celebrate the 240th anniversary of its independence. Despite efforts of latter-day nativists, the U.S. flag —the Star-Spangled Banner— "yet waves o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave," if unfurled on too frequent occasion with a mere breeze, rather than a strong wind.

Americans are expected to purchase $1 billion worth of beer over the Independence Day holiday. Economic stimulus; quantitative drinking. Over their 'craft' IPAs and industrial lagers, how many of them will be reflecting upon the implications of the 4th of July: in 1776, in 2016, and for the future?

John Trumbull: The Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776

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• Pic(k) of the Week: one in a weekly series of personal photos, usually posted on Saturdays, and often, but not always, as today (except for an allusion in the final paragraph), with a good fermentable as the subject. Camera: Olympus Pen E-PL1.
• Commercial reproduction requires explicit permission, as per Creative Commons.


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What they fight for.

World War I, or the Great War as it was known then, ended on the "eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month" of 1918, at least on the western front. The moment is commemorated as Armistice Day in many parts of the world. Here in the United States, 11 November is commemorated as Veterans Day.

From a speech delivered by President Woodrow Wilson to a joint session of Congress on 8 January 1918, about the goals of the United States in the war: there was unfinished business then, and there yet is now, a century later.

It will be our wish and purpose that the processes of peace, when they are begun, shall be absolutely open and that they shall involve and permit henceforth no secret understandings of any kind. The day of conquest and aggrandizement is gone by; so is also the day of secret covenants entered into in the interest of particular governments and likely at some unlooked-for moment to upset the peace of the world. It is this happy fact, now clear to the view of every public man whose thoughts do not still linger in an age that is dead and gone, which makes it possible for every nation whose purposes are consistent with justice and the peace of the world to avow now or at any other time the objects it has in view.

We entered this war because violations of right had occurred which touched us to the quick and made the life of our own people impossible unless they were corrected and the world secured once for all against their recurrence.

What we demand in this war, therefore, is nothing peculiar to ourselves. It is that the world be made fit and safe to live in; and particularly that it be made safe for every peace-loving nation which, like our own, wishes to live its own life, determine its own institutions, be assured of justice and fair dealing by the other peoples of the world, as against force and selfish aggression.

All the peoples of the world are in effect partners in this interest, and for our own part we see very clearly that unless justice be done to others it will not be done to us.

The program of the world's peace, therefore, is our program; and that program, the only possible program, all we see it, is this:

1. Open covenants of peace must be arrived at, after which there will surely be no private international action or rulings of any kind, but diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in the public view.

2. Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas, outside territorial waters, alike in peace and in war, except as the seas may be closed in whole or in part by international action for the enforcement of international covenants.

3. The removal, so far as possible, of all economic barriers and the establishment of an equality of trade conditions among all the nations consenting to the peace and associating themselves for its maintenance.

4. Adequate guarantees given and taken that national armaments will be reduced to the lowest points consistent with domestic safety.

5. A free, open-minded, and absolutely impartial adjustment of all colonial claims, based upon a strict observance of the principle that in determining all such questions of sovereignty the interests of the population concerned must have equal weight with the equitable claims of the government whose title is to be determined.

[...]

14. A general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike.

[...]

In regard to these essential rectifications of wrong and assertions of right, we feel ourselves to be intimate partners of all the governments and peoples associated together against the imperialists. We cannot be separated in interest or divided in purpose. We stand together until the end.

For such arrangements and covenants we are willing to fight and to continue to fight until they are achieved; but only because we wish the right to prevail and desire a just and stable peace such as can be secured only by removing the chief provocations to war, which this program does remove.

We have spoken now, surely, in terms too concrete to admit of any further doubt or question. An evident principle runs through the whole program I have outlined. It is the principle of justice to all peoples and nationalities, and their right to live on equal terms of liberty and safety with one another, whether they be strong or weak.

Unless this principle be made its foundation, no part of the structure of international justice can stand. The people of the United States could act upon no other principle, and to the vindication of this principle they are ready to devote their lives, their honor, and everything that they possess. The moral climax of this, the culminating and final war for human liberty has come, and they are ready to put their own strength, their own highest purpose, their own integrity and devotion to the test.

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In the U.S., toasting Belgian Beer Royalty today

Today is the King's Feast ...

the country of Belgium celebrates its King, the monarchy and the sovereign. This holiday was first established in 1866, roughly 35 years after achieving independence from Holland, the last of the 13 overlords that dominated the country. Even though they were ruled by so many other countries, they never absorbed into them and were able to hold onto things that were culturally important, one of them being beer.

CraftBeer.org

Celebrate here in the U.S., today, with an organized coast-coast toast.

Well, actually it's a virtual toast with Wendy Littlefield and Don Feinberg, but you might easily consider them beer royalty. Thirty years ago, the duo founded Vanberg & DeWulf to import Belgian beers. Try to remember a thirsty time without much Begian beer in the US, and 30 years ago would be just about right. Before Wendy and Don, there was no Duvel here, no Scaldis, no Saison Dupont.


Since then, Wendy and Don have been enthusiastic proponents of biere vivant, of good living with beer. Check their website for cooking with beer, for example. They were the original importers of the gorgeous sour red ale Rodenbach. And, they were the founders and original owners of Ommegang, a beautiful farmhouse brewery in Cooperstown, New York, one of the first breweries in U.S. to exclusively brew Belgian-style ales.

Nearly 400 restaurants, bars, and beer shops across the U.S. are participating. Go here for the list. (Be sure to click on "more" at the bottom of the page.) Follow on Twitter at @belgianexpert, and on Facebook.

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• Participants in the Washington, D.C./Baltimore, Maryland, area include:
  

  Aida Bistro & Wine Bar

  Alonso's Restaurant

  Brasserie Beck

  The Brewer's Art

  Churchkey

  Hudson Street Stackhouse

  Max's Taphouse

  Metropolitan Cafe

• Baltimore-based Belgian beer guru Chuck Cook will celebrate at The Brewer's Art, in Baltimore, Maryland, airing a video he's produced on Brasserie Dupont.