Maybe you can get through it without feeling your eyes tear up. I couldn't. Whittle takes us with him as he visits some famous sites in Washington D.C. He describes some of his emotions and thoughts at each site before bringing everything together in his conclusion. The video is here if you don't wait too long (or if you subscribe to the archives). You might want to watch the video before reading the text. It is one of Whittle's best. I saw it before I read the essay. But I like the print version, even though there are a couple of typos - repeated words mostly - probably reflecting the difficulty inherent in transcribing from a video.
This essay would be a wonderful subject for study by high school and college students, and even for some younger students. Especially the ones who don't really understand the difference between the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, or the importance of the latter:
Many of us talk a lot about the Constitution these days, but I don’t want to talk about the Constitution – I want to talk about the Declaration. The Constitution is the “how” of America, but the declaration is the “why.” . .Well worth your time, and the time of family members and friends. You might even want to follow his advice for helping to make the Declaration "live" again.
When Abraham Lincoln . . . wrote that We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth he was talking about the Declaration. . .
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