WITCH, n.

(1) Any ugly and repulsive old woman, in a wicked league with the devil.

(2) A beautiful and attractive young woman, in a wickedness a league beyond the devil.

- Ambrose Bierce

“I have come to the conclusion that one useless man is called a disgrace; that two are called a law firm, and that three or more become a Congress! And by God, I have had this Congress! For ten years, King George and his Parliament have gulled, cullied, and diddled these colonies with their illegal taxes! Stamp Acts, Townshend Acts, Sugar Acts, Tea Acts! And when we dared stand up like men, they have stopped our trade, seized our ships, blockaded our ports, burned our towns, and spilled our BLOOD! And still, this Congress refuses to grant ANY of my proposals on independence, even so much as the courtesty of open debate!
Good God, what in hell are you waiting for?”
- John Adams, 1776

Turner Classic Movies had my heart last night; on election eve, they ran the movie musical, 1776.  The show has always had a firm place in my heart, for a multitude of reasons; the largest of which being that it was the first of a handful of shows that my father and I worked side by side in.  It was the coolest thing to a 16 year old; to be one of four women present in a cast of 25+ men.  It was a FAN-FRICKIN-TASTIC show, the likes of which has yet to be duplicated by any other production company in town.  It was what we held IMP standards to. (At the time.)

But last night, when the movie version was shown, it rang true in so many more ways.  Sure, I knew all the words to the song, priding myself on my harmony.  But then I actually listened.  It was a revolution.  A group of men, all well-educated and well-to-do, who had swallowed enough tyranny and had seen enough heavy-handedness, and they wanted change.  They knew it would not be easy, and not everyone agreed immediately.

It even became relevant in one of my less enthusiastic favorites, Momma Look Sharp, which concerns a corporal who brings in dispatches from the battlefront.  When the workers of Congress ask him excitedly how war is, he quietly sings about his best friend being shot in front of him, and how his mother had to go find his wounded body.  He was 16, he sang.  Oh, Momma, come find me before I do die..

“Those who sacrifice liberty in the name of a temporary security deserve neither liberty nor security,” Benjamin Franklin warns opposition to the Declaration.  Still true today.

Go vote today.  I don’t even care what your vote is for; just vote.  Voices are ours to be heard.  It’s why we live here.