This July 4th while you were enjoying the hot dogs and hamburgers by the barbeque and enjoyed the fireworks. Me and my family (Mom and Little Brother) did the French thing. Well we ate a French restaurant and then we saw the new Disney cartoon movie Ratatouille. While I was eating at the restaurant and watch the movie I had a thought in my mind: If it wasn't for the French that had helped us from the time our Founding Fathers wanted freedom from England, there wouln't be an America.
I will let you know one thing, I am as American as anyone out here. I was born and raised here in New York, traveled across the country and experenced the diversity our our country. I enjoy our mixed American culture that I have seen, heard, viewed on the TV, watched while walking in the streets of New York (even if some snobby foreigners says that we don't) And I love hot dogs and hamburgers. (Although I eat them less often) Before you go the nonsensical and irrational French bashing on me; I love the French for everything. You can agree or disagree with me that Paris is the most beautiful city in the world, French food is really excellent and very filling, French wine is the best of the world and really what American doesn't want to spend their vacation in Paris or the French Riviera. Who really don't want to go to either one of these places.
France also gave America an important item : the idea and the ideals of a goverment run by the people and for the people, a modern democracy. The Founding Fathers have read books by Montesquieu, Rousseau and John Locke with their own contemporaries such as Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine as well as many others about each man is created equal and people have basic rights that the goverment can not take away. Despite some if not all the Founding Fathers held slaves. Let us remember that at the time of America's independence from England by an opressive King George III who have on a whim restricted the rights of the colonists living in America. The Framers knew that to have their own self -goverment to survive they need friendly allies. They also knew that if they lost they would be hanged as traitors to the Crown and hence no America as we know it. With France's help, the Revolutionary Army defeated the British and we have won our independence. And the rest, as they say is history.
So the next time you celebrate July 4th and think why does America exist, you have to thank the French for it. Besides, where do you think the red, white and blue comes from!
En Liberté, Égalité et Fraternité
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