HOW WE SEE IT: Not even Facebook can contain the American ideal

When technology collides with history

It shouldn't surprise anyone that when modern technology collides with our nation's founding document, a discussion of the fundamental nature of the American mind ensues.

We can thank that ubiquitous digital megaphone, Facebook, and a traditional newspaper for a new debate that is part history lesson, part philosophical meditation. With a little luck, the result will be enlightenment.

WHAT’S THE POINT: The Declaration of Independence isn’t hate speech; it’s history with all it’s warts. And it still inspires a nation.

The Vindicator (what a great name for a newspaper!) of Liberty County, Texas (also appropriate) wanted to remind its readers about the true meaning of Independence Day. So as the Fourth of July 2018 approached, it published the entire text of the Declaration of Independence on its Facebook page.

The editors of the paper broke the text of the document down into 12 installments, and posted them one at a time to the digital platform for all to see.

The posts included, of course, the soaring language of Thomas Jefferson as he introduced the declaration's purpose and premise (we repeat it here not just to add clarity to our prose, but to encourage folks to read it again):

"When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with one another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, -- that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these rights are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. -- That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. -- That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it and to institute new Government ..."

The declaration goes on to eloquently make its theoretical case: The British government had systematically deprived its subjects in the colonies of basic rights -- most notably to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness -- without allowing them to petition for relief or even to voice dissent.

Indeed, the colonists discovered the hard way that dissent meant a more intrusive British government. Debilitating taxes, seizures of property, imprisonment without adjudication and many more indignities were imposed upon them. As their complaints grew, tensions rose, and violent skirmishes between the British forces and colonists increased. Finally, in the summer of 1776, the Americans declared they'd had enough.

"The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over the States," Jefferson wrote. He followed that passage with an exhaustive list of 27 specific grievances against the British Crown. And it's here in the Vindicator's educational efforts where Facebook and freedom had a momentary falling out.

In the last charge on the list, Jefferson wrote that King George III "excited insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions."

Jefferson was complaining about the British military enlisting native American tribes in its cause to put down the rebellion. For the colonists, this meant fighting multiple foes, not just the British regulars. It also meant that the enemy could be anywhere, not just across the established battle lines. The words are harsh and, certainly by modern standards, inappropriate. For Jefferson's time, the reference was acceptable, even normal.

However, somewhere in Facebook's algorithm, digital alarms sounded at the words "merciless Indian Savages." The phrase was flagged as inappropriate and one of the Vindicator's 12 installments of the declaration was blocked from view.

The staff at the Vindicator complained and, unlike King George, the humans who nominally run Facebook listened and responded. After realizing what their artificial intelligence had done, Facebook's minders unblocked the passage so that all of the declaration was available, not just the sanitized parts.

As is our custom in the new world order of digital hysteria, the incident has since been blown out of proportion. Facebook was criticized for everything from Un-Americanism to censorship. But no, Facebook didn't ban the entire Declaration of Independence as hate speech. There was no active, political conspiracy on the part of Facebook workers to make Jefferson's essay something to be ashamed of. Facebook goofed, owned up to it and fixed it.

It's important to remember that -- and this incident brings this point into sharp relief -- this nation's history is that of a people adapting to and embracing changing mores. The Declaration of Independence, of which Americans are rightfully proud, proclaims that all men are equal. In the practices of the day, however, that was far from true. Certainly, black slaves weren't equal. Indentured servants weren't equal. Not even people who owned no property were equal to the landed gentry in the colonies. And, when Jefferson wrote "men," he didn't mean "mankind."

The Declaration of Independence must be seen in the proper context for what it was: A statement about what our country ought to be, though we may never actually attain it -- at least while us fallible humans remain in charge. It's also critical to know the context of the times. The argument over slavery was already roiling in the colonies, but it would be more than 80 years before it ended. It would take women 145 years to earn the right to vote. No one today believes it's appropriate to refer to any particular ethnic group as "savage" but Jefferson's words likely raised not a single eyebrow in the Continental Congress.

Those injustices, thankfully, are history. But they cannot be ignored as history. The more we know about where we came from, the easier it will be to get where we're going.

So when you read the Declaration of Independence again (and Lord knows, you should) read it all and strive to understand both it's historical context and it's dream for the nation.

Commentary on 07/09/2018

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