Special Edition Yank, Independence Day

The 4th of July is one of those days that gets lost a little bit as a day off in the summer, maybe a whole week off work to observe American Independence as it’s “mission”. Lots of big shows, races, barbecues, boat rides, fire works, you name it. But do we ever actually read the document those founders wrote and really give it our thoughts and ask does it mean anything to us today, 243 years later? Unless you are a student of history probably not! So our mission of the day was to do an upbeat workout and then read this declaration aloud to see what it was all about. Went like this:

COP:

Warm up and stretching.

SSH X 20

IW X 20

Merkins X 15

LBCs X 20

Mosey up to the Field of Dreams for a set of blimps

Partner up for BLIMPS, Burpees, Lunges, IWs, Merkins, Plank Jacks, Squats,

Partner 1: Run a lap around the track.

Partner 2: do the “BLIMP” exercise.

Flapjack P1 and P2 upon lap completion. Repeat until we get through the whole BLIMP set.

Move on over to Heartbreak Hill for a set of Half Pipes.

Top of Heartbreak: jump squats X 5

Pad: Burpees X 5

Top of stairs: monkey humpers (butt to the street) X 5

3 repeats of the half pipe, takes @ 12 minutes and has everyone gassed. (Note: After looking at the half pipe in practice you can figure 1 round takes an entire pax @ 4-5 minutes total.

Back to the pad for some warm down stretching and the ceremony

Followup by the statue of The Fighting Yank;

Pledge of Allegiance, then reading the Declaration of Independence YHC had broken down into @ 17 parts for each pax to read. it’s a lot more than the preamble about being endowed by our creator but without that it doesn’t mean anything.  I would highly recommend anybody getting this weekend’s Wall Street Journal that discusses it pretty in depth. It says a lot about what Jefferson, Adams, and Franklin were thinking when they wrote it. And it wasn’t about them. It was about us. And those who come after us. Everywhere.

Sam gave us some words based on Paul Harvey’s July 4, 1974 radio show, a time I well remember as a real low point in the nation’s history. 5 weeks later the president would resign. South Vietnam was collapsing after the US pull out in March 1973. The US economy was beginning to see the inflation that would cripple it until the early 1980s. And the first round of gas lines had occurred along with a close call with nuclear war in October 1973. Talk about a crisis of confidence.

Sam talked about how the signers fro the most part of the declaration suffered pretty badly as a result of their staking out of their positions. They were all men of means, all leaders in their communities, states, and then some semblance of a nation. in most cases they either died during the war or lost everything they had as a result of the war. It was not pretty. So it was in fact an act of sacrificial leadership. With a whole lot of virtue as well.

YHC plans to do this every year by The Fighting Yank. For reasons illustrated above. Come by and listen or if you are motivated help us read! It means a lot.

Happy 4th! And keep it going!