Today, July 14th, marks the 223rd anniversary of the Storming of the Bastille in 1789, the event that sparked the French Revolution.
While there were only seven prisoners – all freed – incarcerated at the time, the fortress was perhaps the most visible and most accessible symbol of a repressive royal authority that represented only the top 2% of the country. The other 98% were bound in an economic enslavement with a regressive tax system, meaning the richer one was, the less one paid.
Does any of that sound familiar?
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen – alongside our own Declaration of Independence one of the greatest documents of democratic principles – arose from the camaraderie and solidarity shown by the vanishing middle class and poor of Paris who fought back with a vengeance on this single day that changed the course of history.
Now celebrated as Bastille Day, it is to France what Independence Day is to America.
Happy Anniversary!
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Giving. . . And Taking Back
A Tale Of Two Grovers
A Last Pitch For Truth
America: Forget it, Jake. It’s Chinatown.
Gotcha!
