July 4th is always a fun day around our house.   We usually have a nice cookout for the family, and get caught up in the celebrations of the day, including our family “tradition” of finding a public fireworks display, spreading out a quilt and enjoying the show.  And on those July 4th nights where the show is choreographed with patriotic music (as it often is when we go to the truly spectacular downtown Nashville display), it’s that much more enjoyable.  But for me, the celebration doesn’t become quite “real” until July 8th.

For me, July 8th is the day I feel most like celebrating.

July 8th is the anniversary of the first PUBLIC readings of the Declaration of Independence. In three places, Philadelphia, Trenton NJ, and Easton PA, the PEOPLE actually heard, for the very first time, what all those old guys with powdered wigs in the Pennsylvania State House (which we now know as Independence Hall) had been working on and had signed and formally adopted just a few days before.

A bit of personal back-story …

For reasons lost to history, Johann Adam Schauss decided, along with his wife Maria Baum Schauss to make the journey from Germany to the “New World”, braving storms, dark passage, and disease aboard the Dutch merchant ship the Harle in 1734. Sailing from Rotterdam, they took their two sons, Friederich and Phillip with them. I can’t imagine the difficult decision it must have been to pull up roots from the country they knew as “home”, and move.  Statistics show that an average of almost thirty percent of those who began such passage did not live to see the other side of the ocean.  This is something which Johann and Maria would have known in making their decision.  It really was a gamble of the highest order. How many of us today would decide to take even a vacation drive, if you knew there was a 1 in 3 chance of not reaching the destination alive??  Much less, to uproot your life, sell your lands and possessions, take little more than what you could carry in a trunk or two, and cross the ocean for a totally uncertain future. But Johann and Maria, like so many others, did just that. What forces led them to such a decision??

Upon arrival in America, the Harle sailed into the Chesapeake Bay, and up the Delaware River, docking in Philadelphia. Johann, Maria, Freiderich, and Phillip soon made their way 70 miles to the north to the town of Easton, PA, where they settled down and began a new life.  Once again, lost to history is the reason that Easton was chosen.  In any case, Johann became, as he had been back in Albisheim, Germany, a miller.  He was my great great great great great great great grandfather. In the new world, Johann and Maria would have more children. Phillip, as an adult, moved south and his descendants eventually settled mostly in North Carolina. Friederich stayed in Easton, and like his father became a miller. He also changed his last name, as so many immigrants families did, to a more “American” sort of spelling.  Shouse. Records show that their family mill was just a block or two off of the main town square in Easton. My lineage of the Shouse family is directly descended from Friederich, through his son Jacob, who was born in September of 1764.

Skip ahead a few years…..

Thomas Paine, the English pamphleteer, radical, and intellectual, had published (anonymously)  on January 10th, 1776, the short 46 page treatise called simply, “Common Sense”. In this short essay, he raised some truly radical ideas. And he raised them, really for the first time, in common language accessible by the typical Colonist who had little formal education. Among these were such ideas/questions as “Why do we NEED to be subject to a monarch that resides across the ocean and understands precious little about our reality, here in this place?” “Why does he even get to BE king? Just because HIS distant ancestors defeated some enemies, they get to rule forever?? Why?? ” And these wonderful quotes below which are extracted directly from the text.

“A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom.”

and

“In the early ages of the world, according to the scripture chronology there were no kings; the consequence of which was, there were no wars; it is the pride of kings which throws mankind into confusion.”

and

“Small islands not capable of protecting themselves are the proper objects for kingdoms to take under their care; but there is something very absurd in supposing a continent to be perpetually governed by an island.”

To say that “Common Sense” was popular misses the point. It sold within the year over half a million copies. It was even more widely read for a time than the bible. It was often read and debated and discussed in public houses, inns, town halls, etc.

So, the PEOPLE were overwhelmingly primed and ready for not only the IDEA of “independence” but also, to stand up and lay everything on the line to secure it. Everything.  One more quote from “Common Sense” : “Wherefore, since nothing but blows will do, for God’s sake let us come to a final separation.. . “

It is against THIS backdrop that Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, Washington, Hancock, etc. gathered to plan a course of action.   And it was for a populace primed by events of the day and by Thomas Paine’s powerful words that Declaration of Independence was written and signed.

And it is against this backdrop that the citizens of Philadelphia, Trenton and Easton turned out on July 8th to hear this new “Declaration” read.

I’m pretty sure that in 1776 in a small town like Easton, the public reading of ANY document in the town square would be a big event. The public reading of THIS document … a document which the citizens KNEW would surely be seen by the monarchy and by loyalists to England as completely seditious, was a momentous occasion.

In all likelihood, Friederich Shouse and his 12 year-old son Jacob Shouse, were at the reading in Easton, which took place in the town sqaure 233 years ago on July 8th, just a block or so from the family home attached to the mill.   I sure hope so.  It fills me with no small measure of pride and wonder to think my great great great great great grandfather, as a 12 year-old boy would have been there to hear those words.  To see and hear the reaction of the people.  Those who were riled up.  Those who may have tended to want to avoid conflict at all costs. And those loyal to the crown.

What went through their heads as they heard those words… .those eloquent words…. spoken aloud in the public square? “We Hold THESE truths to be self-evident, that ALL men are created equal and are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights. That among those are Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness”

Did they know how much their lives would change? I do not know if Friederich fought in the Revolution. He would have been in his mid-50’s … my age now.  I do know that he died in 1788 at the age of 63, so if he fought, he survived. And what is more, I know that Jacob grew up as a free citizen of the UNITED States of America, not a subject of a distant monarch.

And I know that Jacob, along with his wife Catherine, gave birth to Bernard. Bernard Shouse and his wife Rachel gave birth to John Shouse (!) in 1823.  John and his wife Sarah had a son he named Henry Harrison Shouse. Henry and his wife Mattie had a son, Ora Linton Shouse. Ora and Minnie had Dorsey. Dorsey and Helen had me. I and my wife Janet have Emma and Evan and Brendan.

I am grateful that Johann Adam and Maria Schauss decided to board the Harle in Rotterdam, with two young children, and to bravely face an uncertain future.  I am grateful that Friedrich and his wife Eva and 12-year-old Jacob and his siblings were there to watch (and to maybe have a hand in) this country … this independent nation … being born.

When was the last time YOU read the Declaration of Independence all the way through, and thought about it in the context of personal history?? Ever? Maybe you can’t trace names and dates and places like I’ve done here, but you CAN read this and think about what it means to have had family in the distant past who made hard, hard decisions to leave homelands, and come to this place. THIS place… and create a better life for themselves and those who would come after. (By the way….that’ s us.)

Read the Declaration through.

Give thanks.

Yes, we have problems in this country.  Yes, many (most?) of these problems are of our own doing. But, regardless of what kind of political “label” you wear…. Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, independent, liberal, conservative, etc., etc., I think we can ALL agree that THIS place is unique, and certainly among the best places on earth.  Many would say THE best, and I would not presume to argue that point.

We are able to give thanks and make such a bold declaration of  our own in all confidence, precisely BECAUSE of the principles contained in the Declaration, and in the Constitution, and in the Bill of Rights, and yes even in “Common Sense”.

Read these words below.   I’ve started a tradition myself of reading them aloud every July 8th.   Yeah, it takes a few minutes.  But, give it a try.  You owe it to yourself to take that time.

You owe it to your own ancestors and mine, who gave up more than we will ever know so that WE could have it better.

The following was written just for us.

love,
John.

****************************************

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776. The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with 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 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 to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. 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 these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured 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.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

 Massachusetts

John Hancock
Samuel Adams
John Adams
Robert Treat Paine
Elbridge Gerry

New Hampshire

 Josiah Bartlett
William Whipple
Matthew Thornton

Rhode Island

Stephen Hopkins
William Ellery

 Connecticut

Roger Sherman
Samuel Huntington
William Williams
Oliver Wolcott

New York

William Floyd
Philip Livingston
Francis Lewis
Lewis Morris

New Jersey

Abraham Clark
John Hart
Francis Hopkinson
Richard Stockton
John Witherspoon

Pennsylvania

George Clymer
Benjamin Franklin
Robert Morris
John Morton
George Ross
Benjamin Rush
James Smith
George Taylor
James Wilson

Delaware

Thomas McKean
George Read
Caesar Rodney

Maryland

Charles Carrol
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone

Virginia

Carter Braxton
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Jefferson
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
George Wythe

North Carolina

Joseph Hewes
William Hooper
John Penn

South Carolina

Thomas Heyward, Jr.
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Arthur Middleton
Edward Rutledge

Georgia

Button Gwinnett
Lyman Hall
George Walton

Yep… nothing like a ‘dog at the the ballpark.  In Nashville we have “The Sounds” , our minor league team (currently affiliated with the Milwaukee Brewers).  It’s hard to beat going out to the park on “Dollar Dog” night, getting about 3 of ’em and a “hand cramper”  (beer so cold it does just that), and then head on down for a prime seat on the first base line.   One of the great things about minor-league baseball at this level, it’s usually possible to make the decision late in the afternoon on game day that you want to go that night, and still get GREAT seats.   Sometimes I just go by myself. Sometimes I take my boys.    Either way, it’s special.

Back a little over four decades ago, like many kids my age, I had a baseball card collection.   I’m sure at least SOME of them came from the Woolworth “5 and 10”.   For you youngsters, that means they sell things for a nickel or a dime.   In fact, we CALLED it “the dime store”.  Some of them may have come from the drugstore too.  Or the gas station.  We didn’t HAVE “convenience stores”, presumably because there was no need.  People were seldom inconvenienced in those days. Continue Reading →

I took a part time job working as a TV Repairman when I was still an Electrical Engineering  student in college.   I worked for one of the older and more established “TV shops” in town, and did out-call service and repair in people’s homes.

There were many “life lessons” I learned on that  job.    One is that there are some truly amazing and wonderful people… the “salt of the earth”…. at ALL places on the social/economic spectrum.  On the other hand, there are mean, nasty, self-serving people everywhere too.     There are slovenly folks sometimes living in that million-dollar “mansion on the hill”, which ought to be condemned as a public health hazard.  And just as surely, there are people for whom you wonder where their next meal is coming from who keep such a clean house that no stray speck of dust or piece of clutter could find a place to land.  I’ve been in the homes of people with basically nothing, who would gladly share their last morsel with you or the shirt off their backs if you needed it.   The opposite is just as likely to be true … people with an air of entitlement who would never consider being spontaneously kind or giving, because to them that’s not the way their world works.    I’ve tried to never forget that lesson… those contrasts.  I’ve tried to make it a point to try get to know “ordinary people” wherever I go, and to always give the new people I meet the benefit of the doubt.   Maybe its because I’ve lived my entire life in either the Midwest or the South, but my personal experience is that “good plain folks” are more often the rule than the exception.

I want to share a story from that TV repair job.   This is a true story,  but I’ve not shared this with very many people.  I’ve always felt it to be sort of a “private” memory.   I can’t say exactly why I’m doing so now, but somehow here in this place it seems like a good time to tell the story…. Continue Reading →

In the early days of May, 2010, many parts of Nashville were devastated by major flooding, such as had never been seen in this area.  The rivers were so backed up and the ground so saturated, that even tiny drainage ditches sometimes became raging torrents.  Rivers like the Harpeth, Mill Creek, and of course the Cumberland were further out of their banks than anyone could possibly imagine.  So many lives were touched, thousands lost homes, places of business, etc.  Many areas of downtown, especially those nearest the river were underwater for days.   Because the area is so hilly, the flooding was unpredictable and frankly, a little strange.  There would be a neighborhood where dozens or hundreds of homes would be a total loss, then a street or two over, no high water at all.  This “random” nature led to (I think) a spirit where thousands upon thousands of folks just rolled up their sleeves and pitched in to help.   I wrote the following piece on Thursday, May 6th.  

In the aftermath of the Nashville floods, stories abound of people offering extraordinary service to others.  I want to share one simple act that I encountered that just took me completely by surprise and moved me quite deeply because of its profound generosity.

Like most everyone in the Nashville area, we know numerous folks who were affected by the floods. Yesterday, my 14 year-old son Brendan and I went to help in the cleanup for some friends whose home was destroyed.  As the Harpeth River swelled beyond its banks, Mark & Cindy’s house had begun to fill with water, and like so many others they lost essentially everything.  They made it out with many of their family photographs, a few cherished mementos, and some of their clothing, but everything else …  EVERYTHING else … was a complete loss, including the house itself. Continue Reading →

It’s funny how sometimes the least little thing can trigger a distant memory.   Maybe it’s brought on by some piece of insignificant trivia from years ago,  or a casual reference to a time and place you’ve lived through, or a taste, or even a smell.    Whatever the trigger,  suddenly  it’s story time and from wherever it is they’ve been lurking, the memories and stories come pouring in like a flood.

Stories.   I love to tell ’em, and I love to hear ’em.   So here are a few random memories of mine.

I remember when I was probably about 8 or 9 years old, going down to the railroad depot in my hometown, watching the passenger trains roll through, Continue Reading →

Introduction:  I wrote the following piece about a dozen years ago, sometime in the summer of the year 2000, after a trip to my hometown in Missouri to attend a high school reunion.  My two sons, Evan and Brendan, went with me, as they were always eager for a trip to visit their grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.   The story below is one of the most powerful memories I have of my son Evan (who has autism) and my dad together.   This story has been reprinted several times in various publications, including Breaking Ground, the magazine of the Tennessee Council on Developmental Disabilities, and in Autism Spectrum Quarterly.

Dad passed away in the summer of 2003.   I think of him every day and look back and smile.  The pain of his passing has subsided of course, but the emptiness of not having him here still occasionally rises up within me.   The lessons he taught me by the way that he lived his life are stronger now than ever.   I feel like I best honor his memory as I try to live my own life in such a way as to have a similar impact on my own children.    –John Shouse  

I didn’t back get home to my parents house from my high-school reunion until well after midnight.  In the early morning hours, just before 5:00 AM, after only a few hours sleep, I was awakened by Evan’s terrified, high-pitched scream.  The boys were sleeping on a pallet of blankets and sleeping bags and pillows on the floor at the foot of my bed.  Evan had either been having a bad dream, or had awakened not knowing where he was  and went into a panic. Probably both. Continue Reading →

I was asked not long ago to name the one person who was most influential in my choosing the career that I have.

This was a simple question that didn’t really require any contemplation.    It was definitely my dad.

Dorsey Shouse

For many years, dad headed up the “Electric Shop” at AP Green, the largest employer in my small hometown of Mexico Missouri.  AP Green was a manufacturer of “Fire Bricks”, which are a refractories product.  This means that the bricks, etc., that were made by “Green’s”, were able to withstand extraordinarily high heat, and still maintain their physical properties and integrity.  So these bricks were used to line kilns, industrial ovens, iron ore blast furnaces (the steel industry was the single biggest driver of sales of these bricks), reactors, etc.   Perhaps the coolest thing of all though …. and every school kid in Mexico Missouri knew this tidbit …. was that the launch pads at Cape Canaveral (later Cape Kennedy) were made from AP Green Firebrick.   Yep.   Every time we watched those great big rockets on TV launch into space… from Alan Shepard to John Glenn to Neil Armstrong and beyond, they all took off on a little piece of our hometown.   And just as cool, we all knew that we lived in the “Firebrick and Saddle Horse Capital of the World”.   But that’s another story.  Several more stories actually. Continue Reading →

I was looking through some  old emails to find something else, and stumbled across this piece I wrote in another life.  1999 or 2000 …. or somewhere about then.   It says LA. Story – Part II.   I liked this piece when I wrote it, and am glad to have found it. I was in LA on a business trip, but took a couple of extra days of personal time just to explore since I’d never been there before. 

LA Story – Part I dealt with a Friday late night drive up the PCH to Malibu, I was in a white Mustang convertible with tunes blaring and the top down, and it was a glorious trip  Then a spur-of-the-moment decision to drive up north out of L.A.early the next morning, Saturday, through Bakersfield and the San Joaquin Valley, all the way up to Sequoia National Forest and back.     But I think that story, as written, may be lost forever.   It was a great day from start to finish.

So Part II, here, deals with my experience at the LAX airport Sunday morning, waiting for my return flight to Nashville.   Every one of these vignettes to follow is true… either entirely or mostly…. based on observations as I was just killing time very early that morning on a bench, curbside, at the airport waiting for a later flight.  Hope you enjoy ….

I’m sitting at the airport in Los Angeles, LAX, waiting for my flight back to Nashville.  For reasons unnecessary to explain, I ended up getting up at 4:30 LA time after a whopping 1 hour of sleep.  I needed to get to the airport, turn in my rental car…. a white Mustang convertible …  and get checked in for a 7:00 AM flight.  HOWEVER, I ended up not being able to get on that flight (I was on stand-by, and would have had to pay an upgrade anyway), so I sat waiting for the next non-stop to Nashville at 11:35.  Since the airport policy is that you can’t check your bags more than four hours prior to flight time, and since there was no really good inviting place to sit INSIDE, I ended up sitting outside on a bench at the curb, experiencing early morning LA.

I watched the sun come up over the smog, definitely a weird sight for a small-town boy.  It was interesting that when I got to LAX a couple of days ago, I was dressed for a business meeting in suit and tie, and I was walking through the airport like a man on a mission.  Today however, I was in jeans and hiking boots and comfortable Hawaiian shirt, and was in no particular hurry to get anyplace in particular.  The other day in the suit I was pretty left much alone.  Today, taking my time and dressed casually, I was approached by three separate people looking for a handout.

Where I was sitting outside passing the time, I had a ringside seat as a variety of travelers showed up (many seemingly in a stressed out rush), and dealt with their own minutiae of arrival and preparing for air travel.  As a confirmed “people watcher” this was not a wholly odious task.  It was rather enjoyable actually, if admittedly somewhat voyeuristic.   Here is my version of their stories. Continue Reading →