Durango absorbs the inspiring words of our forefathers
Greg Childress, front, and Casey Morrison of the Durango Fire Protection District march up Main Avenue during the Fourth of July parade Saturday evening in downtown Durango.
Steve Lewis/Durango Herald
The weather held out for the parade, for the most part, but by the time the Fourth of July fireworks came around, there was a steady downpour in downtown Durango. Some fans braved the rain to watch the show.
Steve Lewis/Durango Herald
Members of the Durango Fire Protection District carry a large American flag down Main Avenue on Saturday during the Fourth of July Stars and Stripes parade in downtown Durango.
Shaun Stanley/Durango Herald
Steve Lewis/Durango Herald - The Durango chapter of the Blue Star Mothers of America displayed a memorial honoring fallen service men and women on Saturday in Bayfield.
Steve Lewis/Durango Herald - Eden Copeland, daughter of Alan and Hanna Copeland of Loveland, immerses herself in bubbles after the Fourth of July parade on Saturday in Bayfield.
Steve Lewis/Durango Herald - Throngs of people turned out for the Fourth of July parade on Saturday in downtown Bayfield.
Steve Lewis/Durango Herald - Andrew Petersen and his son, Sam Petersen, 10, watch as the color guard passes during the Fourth of July parade on Saturday in downtown Bayfield. Sam's mom is Kelli Petersen.
Steve Lewis/Durango Herald - One-year-old Gabriella Alewine, daughter of Keith and Rachelle Alewine, watches the Fourth of July parade on Saturday in downtown Bayfield.
Steve Lewis/Durango Herald - Johnny Bologna, right, of Roadhouse Pizza-N-Wings at the Billy Goat Saloon spins pizza dough during the Fourth of July parade on Saturday in downtown Bayfield.
Steve Lewis/Durango Herald - Parade goers get some relief from the heat during the Fourth of July parade on Saturday in downtown Bayfield.
Steve Lewis/Durango Herald - Kids beg for a spray of water during the Fourth of July parade on Saturday in downtown Bayfield.
Steve Lewis/Durango Herald - Cindy Bernard, left, Pete Cardwell, center, and Jayleen Kerr hold up photos of family members in the service during the Fourth of July parade on Saturday in downtown Bayfield. At left is Amy Bernard, serving with the U.S. Marines, and at right is Serenity O'Malley, seving with the U.S. Army.
Steve Lewis/Durango Herald - "He's a pretty mellow cat," said Missy Sarnow of "Rags," her six-year-old ragsdale cat who participated in the pet parade, which preceded the Fourth of July parade on Saturday in downtown Bayfield.
Steve Lewis/Durango Herald - Hoss, left, and Ruger, six-year-old sibling pitbull/mastiffs owned by Ryan Mossman of Albuquerque, take in the Fourth of July parade on Saturday in downtown Bayfield.
Steve Lewis/Durango Herald - Cindy and Michael Salyards of Minneapolis dance with their kids, Lily, 10, left, and Ellison, 7, during the Fourth of July street dance on Saturday evening in downtown Durango.
Steve Lewis/Durango Herald - Andrew Lovato, left, and Tammy Anderson of Albuquerque dance to The High Rollers on Saturday evening in downtown Durango.
Steve Lewis/Durango Herald - The color guard leads the Fourth of July parade on Saturday evening in downtown Durango.
Steve Lewis/Durango Herald - Greg Childress, front, and Casey Morrison of the Durango Fire Protection District march up Main Avenue during the Fourth of July parade on Saturday evening in downtown Durango.
Steve Lewis/Durango Herald - Fiesta Days junior princess Mickey Canterbury, 12, left, and Fiesta Days queen Hannah Looman, 17, head up Main Avenue during the Fourth of July parade on Saturday evening in downtown Durango. Mickey is the daughter of Kendra Canterbury, and Hannah is the daughter of Phillip Loomin.
Steve Lewis/Durango Herald - Uncle Sam made an appearance on Main Avenue during the Fourth of July parade on Saturday evening in downtown Durango.
Steve Lewis/Durango Herald - The weather held out for the parade, for the most part, but by the time the Fourth of July fireworks came around, there was a steady downpour in downtown Durango.
Had the great American patriot Frederick Douglass attended “American Voices” alongside more than 100 Durango residents Saturday morning in Buckley Park, it's likely that the former slave who wrote “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” would have approved of what he heard.
This year's program featured a series of public readings from America's founding documents that included staples such as the Declaration of Independence, as well as its citizens' seminal dissents, such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton's Declaration of Sentiments.
The event ended the same way it kicked off: with Yvonne Bilinski, director of the Fort Lewis College Native American Center, reading the Haudenosaunee People's Thanksgiving Address – a deliberately inclusive blessing that 15 times invoked the phrase, “Now our minds are one.”
When speakers read from John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, the audience nodded at the usual shuddering phrases – “consent of the governed,” “equal and exact justice to all men,” “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
But attendees smiled later, as William Mangrum read Theodore Roosevelt's “Conservation is a National Duty” and Ayla Moore and Brent Williams gave voice to Harriet Tubman's ferocious reclamation of the American dream:
“I had reasoned this out in my mind: There was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other.”
Organizer Elizabeth Bussian, director of community relations at FLC, said the readings were selected to acknowledge the inspiring, complicated, brutal and often contradictory legacy of freedom in America – a republic founded by slave-owners; a democracy that proclaimed “all men created equal” but denied all women a vote, education and ownership of their own money; a revolution against tyranny that spilled more Native American blood than tea into the Boston Harbor.
“This holiday is serious,” Bussian said.
Ginger Williams, who sat in the park with her son Nigel, 1, said it was impossible to listen and not marvel at how far the country had come.
“My favorite revolutionary phrase is: 'We the people.' But I think about using it to include, not exclude, as it has been used throughout our history,” Williams said.
As Andrew Gulliford read aloud Jefferson's promises – “freedom of religion, freedom of the press and freedom of person,” three little girls, their cheeks emblazoned with face paint of the stars and stripes, ran around the green grass barefoot and laughing, worthy heirs to a more perfect union.