Welcome to the Year 2176...
Quick - when was America born? 1776, right? They made a really big deal about her 200th birthday in 1976, after all. So you can imagine my surprise when I saw a link to this site: www.americas400thanniversary.com.
Turns out it's not some Star Trek inspired wormhole into the year 2176, but rather a celebration of the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, VA, the first permanent setttlement in the New World (well, OK, the first permanent settlement by Europeans in the New World - the Indians were already here if I remember correctly).
Now, I'm all for anniversary parties, especially when the anniversary number has two whole zeroes in it and all, but the 400th Anniversary of America? Isn't that just a bit disingenuous?
I wish people would just call things what they are. So Happy 400th Anniversary to the town of Jamestown, VA. Join us a month from now for America's 230th. I hear they're having fireworks this year...
posted by Brian at
9:21 AM
1 Comments:
Actually, what amuses me isn't so much claiming that it's America's anniversary -- given the influence the Virginians had on early American development, that's not that far-fetched a claim.
What amuses me is the phrase "first permanent settlement". It's not like Roanoke intended to be temporary. And we've (extended collective "we", here) only been here for four centuries; the native Americans were here for between 100 and 300 centuries, depending on which tribe and which migration you're talking about. Heck, the Mayan and Incan empires both lasted longer than we have, IIRC.
But if the Virginians want to pretend that 400 years is a long time, well, that's their privilege. They have so many quaint customs.
By
Jeff Porten, at 1:48 AM, June 06, 2006
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