Jim Miller cares deeply about the Declaration of Independence. He’s spent a lot of time studying it, word by word, line by line. He’s on his second reading of “The Making of the American Mind: The Story of our Declaration of Independence,” by Matthew Spalding, and he’s getting even more out of it this time around.
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Humans are averse to change. They’ll tolerate a lot to maintain the status quo and stay within their comfort zone, because to do otherwise creates anxiety and feels dangerous.
But you can reach a tipping point. A point where you realize staying where you are is more damaging than risking it for something better.
People living in the 13 colonies were there. They had done their best to live under British rule, but they had reached their limit. In June 1776, they had Thomas Jefferson put a list of their grievances on paper, outlining how they had been taxed, harassed, denied justice, and cut off from trade. How their resources had been plundered, homes destroyed, and people killed. They said this is it; we’re done. Our lives will no longer be dictated by the King of Great Britain.
That parchment document is faded and worn 250 years later, but generations of Americans have done everything they can to preserve it. It helps explain why the colonies decided to strike out on their own. And it suggests underlying principles for how the new country intended to go forward.
Jim Miller cares deeply about this document. He’s spent a lot of time studying it, word by word, line by line. He’s on his second reading of “The Making of the American Mind: The Story of our Declaration of Independence,” by Matthew Spalding, and he’s getting even more out of it this time around.
“We call it the Declaration of Independence, and I didn’t know this: the word ‘independence’ is not in the Declaration,” he says. “As a matter of fact, the title of the Declaration is ‘In Congress, July 4, 1776.’”
Miller is preparing for the presentation on the Declaration he’s going to give at Fall Festival on at noon on Saturday, Sept. 26. He knows he has a challenge in front of him because people can tune out quickly, but he’s hoping to engage them, and that they’ll ask questions.
“I want to make it fun, that’s what I want,” he says. “I’m not trying to teach. I want to draw people in so that they’re going, ‘You know what? I want to learn that too.’”
A love of history
Why is American history so important to him?
Miller points to an 11th grade teacher who was excited about the subject. He wonders if it’s genetic, as one of his grandfathers was a history buff. But his military service may be the most influential factor.
“I went into service in 1965 in the U.S. Navy, and something happened to me when I raised my right hand. It was like I realized that I could come home or not come home,” he says. “It was just before the peak of Vietnam. I enlisted in August of ‘65, and there were 100,000 that got drafted in September ’65.”
After 10 months of cooking and cleaning at a naval air station in Florida, Miller was sent to school in Pensacola, where he had a week to learn Morse code -- a necessity if he was going to listen to encrypted messages from foreign countries. The men were under intense pressure to pick it up quickly.
“I still have a picture of our class initially, and we had about 30-35 guys,” he says. “By the end, there was only 22.”
Miller wasn’t the first in his family to defend the country; his great-great-grandfather fought in the Civil War (including the Battle of Antietam), both of his grandfathers fought in World War I, and his dad fought in World War II and Korea.
With a heritage like that, so intertwined with key moments in the story of America, it would be hard to imagine him indifferent to the country, its history and its future.
“I did not get a degree, so I am not an expert,” Miller says. “But I think in some ways, a love for something has more force than somebody that knows all the quotes, who knows everything. Because you’re feeling it, and that guy’s just giving you information.”
Which is not to say Miller doesn’t study, because he does. Not only does he enjoy spending hours in museums, but he’s also taken “about 11 courses, four of them on the Constitution” from Hillsdale College, a private school that offers a catalog of free lecture-based online courses.
“I recommend that to anybody,” he says. “I’m 80 years old, and I’m doing it . . . That’s where I really learn stuff and get more hungry. And then I read books.”
Which brings us back to “The Making of the American Mind.”
“[Spaulding] says in this book, the memory of your life is recorded in your brain. That’s your history. When you lose that, you’re not a person anymore,” Miller says. “My mom had Alzheimer’s. She was just lying there; she was a body with no mind. He says it’s the same with nations. If they don’t know their history and who they are and where they came from, they’re no longer there. It’s like the country’s got dementia.”
Why the Declaration still matters
The Declaration of Independence is the founding document of the United States of America. Ten generations after its creation, the ideas contained in the Declaration still resonate with Americans: that all people are created equal and that we possess certain unalienable rights, including “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
“Most people don’t know anything about it,” Miller says, and he hopes to change that. “I want to have them understand that this document is just not a bunch of words.”
Jim Miller will present on the Declaration of Independence on Saturday, Sept. 26 at noon at Kalona Fall Festival, Kalona Historical Village. Consider reading the Declaration in advance; Miller welcomes your questions.
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