It feels good to be together again. We let the kids enjoy the KOA play areas and pool this afternoon. I enjoyed a quiet evening campfire with Chris.
Mosquitos. Itch.
**SUN 6/30 Historic Philadelphia
We had Philly cheese steaks for lunch--they are just called a cheese steak here.
There were a lot of festivities here today. The historic district was doing a week-long event in honor of Independence Day. We even a news crew out interviewing people in front of various places, and then BOOM!, while in line for the Liberty Bell center, we turn around and the Fox 29 news anchor asks if we will talk to her too--we didn't even see her coming. Well, yes why not... Addisyn and Piper answered what they were here to see into her microphone; I was surprised Marissa wouldn't talk. They did a nice job with the sound bites and we were able to record it that night when it aired on the
Philadelphia Fox 29 Evening News (click for video).
The Liberty Bell is now housed in a very nice building and you walk through an introduction to the meaning of civil liberty over the years on the way, so it felt pretty meaningful when we got to the bell itself. The park ranger did a good job of explaining how fragile the bell is. After explaining how the crack was stabilized/repaired, she eloquently explained how like the bell, our liberty and freedom may appear strong, but they are also very fragile. She said it in such a way that the mass of people inside were so silent for a moment after and I even got chills. The Liberty Bell was not always so named. The sixth president (John Q. Adams) was an abolitionist (against slavery) and referenced it as the Liberty Bell, and thus it got its new nickname.
Independence Hall was also not always called that. It was the Pennsylvania State House until used for the Continental Congress, with delegates from the 13 colonies. We stood right behind John Adams' desk. It gave more meaning to the pictorial scenes of history books to be standing right there and visualize specific people in action.
When it was the Pennsylvania Statehouse, it held all three branches of state government. The court was on one side, the representatives on the other side (the side that was used by the Continental Congress), and the governor would have been upstairs.
Three major documents were signed here:
-Declaration of Independence -- provided reasons for the revolution (i.e. complaints/grievances against the crown) and stated that laws should be decided by those they govern
-Articles of Confederation -- the agreements between the 13 independent colonies
-Constitution -- the bylaws our new founded country will operate by
It served as a capitol for a short time, as did Federal Hall in NY, before the Capital moved to the District of Columbia to be its own district so no colony would have ownership over it. (Hmmm, I get the word "district" since it's not a state, but why "Columbia"?) Today, 90% of the brickwork on this building is still original.
After a high recommendation this week, we decided to spend the other half of today visiting Eastern State Penitentiary. It was surprisingly fascinating. We did the self-guided audio tour, which opened the introduction with semantics--the Penitentiary holds pentants* (my brain rapidly starts processing the related words petulant and penance). It was designed to be a place for solitude and a place to think and become pennant. (The jail itself was not the punishment, just a place to wait for clogging and whipping.) Criminals were completely isolated here so they could think clearly. The solitary system also would keep illness at bay, and rowdy behavior too. Here, there was no such thing as a life-sentence. (*Even though when the audio tour said "pentants" as a plural noun it made perfect sense to me, I can't find it in the dictionary.)
Prisoners wore a hood when traversing the halls, so not to know the layout and also so prisoners would not recognize each other. In one wing, prisoners did not enter through the hall, but through the private exercise yard, and food would be delivered through small doors in the hall. They would get to bath every 2-3 weeks. There were 256 inmates originally, but then they added a second level and more wings to house more inmates.
The prison was expensive and controversial. There were no photos or fingerprints to track behavior after release back then, so there was no concrete way to know if the methods worked. Charles Dickens thought that solitude would drive men insane. The Pennsylvania system was being compared to the New York system. The solitude system didn’t last. Al Capone did stay here, in solitary, but his room seems to have more privilege, like wall artwork, a desk, and a radio he played music with.
The Penitentiary tour provided a place for guests to form our own opinions about the purpose of prisons and what kind of prison system is most effective for getting criminals to change their ways, providing appropriate punishment, preventing/deterring crime in the first place, and keeping the jail safe.
After dusk, we found a friend visit our campsite. This frog was about the size of Piper's fist and camouflaged very well in the dark ground. Small moments like this are fun.
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