Tag Archives: Maryland

“A Republic, if you can keep it.”

July 4, 2017 Eric Robert Nolan Leave a comment

Happy Independence Day, all! Enjoy any celebrations you might attend, and please be safe.

The quote above is attributed to Benjamin Franklin. Upon exiting the Constitutional Convention in 1787, he was asked by a bystander what form of government the delegates had created:

“Well, Doctor, what have we got—a Republic or a Monarchy?”

“A Republic, if you can keep it.”

His reply was documented by Dr. James McHenry, the delegate from Maryland.

The imperative implied in Franklin’s words is the same as what Thomas Jefferson expressed when he warned us that “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.”

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Photo credit: By U.S. Department of Defense Current Photos (120504-M-IX426-237) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

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Riverside Park, Virginia (photos)

March 29, 2016 Eric Robert Nolan Leave a comment

A friend and I went to Riverside Park this Saturday, searching for eagles along the Potomac River; if our bird-search was in vain, it was still a nice walk. We actually did spot a ginormous nest — that thing was larger than my first apartment.

A friendly inveterate birder along the walk also pointed out a treetop where one bird habitually roosted — it gave the eagle a vantage point of the river and its abundance of tasty fish. You can pick out the roost easily among the highest branches of the treetop, because its bark and foliage have been scraped away entirely by the eagle’s claws.

That building on the opposite shore in the second-to-last photo is Fort Washington in Maryland.

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