As I was reading the exhibits about how the Liberty Bell has been adopted as a symbol for these different causes, I witnessed another example of how sometimes history’s important stories go unheard. I saw a group of young African-American girls that appeared to be in a camp group run over to where I was standing, between the women’s rights exhibit and the civil rights exhibit. They excitedly asked their counselor to take their picture with the large of photo of Martin Luther King, Jr. and ran off, never having given a second look to the women’s suffrage exhibit with the picture of Susan B. Anthony, even though as young African-American girls, both of those histories are important for them. It made me think of how certain parts of our history are given more credit- I know I learned about Dr. King and Rosa Parks probably every year of my education, but I think women’s suffrage was maybe one day’s lesson plan in 8th grade. I still don’t know that I’d recognize a picture of Susan B. Anthony or any of the other suffragists outside of a labeled museum exhibit.
Seeing the Liberty Bell made me think of what the word liberty means. Liberty is defined as “autonomy; immunity from arbitrary exercise of authority; political independence.” One of the phrases from the preamble to our Constitution is to “secure the blessings of liberty…”. That is one of the tasks adopted by “we the people” in writing the Constitution. What exactly does this mean? I would say that we have seen examples of people trying to preserve the blessings of liberty in several places: the exhibits about Central High School, the Navajo government offices when they spoke of trying to make their own rules for the education of their children, the Alamo where we heard about a few soldiers’ fight for independence, in Boston along the Freedom Trail, and in the answers of people across the country when we asked them what it means to be American and they responded that it means to be free to decide how our government is run and to have the right to live your life the way you choose as long as you are not causing harm to others. Then again, we heard lots of people expressing concern that the current administration is infringing on personal liberty and will continue to do so. I suppose depending on who you ask, you will get different definitions of the balance between governmental services and personal liberty. But judging by the people we spoke with at the museum displaying the bell, the Liberty Bell continues to stand as a symbol for those in the past who fought for America’s independence and a beacon of hope that our country will continue to be a nation that values that.
We had lunch at the Reading Market, which had a bunch of different ethnic food vendors and also several shops selling Amish wares. I had my first official Philly cheese steak and it was delicious. We walked around the city and saw Love Park and the beautiful old city hall, where we had a class discussion. Then we traveled to North Philadelphia, the Kensington neighborhood area, to meet with the leaders and participants of a Christian organization called Mission Year, which enables college-age people to live in impoverished communities, like North Philly, and do volunteer work within the community. It was really interesting to hear their perspectives on this other part of the city that most visitors rarely venture into. They welcomed us into their home office, had dinner with us and spent several hours talking with us about the time they had spent in Philadelphia. We all had a really nice time and returned late to the bus to head towards our next stop- the nation’s capital.
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