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The day after the celebration for Independence Day is proving to be a big letdown. Cathy moans about not being allowed to set off any fireworks the night before. She can’t understand why it’s OK for some folks to light firecrackers, and others not. Also, where an appropriate time and place is. bud is on his perpetual quest to get a motor scooter, while Betty is in full Drama queen mode to complain about fashions.
Jim tries to bring focus to how people have lost sight of what being independent; and free is all about. In something of a flashback soliloquy, the Andersons transport themselves to colonial times for a morning at the breakfast table. Complaints about food, not finding shoe buckles, and dad’s concern that the kids think he’s old fashioned are present, even back then. Bud… er… Jamie complains about not having a horse, and still is tasked with opening the front door. Resistance to a taxation act has neighbor, Elizabeth, up in arms over her husband Hector and the authorities.
In their time transformed home, the Andersons continue their early American drama. A courtroom scene finds Hector being tried, with Jim defending him. Should he just plead guilty, or is this the time to make a stand on principle. Will Jim’s demand for freedom, justice, and the right to speak go over with the judge? The sound of gunfire in the background punctuates his speech on the new ideal of the American dream.
Back in the present, the kids continue to learn facts about the Declaration of Independence. They may not fully grasp Jim’s lecture, but something of a toehold of understanding is creeping in.
