~Composing America~

Living in Today's American society, things such as the Gettysburg Address and the Declaration of Independence tend to get "overlooked" (I kno I do). Or if we take time to consider them we jus see them as being being offical national documents that govern certain rules over our land. It is not until I read the piece "Composing America" that I thought of these two documents as actual compositions. In the reading it says that we look at the Declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg Address (much like we view other public and published works) as being flawless or "perfect" in a sense. Many of us (including myself) have not thought about the actually writing process, all the editing, revising and proof reading, that took place in order to get to the official product. Viewing the three different edits of the Declaration of Independence was sort of amusing to look at. At one point the entire document was in a typed format. Even the signatures of hose involved. I wondered did it really make the document official if u type some ones signature? Another interesting thing the reading broke down were certain points n ideas we wouldn't normally think about. Such as the line "What we commemorate that day is the first complete assembly of the Declaration's words in type." Wouldn't it make more sense for us to celebrate the actual day the document was signed and nt the day it was printed? These ideas made me think about reading we use and view everyday in a totally different light.