Chris Matthews and the Declaration of Independence

Last week I had surgery on my lower back. Everything went fine; now I’m just recovering and resting, and able to do something that I rarely do—watch television.

When it comes to television I mainly watch the news, a football game, and perhaps an episode of Criminal Minds. Other than that, I prefer to spend my time reading and writing. The other night I caught The Jay Leno Show. There is a segment of the show during which Leno asks a celebrity ten questions. One evening Chris Matthews, the political pundit and host of MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews, played the game. At one point Leno asked Matthews to recite the first paragraph of the Declaration of Independence from memory, and within fifteen seconds. Matthews did so within ten seconds. The audience cheered and applauded him. I began to wonder—how many other people can recite the first paragraph of the Declaration of Independence?

Try it right now. Don’t grab a reference book; don’t search the Internet. And if you can’t recite it, maybe it’s time to read the Declaration of Independence again.