Senate of the
State of Minnesota
S.R. No. 62, as introduced: 85th Legislative Session (2007-2008) Posted on
March 24, 2007.
A senate resolution
celebrating March 25, 2007, as the 186th Anniversary of Greek Independence Day
WHEREAS, on March 25, 1821, the Feast Day of the Annunciation, the Greek nation
reclaimed its ancient heritage as the "Cradle of Democracy" by overthrowing the
yoke of
oppression which had enslaved its people since the fall of Constantinople in
1453;
and
WHEREAS, having been ruled by the Ottoman Turks for four centuries, Greece waged
a successful War
of Independence from 1821 to 1829 and reinstituted a democratic form of
government;
and
WHEREAS, it was the genius of Greece which first ignited the flame of freedom in
the 6th and 5th centuries B.C.,
when Athens introduced the idea of direct representative government under such
giants of western history as Pericles,
Sophocles, Euripides, Socrates, and Plato;
and
WHEREAS, Philip of Macedonia, his son Alexander the Great, and Alexander's
tutor, the philosopher Aristotle, were born and
raised in the northern province of Greece, Macedonia;
and
WHEREAS, the language and culture of the ancient Macedonians and the ancestors
of the inhabitants of Northern Greece
today were Hellenic;
and
WHEREAS, Pella, the palace where Alexander the Great was born, and Vergina, the
burial site of the Macedonia Kings, are all
located in northern Greece; NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the
State of Minnesota that it recognizes
the Hellenic history of ancient Macedonia and wishes the Greek community of
Minnesota a joyous anniversary.