My Fourth of July was bookended by two Presidents. 

 Once again, I had the honor of reading from the Declaration of Independence at the start of the Roland Park Parade.  Thomas Jefferson was its author.    

 I read the first two paragraphs and the last paragraph, adhering to Jefferson’s literary advice: “I would have written a shorter letter but I didn’t have the time.”

 —-  

 Since the Orioles played in the afternoon, my channel surfing took me to CSpan last night.     

 Robert Caro, the Lyndon Johnson biographer, spoke of LBJ’s “transferring passion to government action.”

 “Remind me of that when necessary,” I wrote two people I work with in Annapolis.