Council leader urges President Obama to back Mayflower 2020
US President Barack Obama and Prime Minister David Cameron have been urged to back big celebrations planned for Mayflower 2020.
Council leader Tudor Evans has written a joint letter with Therese Murray, the Senate President of Massachusetts, to the two leaders urging them to support the 400th anniversary of the sailing of the Mayflower from Plymouth and the subsequent landing of the Pilgrims in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Both cities want the important event to establish cultural, economic, military, educational and community links between the two Plymouths, culminating in a Presidential visit to the Mayflower Steps in Plymouth and a Royal visit to Plymouth Rock.
It reads:
No other event so embodies the centuries of the shared cultural values and traditions that underpin the special friendship that has seen our two nations and their people stand shoulder to shoulder through history. The Mayflower voyage clearly symbolises our shared history and our ties of common language and culture. Beyond that, however, it represents a set of fundamental values and beliefs which we share in common. At the heart of those beliefs lie the concepts of individual freedom and liberty, which bind us together and set us apart from so many other states across the world today.
In a quite literal sense the Mayflower Voyage in 1620 carried on board the flame of those precious concepts. As Winston Churchill said, the “…Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights, Habeas Corpus, trial by jury, and English common law find their most famous expression in the American Declaration of Independence.”
Beyond our Plymouth to Plymouth celebrations we believe that the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower has enormous potential benefits for both of our nations and we would respectfully request your joint support in helping to realise those benefits. With your shared blessing we would ask that our respective Governments work together with us to realise an ambitious programme of events to commemorate the sheer achievement of the Mayflower voyage and to celebrate the values of liberty and freedom that, as its consequence, we share in common today.
Our two cities and regions have already been working together for some time in developing an integrated programme in the lead up to 2020 to ensure that the event achieves a sustainable legacy.
This landmark anniversary will be an opportunity for us all to:
• Commemorate the 1620 Mayflower voyage as an important narrative in America’s beginning.
• Honour the achievements and sacrifice of our armed forces over more than a century as they stood shoulder to shoulder through two World Wars and the current war on terror.
• Celebrate the legacy of the Mayflower’s lineage in the millions of Americans now living who descend directly from the original 102 members of the Mayflower families.
• Shine a spotlight on the story of interdependence and the first Thanksgiving.
We hope that you both share our vision and aspiration for Mayflower 2020 and that, in consequence, you will actively pursue with us the opportunities for a truly remarkable year to commemorate a truly remarkable friendship.
The letter’s been sent as Plymouth played host to a workshop with partners from Plymouth Massachusetts, Leiden in Holland, Boston in Lincolnshire, Harwich, Southampton and Dartmouth. Mayflower 2020 is very much seen as an international commemoration and the council are working with all these areas as well as key city partnerships including, Visit England and Visit Britain to develop a joint programme over the next 5 years culminating in the exciting 2020 celebrations.
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