Milwaukee Alderman recites Declaration of Independence by heart at Mitchell Park flag raising ceremony

A stirring scene at Mitchell Park July 4th morning as they raised the American flag.

Patriotic songs filled the air as gorgeous weather greeting the early birds who marked our country's fight for independence and the continuing efforts to form a more perfect union.

Mayor Tom Barrett thanks longtime volunteer David Yets who has participated in every ceremony.

That's 50 years!

The crowd was certainly impressed when Alderman Bob Donovan took to the podium and recited the Declaration of Independence from memory.

"And they began that declaration with these words," the Alderman exclaimed. "When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."