More than 100 people gathered in front of the Lexington Visitors Center on the Fourth of July to hear the Declaration of Independence read aloud in full — contradictions and all — then sign a commemorative copy of their own.

Lexington Alarm!, the civic group hosting the event for the second year running, stationed readers across from the Battle Green for the two-hour gathering. The crowd wasn't just local: alongside Lexington residents, visitors came from as far as China, Thailand, Italy and across the U.S.

The readers didn't skip the hard parts.

Marc Stern, professor emeritus of history at Bentley University, addressed the document's harder passages directly, acknowledging that "all men are created equal" applied only to white men 250 years ago. The text was read exactly as written, unedited — including its reference to Native Americans as "merciless Indian savages." Fran Ludwig, one of the event's organizers, paused when she reached that line.

"That's what it said, and that's what I had to read aloud," Ludwig later wrote in a recap for The Lexington Observer. "History does have a lot to teach about imperfections to be overcome."

For some readers, the moment was deeply personal.

Kunal Botla, who helped with the reading program, told the crowd that without the principles laid out in the Declaration, he wouldn't have been standing there speaking at all. One returning reader from last year's inaugural event described channeling both the founders who risked their lives and, in their words, "a little John Lewis and his call for people to stir up some good trouble."

A signature, and a call to stay engaged.

Organizers handed out 100 copies of the Declaration and collected 104 signatures from attendees willing to endorse its basic principles, each signed with a "feathered Sharpie" for their own "John Hancock." An information table nearby promoted voter registration and civic engagement.

Lexington Alarm! describes its mission as defending democracy and honoring the values of the Lexington and Concord militia during the Revolution's 250th anniversary. The group also holds a standing weekly event, Bearing Witness at ICE, every Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Burlington ICE Detention Center.