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Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Sarah Palin is a joke and a disgrace. It’s not that she is a Republican - she really isn’t. (Stella, Paula’s mom was a Republican and a more liberal, far thinking woman you never saw, she just liked the personal responsibility aspect of the OLD GOP and was one to rebel against her Democrat parents.) It’s not that Sarah Palin is a conservative – she is not. It’s because she is an idiot who wears her patriotism on her media sleeve and doesn’t have a clue as to American history, actual values or even the Constitution.
Take for example the famous ride of Paul Revere. One if by land, two if by sea, etc. Revere, a silversmith, set off on his famous ride and into poetic history to warn John Hancock and John Adams that the British were coming – since there were warrants out against them that could have cost them their lives. After all, we were rebelling against the motherland at the time. Apparently, Ms. Palin missed that little bit in school. Probably thinks the Declaration of Independence freed her from her Russian neighbors – you know, the ones she can see from her back yard.
Anyway, enough Palin bashing for today. The woman gives us a rash and is not worth our time, actually. (Wish the media saw it that way…. Ok, enough.)
The person we really want to talk about and to extol is a little known American patriot named Israel Bissell. Who? Israel Bissell is the young man who rode 345 miles, actually riding a horse to death, from near Concord (Boston) to the western edge of Pennsylvania. He rode for 5 days with little sleep and as he rode, he shouted in each town through which he passed “"To arms, to arms. The war has begun!"
Bissell carried with him a handwritten letter dated April 19, 1775, signed by Massachusetts militia Gen. Joseph Palmer which read:
"To all friends of American liberty, be it known that this morning before the break of day, a brigade consisting of about 1,000 or 1,200 men ... marched to Lexington, where they found a company of our colony militia in arms, upon whom they fired, without any provocation, and killed 6 men and wounded 4 others. By an express from Boston, we find that another brigade are now upon their march from Boston, supposed to be about 1,000."
At each town, Bissell’s letter was copied and he was given a fresh horse and sent on his way. His heroism, while unsung by Longfellow, (The scansion for the name Paul Revere was just too good for Henry to overlook) nevertheless exemplifies what the revolution was all about.
Revere, Bissell, and others like them rode throughout the colonies to declare that the British were here and we were at war. They also risked their lives, limbs and sacred honor to spread the news and fire up the people against monarchy and the tyranny of colonialist society. They didn’t ride around in a cushioned bus with their names emblazoned in huge letters on the side, declaring how patriotic they were. They just rode, and inspired a new nation to ring the church bells and seek life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
So this July 4, when all the politicians are glad handing and telling everyone what they want to hear, and the tea partiers pretend that they understand the principles on which this country was founded; while the Republicans make sure that they cater to special interests and the Democrats search diligently for backbones, remember Israel Bissell.
He rode so that you can be free. >^^<