I worry about today, about those who misunderstand its original meaning, about those who might commemorate a history of violence associated with this day.
In 1775 a force of British troops marched out from Boston to seize munitions being accumulated by the Americans. Those arms had already been moved, because the Americans had spies. The first shots were fired at Lexington, and at Concord the patriots drove the British back. As more and more armed Americans arrived, the legend of the Minutemen, ordinary citizens who seized their personal weapons to respond to the threat of tyranny, was born.
In 1993 the seige at Waco came to an end, with the deaths of 76 as the Branch Davidian compound burned. Many of us watched in horror as the assault took place in full view, on live national television.
Two years later 168 were killed and over 800 injured when Timothy McVeigh's truck bomb destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. McVeigh intended this as a response to Waco, as an imitation of Lexington and Concord. He was a decorated former serviceman (Bronze Star in the Gulf War). He and his confederates had associations with right-wing militias.
Different lessons have been learned by different people.
Today I will hold my breath. As there has been since the dedication of the Oklahoma City National Memorial in 2000, today will see at that site a major commemoration of the event. An acquaintance is participating, someone who as a Marine officer had connections with the recruiting office in that building. All day I will worry - I think with valid reason - that today might see some kind of action perhaps claiming that McVeigh was framed, or in imitation of his strike against perceived federal government tyranny at Waco.
I consider the report - commissioned by the previous administration - that expresses concern over deliberate recruitment of former military gto rightwing groups, especially militias, and I think of McVeigh, and Fortier, and the brother Nichols.
I remember the immediate reaction that we had been attacked by Arab Muslims - a full 8 years before we actually were attacked by Al Qaeda - and wonder of the possibility of false flag operations, designed to foment anger against Muslims (most of which are not Arab) and Arabs (most in this country not Muslim), and I especially remember the fear expressed by some towards a man whose given names are Arabic.
Today is for a quarter billion people their most blessed day. For the Eastern churches, Orthodox and Oriental, today is Pascha, Easter. My wife is sound asleep, having attended a service that ended at around 2:30, followed by a paschal feast in the church hall. Families and friends gather together to celebrate. Some of those are Arab - members of the Antiochian Orthodox Church, headquartered in Damascus. Or perhaps they are Coptic, with a church tradition that goes back to the First Century of the Common era, rooted in Egypt. Many of these have Arabic names, Arabic features - might they become targets because of the fear of some, if not today on their holiest day, in the near future as resentment towards those different continues to fester?
Today is an important day around Boston. It is the annual celebration of Patriot's Day, which traditionally includes the running of the Boston Marathon, from Hopkinton to downtown. In 1966 I participated in the events of that day. I was in the Post Band at Marine Corps Schools, Quantico. We flew up the day before, playing for an evening event in Acton. Early in the morning we were at Concord Bridge - I still remember the constant firing of the commemorative cannon. and my ears still hurt at the memory. We were at the finish line for the marathon, and IIRC correctly Japanese finished 1-2-3-4. Somehow we finished in a bar towards Southie, where we could not pay for our drinks: we were in uniform, the week before there had been antiwar protests, and the locals wanted to honor us, merely because we were in uniform. All of these are part of my memories of April 19.
I struggle with the concept of patriotism. I have never been a blind patriot, and could not argue in favor of the proposition "My country, right or wrong, still my country" unless I were simultaneously guaranteed the right to criticize, to offer the broader expression of Carl Shurz to the U. S. Senate in 1872:
The Senator from Wisconsin cannot frighten me by exclaiming, "My country, right or wrong." In one sense I say so too. My country; and my country is the great American Republic. My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.
My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.
The setting right might require of me my life and whatever meagre fortune I might possess. After all, we read at the end of our founding document, the Declaration, written more than a year after the events of April 19, 1775, these words:
And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
Mutually - not dividing the people up into us against them
we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor
Honor - a commitment beyond one's personal wealth, and more valuable than one's own life.
I listen to the rhetoric of secession. I hear the words of those who foment unrest over the airwaves. I perceive those politically who seek to divide us and pit us against one another. In none of that do I recognize those words of the Declaration: we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor
There are those who would willing foment unrest and disorder if they can make it to their personal advantage, politically or financially. This is nothing new, especially in the face of major transformation. After all, organized forces of the right tried to get two-time Medal of Honor winner Smedley Butler to lead a coup against Franklin Roosevelt. Today, as then, some would rather risk destruction of the nation's well-being rather than see diminution of their own influence, wealth and power. And we remember what Frederick Douglass expressed more than a century past,
Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.
Those whose power is threatened oft will resort to the danger of fanning the flames of resentment and anger, so long as they can direct it at targets other than themselves, so long as they see self-benefit from the disorder and pain that will thereby be inflicted on others.
April 19. Each year I hold my breath on this day. The words from our history to which I referred are sometimes used by those who would encourage acts of violence, attempting to persuade the actors that such actions are themselves of the highest patriotism. Appeals to patriotism can lead to unfortunate consequences. Watergate burglars may believe an E. Howard Hunt that they are acting in the highest interests of national security. CIA interrogators may be told that any method short of death or incipient organ failure is not only acceptable but necessary to protect the nation from threats.
And some will be convinced that especially on this day, it is time for them to act as did the Minutemen, coming together to resist what they have become convinced is a tyranny equal to that of the 18th Century British Crown. They are prepared to interpret actions of the government through a lens of paranoia that has been shaped by the rhetoric of division and hatred. They will remember Waco, they will misinterpret Lexington and Concord, and some may even consider Timothy McVeigh a patriot.
I no longer care who wins a 26+ mile race in New England. I do care that our common history and political origins not be misappropriated by those who would destroy the dream for which many came to this country, a dream that was, as Langston Hughes so aptly put it, a "dream deferred" for too many for far too long.
I will be optimistic, and hope that like most April 19ths today will not see the violence of 1995.
Every day is a commemoration of something or of someone. There are always lessons to be learned, or relearned. Every has its joys and its sorrows, historical and current.
April 19. For this day as for everyday, my wish is the same.
Peace.