Learn About Paul Revere And His Ride For Yourself—You Are Crazy To Let Others Define Your Past

Due to recent comments by Sarah Palin, Paul Revere’s Ride is in the news.

When important events in American history find their way back into the news, that is a good time to take your own initiative to learn the real facts.

Above is John Singleton Copley’s 1768 painting of Paul Revere.

Here is how this painting is described by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

Revere, a silversmith, is seen here as both a working person and as a thinker.

Every working person has the ability to understand complex things if he or she is willing to make the effort.

An excellent book about Paul Revere and the Boston he knew is Paul Revere And The World He Lived In by Esther Forbes.

A book about the famous ride that got strong reviews is Paul Revere’s Ride by David Hackett Fischer.  I have not read this title.

If you have the good fortune to be able to visit Boston, you can tour the home where Paul Revere and his family lived.

Here are facts about the Midnight Ride from the Revere Home. 

Below is a picture of the Revere home that I took in 2008.

In Boston you can also visit the famous Old North Church. 

This is the church where the lanterns were hung on the night of Paul Revere’s ride.

Below is a picture I took from inside the Old North Church in 2008.

Please allow me to be clear—You don’t need to go to Boston to learn about Paul Revere and his ride. All the information you need is at the library, the bookstore, and on the internet.

The things you need to learn about yourself and your world are all around you. These things are accessible with effort and imagination.

You are crazy if you allow other people to tell you about your past.

If you allow other people define your past—and by extension to define the person you are—you will lose control of your future.

Events Of American Revolution Do Not Offer Clear Answers For Today’s Issues—Everybody Is Welcome At Our Great Historical Sites

With the Fourth of July just over a month away, it’s time we take back our history from the right-wing Tea Party extremists who have been allowed to commandeer some portion of our past. The so-called Tea Party wants to use our shared American history in the service of the very un-American ideals of exclusion, and of benefiting the rich over the working man and woman.

One such Tea Party cell here in Texas is called the King Street Patriots. This Houston-based Tea Party outfit takes its name from the street in Boston where the Boston Massacre took place.

King Street is now known as State Street in Boston.

The effort to define our past is about finding justification for political positions in today’s debates. If we can prove that our viewpoints and actions in the present day match the intent of the folks who led the American Revolution, then we can claim that these viewpoints and actions have a special validity and are true to our founding ideals.

The picture above is of the Old Massachusetts State House on the former King Street. I took this picture while visiting Boston in 2008. The Boston Massacre occurred pretty much at the location from where I took the picture. The yellow balcony is the place where the Declaration of Independence was first proclaimed in Boston in 1776.

All people are free to visit this historic location. You can stand at the spot where the Massacre took place. You can tour the Old State House. People of all political beliefs are welcome. People of all nationalities are welcome.  There are no immigration checkpoints to see if people have the proper papers. People of all religions are welcomed. Nobody feels compelled to offer a prayer at this great and important site that favors one religion over other religions.

Over the next few weeks I’m going to be writing about some aspects of early American history, and suggesting books and websites for people who would like to learn more.

The first book I’m recommending is Patriots–The Men Who Started the American Revolution by A.J. Langguth. Patriots is an accessible and detailed account of events leading up to the Declaration of Independence and the Revolutionary War.

Good luck in finding a clear ideological lesson for today in the events describes in Patriots or in any serious account of our independence.

Yes–In many ways the American Revolution was a tax revolt. At the same time, the streets of colonial Boston were covered with garbage and animal waste. Women were always pregnant and many died in childbirth. Many children died before reaching adulthood. Folks drank rum and beer all day long in part because clean water could be hard to find.

Would people back in colonial times have paid more taxes for better sanitation, better public health, and for clean water?

Who knows? Those folks are long dead and we live in a very different nation and world.

There is plenty to learn and understand from studying our past. We’ve got to know who we are and where we come from. But nobody can take events from more than 200 years ago, and feel that they now have all the answers to today’s public policy debates.

At least nobody who has any idea what they are talking about has this ability.

Don’t learn your history from this blog. And be certain that you don’t learn your history from far-right fanatics who glorify states rights and who want to return to the injustices of the past.

A clear example of why not to listen to representatives the far-right when they attempt to define our history can be found in this video clip of Sarah Palin talking about Paul Revere’s Ride. She simply has no idea what she is talking about.

Here are some actual facts about Paul Revere’s Ride.

Figure stuff out for yourself.

Don’t let other people define your past, and then seek to shape your future while you stand idly by.

John Adams, Barack Obama & American Liberty—The Tea Party Knows Nothing Of Liberty

Many on the right on are criticizing Barack Obama’s support of the mosque near the former World Trade Center location in New York City.

Some of this criticism has come from backers of the so-called Tea Party.

(Above–Paul Revere’s engraving of the Boston Massacre based on a drawing by Henry Pelham.)

Yet as these angry Tea Party folks attempt to claim they are the heirs to our Founding Fathers by calling themselves “Tea Party”, they forget one of the bravest acts of the Revolutionary era.

John Adams represented the British soldiers accused of the Boston Massacre. He did so in the defense of liberty and in the face of great public anger.

Here’s a great web page about the Boston Massacre trial.

(In saying this, please make note that the people building the N.Y.C. mosque are guilty of nothing. And in fact, despite the public outrage over the Massacre, only two of the nine originally charged  were convicted. Public opinion does not always get it right.)

Our modern Tea Party would not know the kind of honor and courage John Adams showed back in 1770.

The Tea Party is a movement that knows nothing but anger at a world not of their own design. They pick on immigrants and the poor. They are the type of bullies who would kick you when you’re down.

Our Constitution protects religious freedom.

The Tea Party asserts they know something about the Constitution.

But the truth is, like a political movement that flourished  briefly in the 19th century, the Tea Party folks are Know Nothings.

Colonials Get Machine Gun—Think Of The Extra Killing We Could’ve Had Over The Years If Machine Guns Existed During American Revolution

Here’s a picture I found this evening.

Here we see this Revolutionary Era soldier bringing his colleagues a big machine gun.

I imagine that is Paul Revere holding the lantern.

Folks do have the right to own a gun. These are the facts.

My own view is that  gun owners are in many cases are a danger to themselves and others.

I don’t assume that gun ownership makes somebody a bad person. I simply feel that gun ownership and the huge number of guns in America makes society a far more dangerous and brutal place than it would otherwise be.

Do the folks who made this machine gun picture share the Federalist outlook of George Washington that called for a strong central government to combat the failure of state legislatures to effectively govern during the time of the Articles of Confederation?

I wager they do not agree with this outlook.

Instead, these folks seem to enjoy the right to own a gun without accepting the responsibility of paying the taxes needed to have a decent society, or offering any vision for the future other than a loud resounding “NO” to anything that might make people’s lives a little less difficult in these hard times.

Don’t you just wish that people had invented machine guns like the one in the picture back in the 1770’s? Think of all the additional killing that could have gone on over the years, and just how powerful our guns would be today if this was the type of gun used at Lexington & Concord.

And folks, no matter the lies the NRA is telling you so they can rack up more memberships and money, nobody is coming to take your gun.

What Google Searches Miss

I was looking up something on Google and typed the letter A. I saw that the word Amazon came up. Because my mind is weak, I then typed in each letter of the alphabet to see what word came up with each letter. Below is the list of what came up and in my view, of what should have come up.

Based on what comes up in these Google searches, it seems that many of us like to shop. It also seems that people like services that are free. 

A—Amazon

What should come up is Arthur Ashe. 

B—Best Buy

What should come up is Book. As in–Get off the computer and go read a book.

C—Craigslist

What should come up is Copley. As in, my favorite painting is John Singleton Copley’s Paul Revere. (Below)

D—Dictionary 

I can’t improve on that. Good to see people looking up the right word to use.

E—ebay

What should come up is Elusive. As in, the true origin of many products sold on ebay can be Elusive.  

F—Facebook

Well–I use Facebook enough so I guess I can’t begrudge folks. Feel free to look me up on Facebook—Neil Aquino—and send me a friend request. My current profile picture is myself wearing a suit and standing in front of a big ice sculpture.  If I had to pick a word for F, it would be Friend in any case. It is good to have Friends.  

G—Google

What should come up is Galveston, Texas. As in visit Galveston, Texas for a nice day at the beach or a nice weekend.

H–Hotmail 

What should come up is History. As in, it is fun and useful to learn History. Or, Alan Taylor’s American Colonies is a great History book.

I—Imdb ( I had to look up what this was. It is a database of movies and movie stars.)

What should come up is Island. As in, I wish I lived on a distant Island.  Or, I wish you lived on a distant Island. 

J—JC Penney

What should come up is Joy Division. Love Will Tear Us Apart is my favorite song.

K—Kohls

What should come up is King. As in Martin Luther King.  (Click here to see the best Martin Luther King Reading & Reference list on the web.)

L—Lowes

What should come up is Liberal. It’s okay that it did not come up though since liberals did so well in the most recent election.

M—-Myspace

What should come up is Martin Van Buren. A founder of the American system of political parties, Martin Van Buren (below) is worth more study and thought than folks realize. (Please consider starting your studies on Van Buren by clicking here.)

 

N—Netflix

What should come up is Night Out. As in, forget the Netflix and have a Night Out at a restaurant and movie.  

O—Orkut (This is a social networking site run by Google. I had never heard of it. )

What should have come up is Optimistic. As in, I hope all people are able to remain Optimistic even in these hard times.

P—Photobucket

What should come up is Poetry. Here is a bit of  Chinese Poetry from the 8th century. 

Late autumn strips the distant hills

beyond the city gate.

A huge white cloud interrupts my dreams

and returns me to this world.

And you, old friend?

Flown silent as a crane.

Will you ever return

to your old home again?

Q—Quotes

Okay. I can go with that.  A great quote is  “A trifle consoles us because a trifle distresses us.”  This was by Blaise Pascal. 

R—Runescape  (This is some kind of online game. When I clicked on it, it said that 117,123 people currently playing. I guess no matter how in-touch you think you are, there is big stuff you are missing.)

What should come up is Roses. As in Roses are my wife’s favorite  flower and my wife is the best person in the world.

S—Sears

What should come up is Socialism. With the right in such a lather over the word, why not explore its meanings and see what it can offer in this time of free market failure.

T—Target

What should come up is Texas Liberal. Thanks for reading my blog!  

U—utube

What should come up is Universal. As in, before long we must have government funded Universal health care in America.   

V—Verizon Wireless

What should come up is Vanuatu. Vanuatu is a small Pacific Ocean island nation.

Below is a picture of the parliament building in Vanuatu….

 

…That was modeled upon the old Howard Johnson’s chain.

W—Walmart

What should come up is Wages. As in, raise Wages at Wal-Mart.

 X—Xbox 360

What should come up is Xenial.  Xenial means ” …the friendly relations between a guest and a host, or between a person and a foreign country.”  Xenial is a very good word to know. 

Y—Youtube

What should come up is You. As in, You are not the center of the world no matter how many products and services emphasize the word You.  

Z—Zappos (This is a an online seller of purses and shoes.) 

What should come up is Zebra. As in it is excellent to be able to run a picture of  Zebras on this blog. (Please click here to learn about Zebras.)

25 Things About This Blogger—With Paul Revere Painting

I’ve been tagged for one of these 25 things about me lists on Facebook. Vanity compels me to comply. I’ve not yet posted this on Facebook. It’s just that I need a blog post for today.

I like Facebook. It’s an easy way to keep in touch with folks.  If any of the blog reading public would like to add a friend who is also one of America’s leading bloggers…..well, I can’t help you.  But if you’d like to add me, my name in Neil Aquino and I live in Houston. Look me up and I’ll add you on. The more the merrier. 

Here we go—

1. Anything good about me, or good in my life, is in large part due to my wife. Anything bad is my doing.

2. I’ve had four clear-cut best friends at points in my life. One is my wife. One was a grade school kid I’ve long lost touch with. One is just beginning the study of Chinese medicine in Portland, Oregon. I still exchange e-mails with her on and off.  The final one is the only I can’t have a decent conversation with anymore. I’m appreciative of her friendship at one time in my life, but I don’t regret the inability to converse with her now.

3. Sometimes I wonder if I would be better off giving up the blog and writing a letter to a friend each day. I give a fair amount of thought about the best ways to communicate.

4. I work hard to maintain friendships across the years and across what are now often great distances. I’m mostly successful with this. Yet I have room to do better.

5. When we keep up with friends, I feel we provide our lives with a measure of permanence that offers a rebuttal to death. We are saying there is a source of stability in an existence marked by things moving away from each other. Longstanding relationships also give a greater relevance to the ways we’ve spent our time in life. When you have a friend for a long time, it’s evidence that you made a good decision many years ago. 

6. I feel you can define family in anyway you choose.

7.  I wish I had the ability to be an artist of some kind. I’d like to be able to  paint a picture. I’d paint a picture of people in a way that conveyed who they are. I’m lucky to have seen in person Copley’s painting of Paul Revere in Boston. Below you see that painting. It’s my favorite.  In this painting, Mr. Revere is both a worker and a thinker. 

 

8. I wish I had the time in life to be as creative as I feel I could be. I could gain a measure of that time by the better application of self-discipline.  

9. I feel that both the material events in our lives, as well as the thoughts that we think, all need context. Nothing exists alone. We need to know what came before and what may come after.

10. I think one can merge the public and private aspects of life in ways that give greater meaning to both. The two should not be divorced from one another.

11. I often wonder how one can combine a strong desire to be alone with a need to communicate. Hopefully, I’m able to do this in a way that is neither (fully) stand-offish or involves being around to much. (Though in truth, I’ve not yet figured this mix out.)

12. I have a good memory. I recall some things with such clarity that I feel the events I’m thinking about are taking place again.  This makes me wonder that if man is the measure of all things, than does not the abilty to retain and relive our memories challenge some of our concepts of time? The past is present in our thoughts and as a guide to our future actions.    

13. If each morning we could take just a few moments to assess our lives and our goals for the day, that would be an act of creation and imagination we could accomplish each day.

We could create time and time again. We could do so in a way that builds upon what came before, so that even an act of creation comes with context. I want to have the discipline to be able to do this.

14. I’m not convinced our leaders really believe most Americans have a viable economic future. At least in relation to how we have lived before. 

15. I’ve never spent a night outdoors and I never will unless forced to do so by a bad turn of events.

16. Just because your life is very good, does not mean it is entirely the life you want. Expressing this thought does not detract from the good things in your life. 

17. I’d like to live on an island.

18. I feel at home when with the wife, when at the ocean in Galveston, Texas, when writing, and when reading.  I also felt at home when I was at a bar called the  Jockey Club in Newport, Kentucky. That place has long been torn down.

19.  Much about the practice of politics bores me. I did not like most people I met when I worked in politics. Though the time I spent involved in politics was worth it.

20. I’m proud of the fact that my name has been on the ballot twice. Once as a candidate for Democratic precinct executive a Hamilton County, Ohio. I was the only candidate and won with about 15 votes cast in my little voting precinct.  That was, I think, in 1992. I got a certificate of election from the county. In 1997, I ran for the Cincinnati Board of Education and won about 10,000 votes.  I finished 9th of 12 with the top four being elected. I was endorsed by Stonewall Cincinnati and by a number of unions. Beyond being glad I had not finished last, I felt that I had done well in the voting.

 21. The best non-fiction book I’ve read is S.E. Finer’s three volume history of government. The best novel I’ve read is The Remains Of The Day by Kazuo Ishiguro.  

22. I’d like to start volunteering somewhere. I have a place in mind.

23. I’m lucky.

24. I think we can balance a strong and autonomous personality, with the need for collective action in our political lives. What could be better than free citizens making the willing choice to work for common ends?

 25. I’ll end where I started—Anything good about me, or good in my life, is in large part due to my wife. Anything bad is my doing

It Is Excellent That There Are Many Different Ways We Can Conduct Our Important Relationships

In my reading of the Pulitzer Prize winning Paul Revere and the World He Lived in, I made note of the fact that Revere had letter-writing relationships with two cousins in Europe he would never meet.  

When I read this, I put the book down. I thought about how excellent it is that our relationships can take so many forms. That we can even have bonds with people we never meet in person.

Maybe Paul Revere and his cousins exchanged enough letters over a lifetime that they came to feel  they knew each other well. 

Today, beyond the ability to meet face-to-face, we have the phone, e-mail, and, just like Paul Revere, letters. We have cars and jet planes to help us meet people that in the past we would have never met, or met much less often.

When we are not communicating with people who are important to us, we have the ability to give them some thought and to ponder what we will say the next time we get the chance to communicate. 

I’ve written in this blog that I am not a bridge-builder. This is true. I have only the time and resources that I have, and I make no effort to pretend I can stomach everybody I meet.

I try very hard with the people who are in my life.

Our lives often feel they are out of control. That we are on a pace faster than what we wish was the case. Our relationships often suffer in such circumstances.

The very good news is that with discipline and imagination, we can have many excellent relationships even when life is demanding. You just have to work at it and realize that your efforts are appreciated.

How Paul Revere Saw Life At 50

The following about how Paul Revere saw life at age 50 is from Paul Revere And The World He Lived In by Esther Forbes—

“Very few people ever live their middle years in the same world they grow up in as children. None whose lives have been broken in two by a great war ever do, and none of Paul Revere’s generation did. They could fall to rioting, as they did in the western part of (Massachusetts.) They could slip into embittered old age as did Samuel Adams. Or they could take things as they found them and go ahead. Paul Revere did the last.”

Reagardless of if you’ve been in a war or not, this seemed to me a useful passage for people of all ages.

Above is a picture of the Boston house Paul Revere lived in for much of his life.

Please click here for a Paul Revere reading list.

Paul Revere lived 1735-1818.

Photo Of Big Artichoke & Paul Revere Book

Above is a photo I took last night of a very large artichoke and, also, my copy of Paul Revere And The World He Lived In by Esther Forbes. I’m not fully sure the picture captures the size of the artichoke, but it was a big one.

Below is a picture of an artichoke field. I had never contemplated how artichokes were grown. Here is information about artichokes. It seems people have been eating artichokes for thousands of years.  

Paul Revere And The World He Lived In was a Pulitzer Prize winner for history. It’s one of the best books I’ve read. You feel you are in Colonial Boston and that you have a sense of Paul Revere. Here is a review of the book from Time Magazine in 1942. 

Keep Your Core Beliefs To A Minimum

The passage I excerpt below is from Paul Revere And The World He Lived In by Esther Forbes. The book was published in 1942 and won a Pulitzer prize. I can’t recommend it enough. It makes you feel as if you are living in Colonial Boston. 

What I found of note in the passage is the fleeting luck-of-the-draw nature of what must have seemed core beliefs to the man in question. The subject, Governor Thomas Hutchinson (above), was forced out of a Colonial Massachusetts he has lost control over not long before the American Revolution. As the author notes in Revere, in many respects Hutchinson just came around at the wrong time.

From the book— 

“No man ever loved Massachusetts with a greater intensity than did Thomas Hutchinson. He had written her history, fought for her boundaries, re-established her currency, seen to it that her courts and judicial system were kept to a high standard. He had honestly believed in the centralization of power, and that the centre should be in London. The side which one did not, and yet their grandchildren ( two of Paul Revere’s  were to be dying within the century for the centralization of power in the Federal Government. Hutchinson lost everything by backing the wrong system at the wrong time. His houses, wharves, horses, coaches, great estates, even the tomb of his wife on Copp’s Hill, were confiscated. His name became an anathema. Hutchinson street would be renamed Pearl….and yet if the other side had won, Thomas Hutchinson would undoubtedly be regarded as one of you greatest patriots.”

Belief in British control of the colonies, and in a model of government that placed that control in London, meant nothing after the Revolution. Most of the talk and agitation meant to either keep the colonies under British governance, or, for that matter to free them, had little bearing on the final outcome of the struggle.   

I’m not suggesting it’s worthless to fight for a losing cause or for a cause that has little chance of success in your lifetime. You must go by what you believe. In fact, fighting for such a cause may well constitute a life well-spent.

What I am suggesting is that one way to keep a focus on what is most important, is to keep your core beliefs to a minimum. Protect what you believe from the whims of fate and from the endless distractions of our busy and media overloaded society. 

The liberalism I support is about a role for government in regulating the economy in order to make life more fair, a broad acceptance of people as they are, and democracy and free elections.   

I’m open to various methods and policies to reach these goals. Many “issues of the day” come and go and are quickly forgotten. Many things that seem important are not important.

Keep your core beliefs at a minimum and keep your eyes on the prize.

Here is information on Esther Forbes.

Here is information on Thomas Hutchinson.

Picture Of The Grave Of Paul Revere

Here is a picture I took last week of the grave of Paul Revere.

You can find this grave in the Granary Burying Ground which is part of Boston’s Freedom Trail.

Here is information on Revere’s life. He lived 1734-1818. 

Click here to see Copley’s famous painting of Paul Revere.  

Joe Kennedy Forgets Me—Paul Revere Still Dead

A brief break from my Summer Solstice blogging break—

I took the tour of the Massachusetts State House this afternoon. As I left the building I walked past former Congressman Joe Kennedy. Mr. Kennedy is a son of Robert Kennedy.

I attended a fundraiser for Mr. Kennedy at the Kennedy Compound in 1992. Joe was all smiles when I was writing him a check.

But today? Hell—He walked by like he did not recall who I was.

We did make eye contact though. Mr. Kennedy had an expression on his face like I saw on Gene Simmons of Kiss at the Cincinnati airport last year. I looked at Mr. Simmons and he looked back at me like someone who was used to being recognized but wanted to be left alone.    

I left both Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Simmons alone.

I also saw the graves of Paul Revere and Samuel Adams today. I was hoping at least one of them would rise from the grave and lead me on a ghostly tour of Boston.

No such luck though.  

Copley’s Portrait Of Paul Revere

 

This is Portrait of Paul Revere by John Singleton Copley from 1768.

Paul Revere lived 1734-1818.

Here is how this painting is described in the book American Art and Architecture by Michael J. Lewis—

“Here was a new kind of painting. Instead of aristocratic subjects in settings of leisure, Copley portrayed merchants and artisans who were not ashamed of their status or their manual labor—Aristocrats of commerce. Revere holds one of his silver teapots in one hand as he prepares to incise it with decoration while the other holds his head, as if to suggest that he earns his livelihood by both his hands and his head.”  

Here is information on Paul Revere.

Despite this painting, Copley was no friend of the American Revolution. He left America in 1774 and settled in London.

Click here for some information on Copley. Take a look at his self-portrait—Just seeing it will clue you in on his feelings about the revolution.   

Please click here for other Texas Liberal posts on Colonial America.