A Joyous Patriots' Day!
Today marks the anniversary of the day we became Americans--April 19, 1775.
Three years ago, my family and I began our journey together as volunteers with Project Appleseed, a 501(c)3 organization that pursues the mission "To return America to a nation of Riflemen." To become a Rifleman—to achieve expert level on the Army Qualification Test that we teach at our weekend events—takes self-discipline, determination, persistence, and most of all, a learning attitude. All of these qualities make for people more suited for self-governance. But it's not simply about the marksmanship. At an Appleseed Event, attendees hear the real story of April 19, 1775, as they probably never heard it before. Where did our Revolution begin? Who fired the first shots at Lexington? What made the world’s greatest army turn tail and run at the North Bridge? When did our Revolution end? As our story unfolds, the surprising answers to these questions will reveal themselves. It’s history as it should be—made real, about individuals whose important decisions to stand up for the cause of liberty should not be forgotten.
The amazing story is presented in the link below by Dave Goodrich, a former Project Appleseed Volunteer. I encourage you all, in the Spirit of ’75, to watch it, and to make plans to attend your closest Appleseed event. You can find them at RWVA.org.
Best always, “Ducky” (aka Linda)
Three years ago, my family and I began our journey together as volunteers with Project Appleseed, a 501(c)3 organization that pursues the mission "To return America to a nation of Riflemen." To become a Rifleman—to achieve expert level on the Army Qualification Test that we teach at our weekend events—takes self-discipline, determination, persistence, and most of all, a learning attitude. All of these qualities make for people more suited for self-governance. But it's not simply about the marksmanship. At an Appleseed Event, attendees hear the real story of April 19, 1775, as they probably never heard it before. Where did our Revolution begin? Who fired the first shots at Lexington? What made the world’s greatest army turn tail and run at the North Bridge? When did our Revolution end? As our story unfolds, the surprising answers to these questions will reveal themselves. It’s history as it should be—made real, about individuals whose important decisions to stand up for the cause of liberty should not be forgotten.
The amazing story is presented in the link below by Dave Goodrich, a former Project Appleseed Volunteer. I encourage you all, in the Spirit of ’75, to watch it, and to make plans to attend your closest Appleseed event. You can find them at RWVA.org.
Best always, “Ducky” (aka Linda)
SOURCE URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k6zq_Y_IzA
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world.
The foe long since in silence slept;
Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;
And Time the ruined bridge has swept
Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.
On this green bank, by this soft stream,
We set to-day a votive stone;
That memory may their deed redeem,
When, like our sires, our sons are gone.
Spirit, that made those heroes dare,
To die, and leave their children free,
Bid Time and Nature gently spare
The shaft we raise to them and thee.
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But I have to wonder whether in this day being a "rifleman" is really more like being a crossbowman like Wilhelm Tell or a long bowman like the victors at Agincourt. You are not really celebrating rifles so much as muskets: smooth bore, barrel-loaders, not rifles, really. Today's "riflemen" would be firing shoulder-mounted rockets, grenade launchers, and the like. In fact, in the here-and-now, cybernetics and information processing are the "rifles" of our time. Can you hit a target at 100 yards? Maybe. Can you decompile this:
B4 2C CD 21 B0 46 F6 EE 05 20 01 89 C2 B4 09 CD 21 BA 18 01 CD 21 CD 20
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I know that Benjamin Franklin was not alone in winning friends in Parliament. British generals resigned rather than go to war against the American colonists who only wanted their rights as Englishmen. When did they lose them? Perhaps, ideally, the best solution would have been to create an Imperial Parliament at Cape Town, with national and colonial parliaments defined for Englande, and the Americas, and Indies East and West, and India of course… Consider that the British Crown was the hireling of Parliament. We made an enemy of the king, but he was in modern terms "an empty suit." Then, we would not have needed to goto war.
" And where is that band who so vauntingly swore,
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion
A home and a Country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash’d out their foul footstep’s pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
It is an entendre: "… the hireling (and slave)…" refers to the Hessians hired by the King of England; but the King himself was a hireling. In short, we fought a war because diplomacy failed. What if the diplomacy had been successful?"