John Adams

It’s been interesting watching the recent HBO film biography series on John Adams with parts of my family. One daughter is being introduced to the revolutionary times and birth of our nation, and another is finishing her studies in it as a high schooler.

What has been intriguing to observe is the Federalist’s position which this film places firmly in the hands and on the shoulders of Alexander Hamilton. At the birth of our nation, when the first administration of George Washington was establishing our government and its policies, the discussions about nationalism and the power of it and the forming of the National Bank have serious repercussions in today’s economy and the power our government is displaying in private sectors (cars, healthcare, etc.)

We have found the Adams of this film series to be an ambitious and querulous fellow and the sacrifice of his family on the altar of serving his country is profoundly distressing and well portrayed here.

The Shot Heard Round the World -- who's the author?

I'm inspired by American History! Courageous people fighting for what was right -- not for their own agendas, or property -- but for a moral cause, created this great nation of ours.

Now, I ain't saying this is a perfect place, as no place will be this side of heaven. But I am saying that this republican democracy (notice lower case) is an idea seeded in the Judeo-Christian ethics/morals and is the most free place on this earth.

On this Memorial Day, I salute and HONOR those persons who have given their life to preserve this nation and its inhabitants. They gave the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.

Which brings us back to the poem from yesterday. The shot heard round the world... if you dig back into your history lessons I'm sure that someone shared with you the significance of the poem. This commerative coin site states:

--begin quote -- "The shot heard around the world" was fired on April 19, 1775 at Lexington, Massachusetts. Although this engagement and the one that followed at neighboring Concord weighed against the Americans, their willingness to fight for their rights was at last put to the crucial test, and there was no going back.

These initial skirmishes of the American War of Independence came about after years of wrangling between the colonists and the British motherland over irritating taxes and other perceived abuses. The passage of the "Coercive Acts" in 1774 led to the assembly of the First Continental Congress, which met to determine what action should be taken. Sensing that resistance to these new laws would be met with force, Massachusetts formed a Committee of Safety headed by the bold John Hancock. A special militia of "Minute Men" was recruited that would be prepared to take arms on short notice.

The British, aware of munitions being stockpiled by the colonists at several locations, drew plans to destroy these arsenals. Their first target was Concord, 21 miles from Boston by road. Early on the morning of April 19, 1775, a force of 700 British troops left Boston headed for Concord. The Committee of Safety, alerted to their mission by its informers, dispatched Paul Revere and William Dawes to summon the Minute Men. Reaching Lexington around midnight, Revere notified John Hancock and Sam Adams of the danger they faced as the targets of royal wrath. Joined by Dr. Samuel Prescott, Revere and Dawes then continued on toward Concord. Luck was not with them that night. Confronted by a British patrol, Revere was captured and Dawes was forced to flee. It was Prescott alone who made his way through to warn the residents of Concord.

Reaching Lexington, an advance force of British troops was confronted by armed Minute Men. The Americans were ordered to lay down their weapons and disperse, whereupon a shot rang out, and the British responded with several devastating volleys. Stunned, the unseasoned volunteers scarcely responded, and soon eight Americans lay dead. Only one British soldier was wounded. Unfazed by this engagement, the British continued their march toward Concord to join up with additional units. There, the troops carried out the destruction of whatever military stores they could find before making their return to Boston. By this time, it was high noon. Largely unopposed up to this point, the British now came under the harassing sniper fire of an angered civilian populace. Only by acquiring reinforcements at Lexington were the British able to avoid a total rout and massacre. Such was the determination of Americans to defend their soil and their rights. -- end quote --

Ralph Waldo Emerson, born May 25, 1803, penned many poems and essays. He was one of the originators of the Transcendentalist movement. His father was a Unitarian minister. Ralph graduated from Harvard. I can't say I would agree with many of his beliefs, or his lifestyle, but I can say that some of his poems were inspiring.

I pray you all have a safe and enjoyable Memorial Day as you commemorate those who gave their lives to preserve our freedom.

General Douglas MacArthur

On this day in 1951 General Douglas MacArthur retired over a difference of opinion with President Harry Truman about the way the Korean War should be fought. He was a controversial figure because of politics, not because of his military service, which was varied and outstanding. His retirement was announced before Congress in a joint session that included 30 breaks for applause. In this speech he said:


"Like the old soldier of that ballad, I now close my military career and just fade away, an old soldier who has tried to do his duty as God gave him the light to see that duty."


In 1962, West Point honored MacArthur with the Sylvanus Thayer Award (an award for outstanding service to the nation). In accepting the award, MacArthur gave his last and possibly his best speech, in which he concluded:


"The shadows are lengthening for me. The twilight is here. My days of old have vanished, tone and tint. They have gone glimmering through the dreams of things that were. Their memory is one of wondrous beauty, watered by tears, and coaxed and caressed by the smiles of yesterday. I listen vainly, but with thirsty ears, for the witching melody of faint bugles blowing reveille, of far drums beating the long roll. In my dreams I hear again the crash of guns, the rattle of musketry, the strange, mournful mutter of the battlefield. But in the evening of my memory, always I come back to West Point. Always there echoes and re-echoes: Duty, Honor, Country. Today marks my final roll call with you, but I want you to know that when I cross the river my last conscious thoughts will be of The Corps, and The Corps, and The Corps. I bid you farewell."


As a military brat, however, in researching MacArthur as a junior high school student for a school report, this is what I remember and liked the best about MacArthur, who had one son:


"By profession I am a soldier and take pride in that fact. But I am prouder—infinitely prouder—to be a father. A soldier destroys in order to build; the father only builds, never destroys. The one has the potentiality of death; the other embodies creation and life. And while the hordes of death are mighty, the battalions of life are mightier still. It is my hope that my son, when I am gone, will remember me not from the battle but in the home repeating with him our simple daily prayer, 'Our Father who art in heaven.' "