Posted on 12/07/2013 8:21:53 AM PST by Dysart
Few things renew American patriotism better than a trip to New England.
My wife and I had the opportunity to do that recently when we visited our daughter, who is working on a film project there for a couple of months.
Although we had been to Boston before, we were reminded of the city’s realities even before reaching the bag claim area at the airport.
This is the place where the notion took flight that simple colonists could recover their birthright of freedom by tearing themselves away from the oppressive rule of the British king and launching an experiment in self-government.
Inspired by the audacity of the men who dumped tea into Boston Harbor, Patrick Henry summed up defiance to tyranny with his legendary speech to the Virginia Legislature that concluded, “…give me liberty or give me death.”
The Samuel Adams statue in front of Faneuil Hall (aka the Cradle of Liberty) commemorates the first public meeting there, where Henry seized upon the opportunity following the Boston Massacre to mobilize the city’s citizenry against the omnipresent British troops.
His efforts were greatly aided by the work of engraver Paul Revere, whose over-dramatized depiction of the massacre served to stimulate anti-British public opinion.
Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/12/07/5398377/a-place-to-renew-patriotism.html#storylink=cpy
(Excerpt) Read more at star-telegram.com ...
You have a point, there—that’s for sure.
Massachusetts--Gene Krupa & His Orchestra (with Anita O'Day), 1942
Whatever there is to complain about in New England is already present in other parts of the country or coming there fast.
“...............is already present in other parts of the country or coming there fast.”
There is big difference between a Massachusetts native and the college crowd in Boston & Cambridge - most of those nuts come from states outside of Mass and many from around the Globe.
Have a bunch of pictures still on my cell phone of that day.
Was a decent crowd, maybe 2000, but people came and went over the hours. I remember they were using handheld megaphones... no dais or amplifiers, it was totally grass roots.
There's no way to 'certify' it but I believe it was one of the first Tea Party meetings ever.
Maybe the first.
Last time I was in Texas was flight school at Fort Wolters in 1971 (next stop Vietnam). Hope I can see the Alamo & the other patriotic sites in Texas now that I’m retired.
As for New England, fuggedabouddit!
Gorgeous. Almost brings frozen tears to me eyes.
Caddie, a slideshow from that day including the 2nd rally on the waterfront: http://www.flickr.com//photos/real_bostonian/sets/72157616871560884/show/
“As for New England, fuggedabouddit!”
Yep - that’s why the enemy is winning there and elsewhere.
So you have trends at work in the Western World that go beyond any legacy of New England Puritanism. Today's Vermont, say, is more a product of being the place where trust-fund kids and would-be artists and activists go to not grow up, than of anything left over from John Winthrop and Cotton Mather and (even though Winthrop was John Kerry's great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather).
New England wasn't like it is today back in my grandparents' day, when people worked in textile mills and shoe factories or on fishing boats, when today's rich suburbs were still dairy or asparagus farms, when thrifty Yankee farm wives threw fits over broken dishes, and all the buildings looked like they needed a new coat of whitewash. It was increased affluence that made the changes, and affluence may be coming your way, too, if it hasn't got there already. Well, affluence and the fact that in such small states you could never get far enough away from Harvard.
Over 40% of them voted for Obama in both 2008 and 2012. They are not as far away as they might thing from becoming another blue state and every year, more ready-made Democrats pour over their borders.
In fact, as a whole, New England is probably just as conservative than Texas. Once you get outside the big cities and the limousine suburbs of Boston and NYC, people tend to be mostly conservative.
Agreed. I live in a very conservative area.
Conservative leadership??
In Boston?
HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA
Heh. Groton [and New London] are the armpits of Connecticut.
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