ON MEMORIAL DAY, GHOSTS STANDING AT CONCORD’S NORTH BRIDGE

It's become a tradition. Every Memorial Day, our family goes to the Concord Battlefield, not far from our home, where Americans first fell fighting for freedom.

Now The Minute Man National Park, it's 967 acres of winding trails, flower beds, stately trees and the meandering Concord River. This is the place where America began. Words must be spoken or written – as they were in Philadelphia in 1776. But it's cold steel that gives them force.

On April 19, 1775, we showed our mettle. Emerson's poem still stirs the soul: "By the rude bridge that arched the flood, their flag to April's breeze unfurled, here once the embattled farmers stood and fired the shot heard round the world."

Those yeomen farmers had to know they were committing treason and could suffer the consequences – if they survived British bayonets. "Throw down your arms, ye villains, ye rebels!" a British major shouted at the Minute Men assembled on the Lexington Common earlier that day. The punishment for lese-majeste is always unpleasant.

At the Park, you can see a recreation of the Old North Bridge (the rude bridge that arched the flood), the Obelisk erected in 1836 (the first monument to America's war dead) inscribed in part, "In gratitude to God and in love of freedom, this monument was erected," and Daniel Chester French's heroic, if somewhat idealized, statue of the Minute Man, musket in hand, leaving his plow behind him.

The British marched into Lexington the morning of the 19th – 700 strong, regimental bands playing, resplendent in their red uniforms. They were somewhat less resplendent on the march back to Boston later in day. They had routed the militia on the Lexington Common, killing eight of the 77 who offered only token resistance to their progress.

At the North Bridge, British light infantry companies faced angry and determined Minute Men and militia. The colonials were told not to fire unless fired on. They were. "Fire, for God's sake, fellow soldiers, fire," Major John Buttrick, who commanded the American force, shouted. When the smoke cleared, the greatest army the world had ever seen was in full retreat. The countryside was roused and 2,000 Americans exacted a bloody revenge. On the 18 miles back to Boston, 73 Redcoats were killed, 174 wounded and 26 went missing.

Without Concord and Lexington, there would have been no siege of Boston, no Battle of Bunker Hill and British evacuation. Washington would not have taken command of what had become the Continental Army. The 13 colonies would not have declared their independence, taking the first hesitant step toward national greatness and changing the world in ways those embattled farmers could never imagine – all from an exchange of musket fire at an insignificant bridge in a sleepy colonial village.

For all that those turbulent years meant for our infant republic, a dwindling number of Americans know even the basic details of the Revolution and its importance to our history. Other than Barack Hussein Obama, this national amnesia is the greatest tragedy to befall us.

In a 2009 survey by The American Revolution Center, 83% failed a basic test on America's founding. More than a third didn't know the century in which the Revolutionary War was fought – not the years or the decade, but the century. Half thought the Revolution occurred after the Civil War. A third didn't know the Bill of Rights guarantees trial by jury. More than half thought the system of government established in 1787 was a democracy, rather than a republic. Most didn't know the outcome of the Boston Tea Party. (The British forced patriots to drink non-fat soy lattes?)

In 2011, the ironically named National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) found that 35% of 4th graders didn't know the purpose of the Declaration of Independence.

Over half who took The American Revolution Center's test attributed the phrase "From each according to his ability to each according to his needs," to George Washington, Thomas Paine or Barack Obama (at least that's plausible) rather than Democratic Party icon, Karl Marx.

Bruce Cole, president and CEO of the Center, comments: "The American Revolution defined what it means to be an American. It forged those principles that unite us as a nation." Cole cautions that what's "undefined and misunderstood" can't be defended. "Many people are unaware that the everyday freedoms and liberties they enjoy – reading newspaper editorials, expressing a dissenting opinion while attending a public meting, or worshipping at a religious institution of their choice – are the legacy of the American Revolution."

In his farewell address, Ronald Reagan said much the same. "If we forget what we did, we won't know who we are. I am warning of an eradication of the American memory that could result, ultimately, in an erosion of the American spirit."

The left's war on freedom of expression, private property and Second Amendment rights (not to mention its ongoing attacks on religious speech) is abetted by ignorance and distortions of America's past.

The attention our schools now devote to George Washington is roughly 10% of what it was 50 years ago. Covering the 2011 NAEP, The New York Times reported: "American students are less proficient in their nation's history than any other subject, according to the results of a nationwide test released on Tuesday, with most fourth graders unable to say why Abraham Lincoln was an important figure and few high school seniors able to identify China as the North Korean ally that fought American troops during the Korean War."

Most high school seniors probably think Columbus and Long John Silver sailed the Mayflower up the Hudson to help General Custer kill a lot of Chinese railroad workers and keep women from exercising their right to choose.

We don't teach American history any more. We teach multiculturalism – history filtered through a racial or ethnic lens designed not to educate but to enhance group identity and self-esteem, or advance the left's agenda.

The latest fad is whitewashing the history and practice of Islam. A 2009 study of the 28 most commonly used social studies textbooks exposed such gems as these: Jesus was a Palestinian. On 9/11 "teams of terrorists" hijacked three planes (no mention of Islam, even with the modifier "radical") And. of course, jihad is a "spiritual struggle" aimed at self-improvement – the better to kidnap Nigerian schoolgirls.

Larry Schweikart, author of "48 Liberal Lies About American History," examined the 10 most popular American history textbooks. Guess which image was most often used to illustrate American life in the 1920s – Lindbergh and Spirit of St. Louis, Babe Ruth hitting his 60th home run in a season, "The Jazz Singer" and the advent of the "talkies," men selling apples on street corners during the Great Depression?

The photo most commonly used to depict American life in that watershed decade was of the Ku Klux Klan. This fits liberal dogma of America the ugly – history a la Oliver Stone.

In a 2013 poll by the Pew Research Center, overall, 48% said America is the greatest country on earth. However, the survey noted a generational gap. This sentiment is shared by 64% of the silent generation and 50% of Boomers. Slightly less Gen Xers (48%) concur. But less than a third of Millennials (32%) think the nation on which the future of mankind depends is the greatest.

Millennials are the most ignorant of U.S. history and the least patriotic. Consequently, they were the most supportive of Obama in the past two presidential election. In 2008, Obama got 53% of the total vote, to 46% for John McCain. Millennials backed his fraudulency by 68% to 30%.

Americans again face an occupation – not foreign troops and their mercenary allies, but a foreign ideology. This dogma isn't just contemptuous of liberty (in ways that make the Hanoverian dynasty seem benign by comparison), but determined to demolish 3,000 years of Judeo-Christian civilization on its way to creating an anthill society. At least George III was a Christian monarch.

But those of us who cling to the ideals of America's founding aren't fighting alone. When I look across the Old North Bridge, in my minds eye, I see Doughboys and Rough Riders, Billy Yank and Johnny Reb, troops of the 82nd. Airborne and Green Berets, standing side by side with Minute Men and Colonial Militia.

If we can but remember the sacrifices and heroism of our past, we may yet rescue the future.

Don Feder is a former Boston Herald writer who is now a political/communications consultant. He also maintains his own website, http://www.DonFeder.com.

8 It was not mistake the left and their Communist friends have successfully brainwashed and compromised several generations through pubic (govenrment run) school indoctrination.

1/10/1963 – Three months after the Cuban Missile Crisis, U.S. Representative Albert S. Herlong Jr. (D-FL) read into the Congressional Record the list of 45 modern communist goals (Appendix, pp. A34-A35) from Chapter 8 of Cleon Skousen’s 1958 book, The Naked Communist. Florida had felt the brunt of the communist threats during the CMC.

by Cleon Skousen, 1958

#17 Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.

by Howard Zinn, 1980

Howard Zinn (1922 – 2010) was an American historian (Boston University), author, playwright, and (communist) social activist. Zinn joined the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II and was assigned as a bombardier in the 490th Bombardment Group,[7] bombing targets in Berlin, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary.[8] As bombardier, Zinn dropped napalm bombs in April 1945 on Royan, a seaside resort in southwestern France.[9] The anti-war stance Zinn developed later was informed, in part, by his experiences.

“The People Speak” is a 2009 American documentary feature film that uses dramatic and musical performances of the letters, diaries, and speeches of everyday Americans. The film gives voice to those who, by insisting on equality and justice, spoke up for social change throughout U.S. history and also illustrates the relevance of this to today's society. The film is narrated by historian Howard Zinn and is based on his books A People's History of the United States and, with Anthony Arnove, Voices of a People's History of the United States. “The People Speak” was produced by Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, Chris Moore, Anthony Arnove, and Howard Zinn. It was co-directed by Moore, Arnove and Zinn. It was shown on PBS.

Breitbart: Common Core Roots Lie in Ties Between Barack Obama, Bill Ayers

In an article published on 12/02/2013 that advocates for Common Core standards, the Associated Press presents what amounts to the typical talking points for supporters when faced with criticism that Common Core is a federal takeover of education.

The standards were created by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers to improve academic achievement and increase accountability. President Barack Obama and his administration embraced them.

Actually, Barack Obama did not simply “embrace” a concept that others developed; instead, the very roots of Common Core are in the early ideas generated by him and his fellow radical community organizer, Bill Ayers. Just prior to the presidential election of 2008, Dr. Stanley Kurtz, Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, wrote an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal in which he observed that then-Democrat presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama’s “most important executive experience” was heading up the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC), an education foundation that was the invention of Bill Ayers, founder of the Weather Underground in the 1960s.

Obama led the CAC from 1995 to 1999 and remained on the board until 2001. The foundation funneled more than $100 million into community organizations and radical education activists. The CAC’s stated purpose was to improve Chicago’s public schools using funding from an education initiative by Walter Annenberg. As chairman, Obama handled fiscal matters while Ayers co-chaired the CAC’s other key entity, the “Collaborative,” which influenced education policy. Archives from the Richard J. Daley Library at the University of Illinois at Chicago showed that Obama and Ayers worked as a team to advance the CAC agenda.

In his op-ed, Kurtz explained that the Obama campaign at the time said that Ayers had nothing to do with Obama’s “recruitment” to CAC’s board. However, as Kurtz discovered, the Daley archives showed that: …

…along with [Deborah] Leff and [Patricia Albjerg] Graham, Mr. Ayers was one of a working group of five who assembled the initial board in 1994. Mr. Ayers founded CAC and was its guiding spirit. No one would have been appointed the CAC chairman without his approval.

Kurtz continued that the CAC’s agenda channeled Ayers’ educational philosophy “which called for infusing students and their parents with a radical political commitment, and which downplayed achievement tests in favor of activism.” Ayers wrote that teachers should act as community organizers whose focus is provoking resistance to American racism and oppression.

“I’m a radical, Leftist, small ‘c’ communist,” Ayers said in an interview in Ron Chepesiuk’s Sixties Radicals. …

YouTube: Parent Forcibly Removed From Maryland School Board Meeting For Protesting Common Core
video run time = 00:02:58 minutes
9/19/2013
Concerned father Robert Small attended the public meeting held by Baltimore County Schools Superintendent Dallas Dance. Smalls stood to ask a question but was immediately confronted by Superintendent Dance's guard that prevented him from asking a simple, civil question, "My question is, how does lowering America's educational standards prepare kids for community college?". He was talking about the new Common Core standards that many schools across America are trying to force down everyone's throat--a policy that is just 1 more way to dumb down our kids and place them further under the control of fascists like Superintendent Dance. When the jackbooted "cop" started ripping at Mr. Small's shirt to forcibly pull him out of the meeting, Smalls began to call out, "Don't stand for this. You're sitting here like cowards. You have questions!"

Addendum: 9/23/2013 - "It was clear that Mr. Small violated the rules of the meeting and disrupted the meeting," a release from the State's Attorney states. "It was also clear that the Officer acted appropriately and did have probable cause to make an arrest on both charges.” "The Baltimore County State’s Attorney’s Office has just received and reviewed the facts of this case”, the release continues. "In the interest of justice, further prosecution will not accomplish anything more. Therefore, the charges have been dismissed."

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