April 19, 1775 Compared to April 19, 2013

[SeanTX]

On April 19, 1775 men in Massachusetts fired the first shots against tyranny at Lexington and Concord -- on April 19, 2013 they cower inside their homes on "lockdown", waiting for the King's men to give them permission to go outside.

Thank God we live in a free country!

[RockEnds]

I was just getting ready to post the poem.


Listen my children and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.

He said to his friend, "If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal light,--
One if by land, and two if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country folk to be up and to arm."

Then he said "Good-night!" and with muffled oar
Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore,
Just as the moon rose over the bay,
Where swinging wide at her moorings lay
The Somerset, British man-of-war;
A phantom ship, with each mast and spar
Across the moon like a prison bar,
And a huge black hulk, that was magnified
By its own reflection in the tide.

Meanwhile, his friend through alley and street
Wanders and watches, with eager ears,
Till in the silence around him he hears
The muster of men at the barrack door,
The sound of arms, and the tramp of feet,
And the measured tread of the grenadiers,
Marching down to their boats on the shore.

Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church,
By the wooden stairs, with stealthy tread,
To the belfry chamber overhead,
And startled the pigeons from their perch
On the sombre rafters, that round him made
Masses and moving shapes of shade,--
By the trembling ladder, steep and tall,
To the highest window in the wall,
Where he paused to listen and look down
A moment on the roofs of the town
And the moonlight flowing over all.

Beneath, in the churchyard, lay the dead,
In their night encampment on the hill,
Wrapped in silence so deep and still
That he could hear, like a sentinel's tread,
The watchful night-wind, as it went
Creeping along from tent to tent,
And seeming to whisper, "All is well!"
A moment only he feels the spell
Of the place and the hour, and the secret dread
Of the lonely belfry and the dead;
For suddenly all his thoughts are bent
On a shadowy something far away,
Where the river widens to meet the bay,--
A line of black that bends and floats
On the rising tide like a bridge of boats.

Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride,
Booted and spurred, with a heavy stride
On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere.
Now he patted his horse's side,
Now he gazed at the landscape far and near,
Then, impetuous, stamped the earth,
And turned and tightened his saddle girth;
But mostly he watched with eager search
The belfry tower of the Old North Church,
As it rose above the graves on the hill,
Lonely and spectral and sombre and still.
And lo! as he looks, on the belfry's height
A glimmer, and then a gleam of light!
He springs to the saddle, the bridle he turns,
But lingers and gazes, till full on his sight
A second lamp in the belfry burns.

A hurry of hoofs in a village street,
A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark,
And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing, a spark
Struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet;
That was all! And yet, through the gloom and the light,
The fate of a nation was riding that night;
And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight,
Kindled the land into flame with its heat.
He has left the village and mounted the steep,
And beneath him, tranquil and broad and deep,
Is the Mystic, meeting the ocean tides;
And under the alders that skirt its edge,
Now soft on the sand, now loud on the ledge,
Is heard the tramp of his steed as he rides.

It was twelve by the village clock
When he crossed the bridge into Medford town.
He heard the crowing of the cock,
And the barking of the farmer's dog,
And felt the damp of the river fog,
That rises after the sun goes down.

It was one by the village clock,
When he galloped into Lexington.
He saw the gilded weathercock
Swim in the moonlight as he passed,
And the meeting-house windows, black and bare,
Gaze at him with a spectral glare,
As if they already stood aghast
At the bloody work they would look upon.

It was two by the village clock,
When he came to the bridge in Concord town.
He heard the bleating of the flock,
And the twitter of birds among the trees,
And felt the breath of the morning breeze
Blowing over the meadow brown.
And one was safe and asleep in his bed
Who at the bridge would be first to fall,
Who that day would be lying dead,
Pierced by a British musket ball.

You know the rest. In the books you have read
How the British Regulars fired and fled,---
How the farmers gave them ball for ball,
From behind each fence and farmyard wall,
Chasing the redcoats down the lane,
Then crossing the fields to emerge again
Under the trees at the turn of the road,
And only pausing to fire and load.

So through the night rode Paul Revere;=
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm,---
A cry of defiance, and not of fear,
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo for evermore!
For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,
Through all our history, to the last,
In the hour of darkness and peril and need,
The people will waken and listen to hear
The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,
And the midnight message of Paul Revere.

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

[Aratus]

i'm a baystater and although i wouldn't describe people in either middlesex or suffolk county as being venal or gutless or bootlicks,
i do admit that traveling about across the state begs several questions. could we keep away from hypoerbole, yet be frank about
our civil liberties as we are inside this all? i admit this all on my tv set is most unique and rather alarming given all the implications.

[SeanTX]

And let's not forget about what happened 20 years ago today. That was a trial run for today's police state -- it should have been stopped right then and there. The patriot/militia movement might have slowed the progression down a bit, but that all came to an end in the summer of 2001.

[SeanTX]

i'm a baystater and although i wouldn't describe people in either middlesex or suffolk county as being venal or gutless or bootlicks,


Could have fooled me .. those people should be out in the streets en masse saying "fuck you" to the police , going about their daily lives, as free citizens should.

This "lockdown" is going to end up costing billions in lost commerce and lost wages. All because one boogey man is loose (and probably hundreds of miles away by now).

This is just going to give others the incentive to do this sort of thing -- just think what a team of 6-12 boogey men spread across the country could do -- they'd have a huge part of the nation under "lockdown."

[Aratus]

or... the teen is extremely volatile, has gone into a residence and has placed a local family under a state of seige

the powers that be have been slowly going from house to house since the death of the campus cop near our MIT

[Aratus]

i admit 6 to 12 hours suggests going west of the hudson and possibly route 80 or route 81 rather than interstate 95

and we might even assume the young guy is west of the mississippi if litting out of here like a bat out of hell. if we look

north and south we have canada and mexico grandly said. this assumes he avoids airports etc and the like or boats.

[Aratus]

SeanTX... indeedy luv

the powers that bee

want this youth badly

[Aratus]

the dollar sums of this all cost~wise seem quite secondary

[Anti Federalist]

Timely bump

[RonZeplin]

Oklahoma, Waco, Ruby Ridge April 19 An American Tradgety (http://c1n.tv/jannscottlive/oklahoma-waco-ruby-ridge-april-19-an-american-tradgety/)

https://i0.wp.com/lifebeautifulmagazine.com/images/summer/summer12/_md/summer12_rubyridge2.jpg?resize=474%2C662&ssl=1
She was killed at Ruby Ridge.

It was war on American soil. The right wing militias took on the US government on April 19th over a few decades. Though Ruby Ridge (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_Ridge) took place in August of 1992, it sparked the militia revolution. Randy Weaver was holed up in his home with his family and would not come out when federal agents tried to serve him papers. A gun fight ensued and family members were killed.


https://youtu.be/VNrxXRt1F9A
Waco burns during assault by ATF and FBI

The Waco Siege (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege)ended on April 19th 1 year later when hundreds of innocent people were killed when the federal government assaulted a religious compound.

The Oklahoma city attack (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_City_bombing) on the federal government occurred on April 19 1995 in answer to Waco and Ruby Ridge. It killed 168 federal workers and their children and injured over 600.

This date is not lost on the American Patriot movement since the battle s for Lexington and Concord were fought on April 19 1775 marking the beginning of the American revolution. The British of course tried to put the USA under tyranny. Today is patriots day in Boston where re-enactments take place.

http://c1n.tv/jannscottlive/oklahoma-waco-ruby-ridge-april-19-an-american-tradgety/