©1996 Coast Writers Syndicate
The keeping and bearing of arms by the people was no more popular
with King George and his Tories in colonial times than it is with Big
Government and its supporters, today. On April 19, 1775, British forces
secretly marched on Lexington and Concord. The British mission was
essentially an attempt to disarm the colonial farmers and merchants.
When Paul Revere sounded the alarm on his famous “midnight ride,” the
response of the American colonials, the “Minute Men,” was to take up
their arms, which had not yet been denied them, and drive the British
Redcoats off. At Lexington, the large British force prevailed over a
much smaller company of militia, but at Concord Bridge the Americans
stood firm, and turned the British march into a rout.
King George called the Minute Men “rebels.” Today’s Big Government
would call them “terrorists.” In either case, those who believe in
freedom are still willing to call those who resist government
confiscation of guns “patriots.”
Some years ago, I had the solemn, moving pleasure of visiting
Concord, and reading the plaque at the bridge.
Picture in your mind, a rock and wooden bridge over a pretty little
river, swollen from spring rains. The Minute Men were on a gentle slope
of stone-terraced, cultivated fields. Behind them were some stone and
timber farm buildings and houses. The patriots faced the bridge and the
road leading from it, into the woods beyond.
It was likely a pleasant spring day, as the Redcoats marched out of
the woods, toward the bridge, intending to cross. The event was
memorialized by our famous American poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson:
By this rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their Flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here the embattled farmers stood
And fired the Shot heard ’round the World.
Since that day, every man and woman who ever served his country in or
out of uniform has been challenged to be true to the patriot spirit of
those armed Minute Men (the first militia) who first fought and died for
our freedoms.
Today, those of us who believe in all that our country has been and
has meant, are under attack from nearly overwhelming forces which are
much more insidious and powerful than that force of British Redcoats.
I wish it were as simple as grabbing a musket and heading for the
bridge.
Today, when we are moved to defend our Constitution, our Bill of
Rights, and the freedoms purchased so dearly by our forefathers, we are
called names. The very concept of “Patriot” is subject to ridicule and
worse. We are told that our American culture of independence and freedom
is somehow to blame for all the nation’s ills.
Today, with the passage of “terrorist,” “crime” and other anti-gun
bills (bills which undermine the fundamental guarantees of the
Constitution) those of us who might have been the patriots at Concord,
who consider proudly that we are still the militia, have all suddenly
become suspected “terrorists.”
Today, as we reflect upon all those who risked so much to win our
freedoms, and our form of limited government — a government which for
over 200 years has been the envy of, and a beacon for, all the world —
let us remember. Let us resolve to resist with all our strength of
intellect and character, and with all the courage of our forefathers,
the new intrusions of Big Government, and the sly slander of those who
attempt to deny our inalienable rights, tear down our history and defame
the honored traditions of our nation.
Today, let us remember and honor the militia and Concord Bridge. Let
us remember the true purpose of the Second Amendment, and the price of
Freedom.