July 4, 2014: Breed’s Hill; Real Close
The attached cartoon is about Breed’s Hill/Bunker Hill. It is the same general theme as last year’s cartoon. It was during that battle that a black man in the militia shot and killed a British Colonel.
That was bad.
In those days it was a capital offense to simply strike a British soldier. Shooting at them was also frowned on. It was also a hanging offense to rebel against the Crown. Additionally, it was not proper battlefield etiquette to shoot at enemy officers. And, of course, it wasn’t proper to allow black men to be armed. (Or to read for that matter, although Boston was more enlightened than many.) So the guy in the cartoon was way off the reservation that day at Breed’s Hill.
But it was only fitting that a black militia member rebel against the Crown, shoot at a British soldier and actually kill one…an officer…on that day at Breed’s Hill. It was a minor precursor to the seismic change that was happening. The birth of an idea that was America was coming to pass and entering the World’s consciousness.
And it seems somehow only fair retribution for the slaying of a black man, Crispus Attucks, in the Boston Massacre a few years earlier. Mr. Attucks may have been throwing snowballs at the hated “Lobsterbacks” that day before the Brits opened fire. But maybe he wasn’t. The snow of history has long since covered those tracks. The Lobsters were free to quarter themselves in your house, eat your food, and even go through your private papers if they thought they should. After all, if “you don’t like us looking through you personal effects you must have something to hide,” was the Crown’s rationale. (Where did you think the Bill of Rights came from? Madison just dreamt them up?) Those things were reason enough to hate the tyrannical Brits. In addition to those things, plus the Stamp Act and that business about tea…they were complete jerks! It often happens with people born to wealth and privilege. They can be jerks.
After Crispus Attucks was murdered, Americans decided something more lethal than snowballs was called for.
And if you haven’t noticed, this cartoon and short essay is partly about black Americans It only seems fitting since under this administration everything is about some minority class being horribly oppressed by rich, old, white guy, cigar smokin’, off the reservation Republican Tea Party types. Which reminds me how the first iteration of Tea Party types were extremely unkind when they dressed up like Redskins in order to make it appear Redskins had tossed all that tea in Boston Harbor…even though Redskins at that time weren’t particularly known for either a fondness or disdain for tea. And who would’ve guessed Redskins would later become so accomplished at a sport yet to be invented?
You probably thought that Redskins were only accomplished at scalping people back then. Nope. Scalping was not even their idea. They learned it from the Brits. Which just goes to prove how hanging around with bad companions can mess up your thinking and get you involved in bad stuff. Even horrible things can begin to appear …well…not horrible. Stuff like child sacrifice…abortion…Gosnell Clinics…getting drunk and allowing your date to drown in your car in the creek under a bridge…telling whoppers to the Nation about how they can keep their doctors and plan… sending guns to Mexican drug cartels …attacking conservative groups you don’t like through the IRS… abortion…did I mention abortion?
Over fifty million babies murdered by their own mothers before they saw the light of day. You hear about that sort of thing since Roe v. Wade and it makes you numb. It loses its horror factor. But God doesn’t get used to it. No. He heard every little, muffled scream. On this July birthday of our Nation … I fear for Her. God doesn’t just overlook something like the murder of fifty million babies just because Justice Stephens said it was no big deal.
Maybe I’m nuts, but I’m glad that black American whacked the colonel. It let the world know things are different here.
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
