I remember hearing the story about Paul Revere when I was a kid.  I thought it was a fun, cool story about some guy riding through the cobblestone and dirt streets of 1775 Boston on his horse yelling at the top of his lungs “The British are coming!  The British are coming!!”  However, that story seemed ancient to me, from a time long ago that I could only barely comprehend.  Don’t get me wrong, I understood it was part of America’s history and a significant moment in the beginning of our revolution, but the importance of that moment and what transpired afterwards really didn’t fully hit home.  Only after experiencing life as an adult, going through its trials and tribulations, winning and losing, only then was I able to grasp the pure panic that Paul must have felt as he sped through the town, and the sheer terror the men must have felt as they grabbed their boots and reached for their guns.  It’s nothing short of awe inspiring when one understands the bravery of those men and women to face the moment to fight for what they believed in. 

As my interest in history grew as a young adult, I soon learned that everything I heard about as a kid about Paul Revere’s famous ride wasn’t totally accurate.  First of all, Paul wasn’t alone.  It’s believed that he was initially joined by two other riders, William Dawes and Samuel Prescott, spreading the word on that April evening in 1775.  Secondly, he and his companions were most definitely not screaming out loud that the “British are coming.”  It was much more clandestine that that.  You see, the British were already there, hiding in the countryside.  Paul, William, and Samuel risked capture and their lives as they spread the word.  This makes the story so much more compelling, with the panic and terror ratcheted up that much more.  Revere’s famous ride wasn’t just a mad dash to warn the town folk of an impending force, it was a secretive mission in the midst of British soldiers and loyalists.

Thanks to the protected life of leisure most Americans enjoy today, it seems unfathomable now that the fight for independence was fought in the very farms, fields, streets, yards, alleyways, and hills surrounding the colonials’ homes.  It is said that at least 20,000 colonists were killed during the Revolutionary War.  How many families destroyed?  How many homes torched?  Crops burned?  Personal effects taken?  The questions are endless, as was the devastation and despair.  The ultimate price that so many men and women paid with their own blood, sweat, and tears, in the belief that there was something better, to form a more perfect union, a union that they themselves would never experience.  How does one even begin to repay that favor?

I once naively believed that the fight for the freedoms our patriots provided us, the American Dream, was over.  That we won our independence, and now we’ll always be protected from the tyranny and oppression thanks to our Constitution, and that we’ll all have freedoms most people around the world can only dream of thanks to the Bill of Rights.  I was so naïve.  As I became more and more interested in American politics, and in turn, political history, the more I became acutely aware that the fight for our freedoms is never over.  It may be on the back burner for awhile, simmering quietly, but it never goes away.  Eventually, that pot on the back burner boils over if you’re not paying enough attention to it.

Looking at the current American political landscape today is startling, to say the least.  I wasn’t alive during the McCarthy years of the 1950s, nor did I personally witness socialist President FDR (who didn’t hide his affection for Italian fascist dictator Mussolini) in office either, but I’d be willing to bet that what we’re seeing from the current administration running this country is far scarier and more threatening to freedom-loving American citizens today than what we’ve ever seen in the past.  We are now a country controlled by ‘elite’ power-hungry oligarchs, who are no more interested in free elections than they are in providing the American Dream of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” They have infiltrated all facets of society:  law (including judges and prosecutors), education, business, military, medicine, banking, entertainment, media, and government.  Instead of debate, today’s left resorts to shame, smears, and censorship.  And as time goes by, they keep upping the ante which, in turn, further erodes our individual rights. 

This summer, Donald Trump, a former United States President, had his home raided by armed FBI agents.  It was asked afterwards that if a former U.S. President could have his home raided, how long will it be until this administration unleashes them onto the American public.  Well, now we know that answer.  Recently, a father of seven also had his home raided by armed FBI agents, and was subsequently arrested.  And what was his crime?  Did he murder somebody?  No.  Did he firebomb a business, church, police station or government building?  No.  Did he desecrate government property?  No.  Nothing even remotely close.  He simply shoved away a raving lunatic who was screaming at and harassing his child, a reaction most fathers would perform in the same situation.  Now, please explain to me how that warrants an armed raid by FBI agents.  Is this really where we are now as a country?  It’s hard to fathom.

Unfortunately, his only crime was that he wasn’t in lockstep with the State’s mandated narrative.  Think about that for a minute.  This man’s home was raided as a result of a “thought crime.”  It doesn’t get more Orwellian that that.  Stalin and Hitler would only be so amused by this. 

With the constant demeaning verbal attacks from Biden’s administration, the physical attacks from leftist-backed mobs (Antifa and BLM), and now the unleashed police force from our Justice Department, it appears that informed debate and compromise are no longer viable options.

Many years from now, will history books refer to a 21^st century Paul Revere moment?  If necessary, against a hostile government targeting its citizenry, will we have that same bravery to protect our own little hills?  To preserve the very freedoms that so many men and women fought for?  I hope so.

Image: New York Publoc Library