Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger
I’m sure most Americans are aware that former Alaska governor Sarah Palin has been on a bus tour along the east coast of the United States. What is the purpose of her tour?
Only Palin knows for sure. She did, however, provide people with her reason for taking this tour of historical places on her Sarah PAC website.
It’s interesting when (for the 100th time) reporters shout out, “Why are you traveling to historical sites? What are you trying to accomplish?” I repeat my answer, “It’s so important for Americans to learn about our past so we can clearly see our way forward in challenging times; so, we’re bringing attention to our great nation’s foundation.” When that answer isn’t what the reporters want to hear, we’ve asked them if they’ve ever visited these sites like the National Archives, Gettysburg, etc. When they confirm that they haven’t, it’s good to say, “Well, there you go. You’ll learn a lot about America today.” (They usually don’t want to hear that either!)
Last Thursday, Palin stopped in Boston for a tour of three Revolutionary War sites. She said she was “getting goose bumps’’ from all the history she was glimpsing in Boston. She added, “You’ve got to know a lot about our past in order to know how to proceed successfully into the future.’’ And thanks to Palin we’re learning history anew as she provides reporters with her version of American historical events when she speaks to them on stops along her way.
After visiting the Old North Church in Boston’s North End, she hailed Paul Revere and what he did on his “famous ride.” Here is how Palin described that event: …he who warned the British that they weren’t gonna be takin’ away our arms, uh, by ringin’ those bells and, um, makin’ sure as he’s ridin’ his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells that we’re gonna be secure and we were gonna be free. And we we’re gonna be armed.
Got that? Revere warned the British! That’s news to me. And to think that I thought for decades that Paul Revere had been riding around on his horse warning certain American colonists about the British. The archivist at the Cambridge Public Library doesn’t know what really happened that fateful night either. The archivist wrote the following in a blog post: “Paul Revere and his famous midnight ride is so much a part of the collective memory of the American Revolution that it is often forgotten that Revere was just one of several men and one woman who alerted the Minutemen of the impending British advancement.”
I guess the History Channel got it wrong too. Following is what I found on the channel’s website. It includes no mention of bells.
By 1775, tensions between the American colonies and the British government had approached the breaking point, especially in Massachusetts, where Patriot leaders formed a shadow revolutionary government and trained militias to prepare for armed conflict with the British troops occupying Boston. In the spring of 1775, General Thomas Gage, the British governor of Massachusetts, received instructions from Great Britain to seize all stores of weapons and gunpowder accessible to the American insurgents. On April 18, he ordered British troops to march against Concord and Lexington.
The Boston Patriots had been preparing for such a British military action for some time, and, upon learning of the British plan, Revere and Dawes set off across the Massachusetts countryside. They took separate routes in case one of them was captured: Dawes left the city via the Boston Neck peninsula and Revere crossed the Charles River to Charlestown by boat. As the two couriers made their way, Patriots in Charlestown waited for a signal from Boston informing them of the British troop movement. As previously agreed, one lantern would be hung in the steeple of Boston’s Old North Church, the highest point in the city, if the British were marching out of the city by Boston Neck, and two lanterns would be hung if they were crossing the Charles River to Cambridge. Two lanterns were hung, and the armed Patriots set out for Lexington and Concord accordingly. Along the way, Revere and Dawes roused hundreds of Minutemen, who armed themselves and set out to oppose the British.
Tim Murphy—snarking little fellow—wrote this in an article at Mother Jones: “We don’t mean to nitpick—we just think that if you launch a major publicity tour on the subject of great moments in American history, it might make sense to brush up on the details first. We can only imagine how Palin might try to spin this: ‘Listen my children and you shall hear, of the midnight ride of Paul Revere. If the story doesn’t sound like what you read on Wikipedia, you know who to blame: the elite liberal media.’”
It’s just not fair! Tim Murphy and other members of the “lamestream media” love to make fun of Palin. I don’t understand why. She’s only trying to give us the scoop on what really happened in our country’s past—just like Representative Michelle Bachmann of Minnesota. Thank heavens we have women so well versed in American history that they can enlighten us today with their knowledge.
SOURCES
Palin hits town to pick her spots, take her shots (Boston Globe)
Just passing through (Boston Globe)
Reminding Reporters, too, of America’s Foundations (Sarah PAC)
Sarah Palin’s Reasons for Bus Tour Misguided (Yahoo)
Paul Revere’s Ride, Reimagined by Sarah Palin (Mother Jones)
The Other Paul Revere: William Dawes’ Midnight Ride through Cambridge (The Cambridge Room)
Revere and Dawes warn of British attack (History.com)
Elaine, I don’t think Palin could pass the bar exam or get an LLM in taxation as Bachmann did. Palin received a d in econ. Don’t think Bachmann is very smart, either.
Swarthmore mom,
Bachmann more intelligent than Palin? I don’t know about that. It’s something to consider though. Bachmann is a lawyer–but she certainly doesn’t know her American history.
The Presidency is not exactly a brains operation. It’s more a be decisive and appear competent job.
Think Bachmann is the more intelligent of the two.
Now Bachmann, as shown in the videos above, has made plenty of historical mistakes which cannot be defended. And, Palin’s — the VP is in charge of the senate was a mistake at worst and an unforced error at best.
I just admitted a typo, Elaine. In fact, I’ve made quite a few typos in this thread. So there you go an admission of mistake. More than you’ve done, and you have some real doozies hanging out there.
Your laboring under the misapprehension that any disagreement with your opinion is a mistake — it isn’t. And, right now that’s all you have.
Bachmann announced at the debate that she is in.
That’s so true, Kderosa. You have a true unwillingness to admit any mistake. You choose to carry on no matter what. What a hero to your cause!
Yes, circumstances (extreme political hatred, complete unwillingness to admit any mistake, and the dribbling out of unfavorable evidence) have been very kind.
kderosa:
carry on, you are well on your way.
@Billy B.
Yeah, I know the SOP very well and they are not particularly good at it.
What they never seem to realize is that the SOP produces a record which makes them look very silly.
They can either go full nutter like Buddha and Mike and sound crazy.
Or they can try to make a coherent argument and look stupid like Lottacatz just did.
The object isn’t to convince them to change their lefty religion, that will never happen; it is merely to establish a record of wingnuttery.
kderosa:
if you cant beat them with facts then baffle them with obfuscation, dissembling and the meaning of is.
The way this thread has been going is SOP. They are very good at it to. And they like to pile on in the hope that if enough people say it is so, it will be.
@lottakatz
You do realize that the thesauraus lists threaten as a synonym for warn don’t you?
No doubt that is why the vicar and historian David Hackett Fischer chose the word warn to signify that Revere issued a threat.
Paul Revere to the Corresponding Secretary Jeremy Belknap. Upon capture, “[h]e warned the British Officers that if they remained in the vicinity of Lexington Green, they would also be in extreme danger, and he hinted that the expedition coming after them could start a war unless it was warned of the trouble that awaited them at Lexington Center.” Fischer, The Ride of Paul Revere, Chapter 8, (1994).
Who’s next?
The good Vicar nor Sister Sarah (nor apparently you) understand that the context dictates the form. Your definition may well be appropriate when one is conveying information to an ally, one warns allies. But when one is talking to the enemy it is a threat:
threat (thrt)
n.
1. An expression of an intention to inflict pain, injury, evil, or punishment.
2. An indication of impending danger or harm.
3. One that is regarded as a possible danger; a menace.
[American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000]
The use of the word “warn” regarding Revere’s statement to his British captors is semantically wrong. The devil IS in the (semantic) details, something Sister Sarah simply does not have a firm grasp of.
@Elaine, the only thing you have put put in front of me is your unsupported opinion or the unsupported opinion of some other non-expert layman (i.e., a journalist or a historian who is not an expert in Paul Revere or possibly colonial American history). These opinions you’ve pointed to are not factual evidence, so they prove nothing. (Just like my opinions would prove nothing.) Your comments notwithstanding, you have failed to present even one piece of factual evidence. I’m trying to give you the benefit of the doubt that you aren’t doing this purposely, but the only other alternative explanation I can think of is that you don’t know the difference between a fact an an opinion. This might explain why you keep posting entire articles instead of the relevent actual parts you are relying upon. Then again, it’s not like any of your fellow travelers know how to do it either. (Actually, @Buddha has managed to cut and paste a few facts; he just hasn’t found a relevant one yet.)
kderosa,
No matter how much evidence is put in front of you–you spurn it if it doesn’t agree with your beliefs. As I said to you in an earlier comment–arguing with someone who has a closed mind and an agenda is futile.
@Elaine, is that the best you can do — criticize an obvious typo? Any excuse to avoid confronting the substantive argument and weight of the evidence.
kderosa,
I guess you would know where your friends the roaches go when the lights are on.
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kderosa and his/her friends singing their theme song:
kderosa
1, June 13, 2011 at 4:49 pm
“@Elaine, Really? I mean, really? You am having a hard time believing you are that dense and that ignornat of what went on that night.”
******
Buddha, Bob, Mepso, Mike A., Mike S., Lottakatz, et al–
Ye shall know them by their words!
Funny how the roaches have scurried back for cover now that the light has been turned back on again.