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)
kdrosa,
Where are you from that they learn you such education…..
As Otteray Scribe formulates an excuse to back down from the gauntlet he’s just thrown down ….
@OS, “I am in the middle of preparing a cross examination for an attorney.”
Paralegal? Couldn’t hack law school or pass the bar?
Go ahead cross-exam, leading questions, the whole bit, let’s see you scorch that earth.
Mile = Mike
Fingers don’t work and that grey typeface on my electrical computing machine is hard to proofread.
Mile, can you imagine what old Fritz would do with this character? I would not be pretty. Actually, Fritz or Ellis either one would put up with him and his brain farts just long enough to figure him out and throw him out. My best guess is between thirty seconds and two minutes.
“Angry much, Mike?”
When I feel pity mingled with uncontrollable mirth, it’s hard to be angry.
Also you shouldn’t use 19th Century logical proofs you don’t understand.
OS, isn’t that also Projection … on your part?
****************************************
Short answer: No.
I am in the middle of preparing a cross examination for an attorney. I would love to get you in a deposition or on the witness stand. I love the sight of scorched earth in the morning.
@Buddha, QED.
@OS, isn’t that also Projection … on your part?
kderosa:
Projection.
http://changingminds.org/explanations/behaviors/coping/projection.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_projection
My hatred of propagandists is not blind. I see you all too well and that’s what results in a loathing of those who willingly work against what is best for all just so they can make a dollar for and take a dime from the few. As to incoherence, again you wish to blame your problems, this time your demonstrated problem with comprehension, on others. As to smug arrogance, being smarter than you and adept at thwarting your chosen profession neither makes me smug nor arrogant. It just means I’m smarter than you. That all are created equal does not negate that not all are equally created. The perception of smug arrogance comes from your reaction. Jealousy is a natural reaction to being bested, sure, but it is most a unattractive quality in an adult.
@Buddha, I missed your unique combination of smug arrogance, incoherence,and blindhatered.
Well that explains the “k” part anyway.
It must stand for “Koch teaser”.
Say, how’s that Big Lie tactic working out for you, fluffer?
Angry much, Mike?
“Stanley Kurtz:”
Troll,
You proved over and over on this thread that you’re a liar remembering: “My work is done here,” etc.. Among your biggest lies was your insistence that you weren’t defending Palin, but merely trying to set the record straight. In other words just a fair minded guy with no agenda. Now, in your typical ineptitude and disregard for keeping your story straight, you quote Kurtz, a bought and paid for scholar for the likes of the Koch Bros. Just as you’re a much lower level whore for the same cause. Down on your knees, or bent over you service the needs of your betters.
Your service, other when commanded in person, is simply not very good but in your delusion of your own intelligence you soldier on, little soldier stiff, as you imagine your pitiful attacks pertinent. You proclaim your victories, as would any good little fascist, but all your efforts only provide fodder for amusement and ridicule. Well hey, as they say, it’s a living so keep on going, because you obviously have little sale-able talent in the
job market. Stick around, you’re amusing in your ineptitude and your hubris. We both know though that deep inside you is a frustrated little boy, who understands nobody can, or ever could love you and that is why I feel profound pity and not hatred towards you.
Stanley Kurtz:
Liberalism nowadays may be the last great holdout of old-fashioned prejudice. By telling themselves they’re against group hatreds of all kinds, and dismissing their opponents’ arguments as nothing but bigotry in disguise, liberals grant themselves license to despise. They swear, mock, and hate with a clean conscience, never guessing they’re turning liberalism itself into an outpost of bigotry in reverse. The flip side of liberal guilt is this hidden license to hate.
The greatest targets of this wave of liberal bigotry of late have been Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann. By joining the pariah class of conservatives, Palin and Bachmann turn themselves into legitimate outlets for the left’s suppressed prejudice against women. That yields shock when Palin’s emails show her to have been a good governor and an admirable person, or when Bachmann shines in debate.
(This thread would be plaintiff’s exhibit A. It’s not just prejudice against women (as the Weiner episode shows, feminists are quick to adandon their principles when it is politically expedient) it’s also a class-based prejudice/hatred, as the attacks against Palin show.)
Swarthmore mom,
“Palin thinks she can ‘ wing it ‘ and get by.”
I agree.
And both Bachmann and Palin think they can give people their versions of American history. I happen to think that Bachmann is batsh*t crazy. She wanted members of Congress investigated to see if they were pro or anti America.
Elaine, Palin thinks she can ” wing it ” and get by. I hear her husband is hiring staffers so we shall see.
Swarthmore mom,
Having been a teacher for more than three decades, I can tell you that I taught children who were very bright–but who were not great test takers. There are many forms of intelligence–some of which can’t be tested. I have known people who were good test takers and students who had absolutely no common sense. One of my main criticisms of Palin is that she appears to have little intellectual curiosity.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/michele-bachmann-is-the-candidate-sarah-palin-was-supposed-to-be/2011/05/19/AGbVlySH_blog.html