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)
Billy, by your standard, every time she opens her mouth must be an “off the cuff remark.” Like when she was asked what newspapers she reads. Or any number of other nonsensical comments. If you are not supporting her with your vote, why are we seeing such vigorous support of her completely unsupportable comment(s)?
no it is not rocket surgery, she had it basically correct. I am not going to vote for her but I will give her a pass on an off the cuff remark she made while apparently distracted.
It is not like she took a picture of her nether regions and sent them to men.
She isnt running for president so I dont understand all the fuss.
“Billy, understanding Palin’s words as a matter of basic communication is not rocket surgery.”
——–
🙂
LK,
Well said indeed but you may want to keep your special audience in mind. Here is a suggested edit:
“Billy, understanding Palin’s words as a matter of basic communication is not rocket surgery.”
Well said Lotta!
Billy B. : “kderosa:
If you like Sarah Palin you will interpret what she said one way, and if you don’t, the other way.
They are just pissed because there are 2 ways and you don’t agree. …”
—————
Billy, Palin’s statements are not to be confused with particle physics, there is no Heisenberg uncertainty principle at work when she speaks. The structure of the statement is what it is and the words mean what they mean. The meaning is not dependent on the words reaching you ear and the measure of them you take. To advocate such dependence is to belie a lack of scholarship in linguistics, or at least the portion that deals with grammar.
Mike Appleton
1, June 16, 2011 at 10:57 am
I have no idea whether kderosa is a troll. I had never heard that term until I started visiting this site. You could have told me that trolls were male trollops.
—–
LOL, it actually depends. Are they simply confused and vocal about it? Then the standard Internet definition applies. Are they knowingly whoring for and indefensible position? Then your definition probably applies. 🙂
Buddha, I found him. Right here. Caught in the act.
You thought it would be good to look like an imbecile incapable of understanding sarcasm?
Alrighty then.
Also, if you’re going to quote me, get it right. I never said “A little strategery can go a long way. “ I said “A little disingenuous goes a long way.”
Example: When someone says “looking dumb on my part was strategery” it is usually a disingenuous claim – they were actually being dumb, there was not false appearance. “I took it as such, but thought it would be fun to hoist that flag and see who would salute.” Really. You were trying to get Mike to say he was being sarcastic? My . . . that’s . . . some impressive strategic goal you’ve got there. No wonder you cannot formulate winning strategies. Not only can’t you spell the word properly, but your goal setting is dubious at best. I bet you’re the kind of guy when you go into a grocery store you carefully plot and plan to get the buggy to hold your groceries while shopping, aren’t ya? And George? Does Barbara know you are using the computer without supervision again? Tsk, tsk, tsk.
Mike Appleton:
“Billy B.:
I thought my sarcasm obvious, but I was apparently too subtle.”
I took it as such, but thought it would be fun to hoist that flag and see who would salute.
In the immortal words of Buddha is Laughing “A little strategery can go a long way. “
Bob,Esq.,
Your scathing sarcasm did not go unnoticed or undeserved……lol 8)
Touche….
For the record,
The first repeating rifle was the Henry which showed up around 1860 quickly followed by the Spencer a couple of years later.
In the film “Unforgiven,” William Munny uses a Spencer to finish off Little Bill when he utters the words “Deserve’s got nothin’ to do with it.”
And Mike Appleton’s sarcasm was befitting Goldi-lox; i.e. just right.
Elaine,
I think Billy Boy and K are having fantasies about Sarah’s.
Otteray,
Who’s loading his breeches?
😉
Mike, it is all good. Much better than the broken record that has been passing for commentary for a while.
Mike A.,
Billy B. and kderosa aren’t too good at picking up subtlety in language.
kderosa thought the vicar of the Old North Church in Boston wrote the following blog post in support of Palin’s version of Paul Revere’s ride:
Vicar tells all: Sarah Palin’s history flub, and how it happened
By Stephen T. Ayres
http://www.episcopalcafe.com/daily/politics/vicar_confesses_sarah_palins_h.php
Excerpt:
“I was surprised and bemused when the video of Governor Palin’s impromptu history quiz went viral the next day. I knew where all the factoids she cited came from and take responsibility for putting them in her head. I will not take the blame for the odd order those factoids came out. Perhaps it was too much information in too short a period of time to digest properly. Maybe if we climbed to the top of the steeple and viewed the lanterns, the governor wouldn’t have focused on the bells. Who knows?”
**********
The vicar left it up to readers to draw an inference from his words: “Perhaps it was too much information in too short a period of time to digest properly. Maybe if we climbed to the top of the steeple and viewed the lanterns, the governor wouldn’t have focused on the bells. Who knows?”
I do think the vicar was trying to be kind to Palin.
Otteray Scribe:
LOL. I guess I don’t do smartass very well. I was in fact referring to repeating rifles. I know they weren’t around until the middle of the 1800s, but I was tossing in a nonsensical reference for effect. Wrong effect. I didn’t intend to launch a new thread on when Winchesters first became available, or breech loaders for that matter.
She sure misfires a lot no matter her loading mechanism.
I wonder if Sarah is a muzzle loader or a breech loader?