Sunday, September 1, 2013

Revolution Day, Sept. 6: Occupy the Revolution!

Another year has gone by, and there will be no celebration of Revolution Day on Sept. 6, 2013.  Which is a shame, because the people really need that story!

Will there be a celebration on the 240'th anniversary of the Worcester Revolution, on Sept. 6 2014?  That may depend on you!

You can read the story in The First American Revolution, before Lexington and Concord, Ray Raphael, The New Press, New York, 2002.

You might want to  read this book:

#  If you love history and don't know about the Massachusetts Revolution of 1774;
#  If you've ever wondered why the American Revolution, our Revolution, looked so different from everyone else's revolutions;
#  If the story that the Revolution was a war never made sense to you;
#  If the story that our Revolution was led by leading citizens - by merchants and bankers and guild-masters - ever puzzled or troubled you;
#  If the story that our Revolution was a conspiracy hatched in back rooms and attics ever troubled you;
#  If the story that the Minutemen were an armed conspiracy, that they rose up on call to overthrow the government and make a revolution, ever troubled you;
#  If you thought that the biggest thing that happened in Worcester during the Revolution was that George Washington slept here, and you'd love to find out different;
#  If it ever troubled you that almost no one from outside Massachusetts has ever heard of Worcester -  the second-largest city in New England - or even knows how to pronounce it, and you'd like to see it put back on the map;
#  Or even if you're just tired of always hearing about what happened in Boston in 1774 and 1775, and are curious about what was going on in the rest of the state.

This book is important not just for history buffs, but for all of us, and never more so than now.

People live out of their stories, and we need this story, now.  And the official story we were taught about the American Revolution is seriously holding us back and leading us astray in dangerous ways.

Our economy and political system continue to collapse.  The level of corruption in high places continues to explode, indeed it has become the system.  Ever more of our wealth gets poured into foreign wars. The destruction of our environment accelerates and grows ever more outrageous. The great banks and corporations continue their leveraged buyout of our cities and towns, our homes and schools, as they suck the real economy dry.  The government becomes ever more intrusive and controlling, and speaking the truth has become a crime - even treason!

The people are watching these things, and the conviction has grown in the hearts of millions that we need a revolution.  But what does that mean?  What is a revolution?  Most people go to "peasants with pitchforks", "storming the Bastille", or rising up in gun in hand to fight the tyrants, and then back away.  If a revolution is a war, who can blame them?

But the Revolution we learned about, the one whose images flash in our minds, wasn't the actual revolution!  That official story starts with the Revolutionary War, the war to defend the revolution, that began with the British attempt to re-take its lost province of Massachusetts by force.  That story leaves out the revolution itself!

Ray Raphael has uncovered and written a first installment on the story of the Massachusetts Revolution, a revolution that looked much more like Occupy than like the Tea Party or the militia movements!  If you're a historian, there is certainly much more to do!  The revolution of 1774 happened in every part of Massachusetts.  Perhaps in every part of New England.  Much of the story still lies buried and undiscovered in town archives, one-room museums and family albums, waiting to be woven together into a larger narrative.

And we, the American people, need that story!  We really need that story!  We need it to be the new American Story, the tale we tell each other about that critical juncture, the Revolution, that shaped who we are and how we got here.  We need that story to help guide us into our future!

And we need someone who loves history and understands it's importance to step forward and organize a celebration for Sept. 6, 2014, the 240th anniversary of the Worcester Revolution.  It's none too soon to start that work now!

Every part of Massachusetts could be involved in this commemoration, not just Worcester.  And every part has its own special day, when the local citizens stood up to the British-imposed dictatorship of General Gage and shut it down!

Can you take the lead?  Yes you.  You found your way to this blog and you're reading this.  Does it call to you?  Does it feel really important to you?

Could you make the time for it if you had to?

One person who has the time, energy and will and who understands or senses its importance can make this happen.

Or, maybe it won't happen, because you didn't do it!  It could have happened last year or the year before or the year before that, but it didn't.  The time was ripe, but no one stepped up to make it happen.

I can't.  My plate is full.  But I'll be delighted to support a volunteer to take the lead, and glad to hook you up with the people I know who have an interest.  Ray Raphael will be delighted too I'm sure!

And I'll be thrilled to join you on that day, Sept. 6, 2014, when the first crowd comes together around this event since maybe 1830 or 1840, and We the People start to take our story back and celebrate it!

Whose City?  Our City?

Whose State?  Our State!

Whose Country?  Our Country!

Whose Revolution?  Our Revolution!

 

No comments: