In its 250th year, New England’s revolutionary history has become relevant again.
Here in Massachusetts, April is the month of patriotism, centering on the April 19 anniversary of the battles of Lexington and Concord.
I live in Bedford, a town that sits between Lexington and Concord, and so has an understandable sense of inferiority (though Bedford’s Minutemen joined several other nearby community militias in mustering to defend Concord Bridge). Longfellow never wrote a poem about us, but we do have our own April revolutionary celebration: Pole Capping Day, on which people dress in colonial-era costumes, Minutemen march and fire muskets, and speeches are given. The center of the ritual is the erection of a pole, which some agile person climbs and adorns with a liberty cap, symbolizing Bedford’s rebellion against King George and the English monarchy.
Saturday, hundreds of people braved drizzle and sleet to celebrate. This year’s pole capping had an extra flavor, as autocratic rule no longer seems like a historical curiosity. For some while, townspeople have been decorating their yards with ambiguously historical/political signs: “No King”, “Resisting Tyranny Since 1775”, and so on. If anyone objects to these “partisan” messages, they have so far stayed quiet for fear of confessing their pro-dictatorial aspirations.
My church’s retired minister John Gibbons is the chaplain of the local Minuteman corps, and annually officiates in his colonial-parson costume. This year’s homily was cribbed from the Declaration of Independence, but seemed like a denunciation of the Trump administration’s current deeds and near-term ambitions. Consider these accusations against King George:
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
Back in 2009, conservatives (and various other people upset to find themselves living in a country with a Black president) misappropriated New England’s revolutionary tradition and called themselves the Tea Party. As I pointed out in 2014, in one of the Sift’s most viral posts, they were actually a Confederate party, and drew much more from John Calhoun than John Adams.
Over the next 15 months, a lot of 250th anniversaries are going to roll around. I hope we use them to reclaim the true spirit of American patriotism from the fascist posers who so often usurp that legacy. Let us rededicate “our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor” to the cause of the inalienable rights of all people, and resist all attempts to impose one-man rule on these hallowed shores.
The Weekly Sift 
Comments
The good reverend missed one:
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither.
Nope, it’s here:
Liberty Pole Capping Commemoration
Bedford, Massachusetts
12 April 2025
Invocation by Rev. John Gibbons
Chaplain to the Bedford Company of Minutemen
Thank God there are no summer soldiers or sunshine patriots here among us!
CITIZENS!!
Before Nature’s God and this stalwart company, that we may break the chains of tyranny, hear
these words of American scripture, these being among the grievances that provoke today’s
muster and our sacred cause:
“…Let Facts be submitted to a candid world.”
“(The King) has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public
good.”
“(The King) has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance,
unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so
suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.”
“(The King) has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose
obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage
their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.”
“(The King has deprived) us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury…transporting us
beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offenses.”
“(The King has obstructed) the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for
establishing Judiciary Powers.”
“(The King) has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and
the amount and payment of their salaries.”
“(The King) has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to
harass our people and eat out their substance.”
“(The King) has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.”
“(The King) has excited domestic insurrections among us…protecting those for any (Crimes)
which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States.”
“(The King) has imposed taxes on us without our Consent, and (cut) off our Trade with all parts
of the world.”“(The King) has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution,
and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation.”
(The King has taken) away our Charters, (abolished) our most valuable Laws, and (altered)
fundamentally the Forms of our Governments.”
O God, may we keep faith with our complex but aspirational past, our calamitous present, and
our unknown future that we – by submission or resistance – will determine. Knowing that we
are now in the fight of our lives, may we redress these grievances and be true to our
revolutionary ideals of human liberation. A king is not a king until we bow.
“And with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, may we mutually pledge to
each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
OUR LIVES!! OUR FORTUNES!! OUR SACRED HONOR!!
OUR LIVES!! OUR FORTUNES!! OUR SACRED HONOR!!
Citizens, may we prayerfully say AMEN. And let us shout HUZZAH!!!
(Note: All quotations are verbatim from the Declaration of Independence, approved by the
Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. For brevity and relevance the grievances cited here were
chosen and reordered from the 27 grievances cited in the Declaration. Items in parentheses or
ellipsis were edited for clarity, grammar, and coherence.)
Amen, Brother. Come to Quincy and give a talk based on this! Hope you are well. See you in your hometown! Rob
Hi, Rob. I will indeed be back in Quincy on May 4, but the topic will be a bit different. Back in November of 2023, I gave a talk called “My Humanist Afterlife”. Looking at it now, I see a major hole in that talk, which I intend to patch with “Life After (Somebody Else’s) Death”.
Hey Doug, I think I can speak on behalf of our church to say we are looking forward to the talk and honored that you are coming to us to share such a heartfelt, difficult, and important subject. Always glad to have you back in your home town! Dogwood parade Saturday. Don’t know when you are coming to town by our son is doing a violin concert with Larry on Thursday. You are probably not in town yet. If you have some time maybe we could get a coffee or take a walk or something while you are in town. Unfortunately, your home town is very indicative of the Trumpist turn the country has taken and may be on its way back to sanity. My phone is 217 695-6066. I don’t seem to have your number for some reason. ciao, Rob
As we approach its 250 Anniversary, it seems timely to acquaint ourselves with the Grievances that were articulated in our Declaration of Independence. There are many sources on line — here’s one from the conservative Heritage Foundation. I do hope that these are not scrubbed from various websites …https://www.heritage.org/the-essential-declaration-independence/grievances
Darn tootin’ we gotta restore power to those inalienable rights.
Not only is the Trump threatening to find a way to tun for a third term [oh the agony!], he wants to outsource the imprisoning of people sentenced by our courts to the Big Bad Prison in El Salvador. The President of El Salvador is happy to agree. How many millions of dollars would the Trump and his hench-Congress appropriate for building and staffing those prisons?
Trackbacks
[…] This week’s featured posts are “What to Learn (and not Learn) from Trump’s Tariff Blunders” and “Reclaiming the Spirit of ’75“. […]