Last week I was lucky enough to accomplish something on my bucket list. This might sound a bit nerdy, but I had an all-day private tour of the April 19, 1775 skirmish in Middlesex County, Massachusetts. Our guides with the National Park Service and various reenactor organizations were phenomenal. Although I have read dozens of accounts of the battle, nothing brings clarity to a battlefield more than walking the turf and understanding the psyche and the motivations of the various combatants. For years, I had a nagging curiosity about the things I didn’t know, but wanted to know about that day. It is a great feeling to have your curiosity assuaged which always leads to new insights.
America is a unique place where early on “liberty” was a well understood and jealously guarded concept. In 1775, the two most liberal and progressive areas of the world were thrust into an 8 year long, brutal civil war. The colonists wanted more “liberty,” and as a result of the sacrifice of a very small number of men, the greatest country in the world was born. What’s more, this country through its industry and ideals improved the lives of hundreds of millions, indeed billions of people around the world. We have lifted the world’s living standards and happiness to unimaginable heights, and we are still doing it. Think of George Bailey and what Bedford Falls would’ve been like had George not been born. The same holds true for the world had America not been born.
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