Remembering an earlier Patriots Day

Editor’s Notebook

Patriots Day -- sound familiar? It is a holiday that has been

celebrated on April 19 in Massachusetts and Maine for 227 years.

On April 18, 1775 at about 10 p.m., a light was set in Boston’s

Old North Church to signal to Paul Revere and others that the British

were on the move to capture an arms cache in Concord, Mass., some 15

miles to the west.

As 700 British soldiers marched toward Lexington and Concord,

Revere and others rode ahead of them to alert the Minutemen, the

group of farmers and blacksmiths who were ready at a minutes notice

to take up arms and fight for what they believed in.

That battle, in which the famous “shot heard round the World” was

fired at the Old North Bridge, began in the early morning hours of

April 19, 1775 and would continue until freedom from England was won.

The events of that day led to emancipation and the creation of the

United States of America. Patriots Day honors those Minutemen and the

56 who later signed the Declaration of Independence.

I am also quite proud to say, it is the day I was born -- 198

years later.

So, imagine my shock, knowing this, when President George W. Bush

declared Sept. 11 a national holiday -- one to be called Patriots

Day.

The tragic events of Sept. 11, the more than 3,000 people who

senselessly lost their lives, the millions who were left to grieve in

shock and horror and the heroic actions of the men and women who

fought and still are fighting to protect those freedoms won some 200

years ago should never be forgotten.

But the day we remember them should not be called Patriots Day.

Patriots Day already exists, it already has meaning. Although it

is not a national holiday -- something I’ve never understood -- it

does exist.

Where was the simple research, on the part of Bush and his staff?

I am sure he is not trying to disrespect those patriots who fought

with such unexpected determination and ferocity while outnumbered 10

to one and prevailed.

This year, 2002, the states of Wisconsin, Missouri and Illinois

all passed a resolution recognizing April 19 as Patriots Day. Kansas

declared April 20 as Patriots Day.

The events of Sept. 11, 2001 will go down in infamy, as the attack

on Pearl Harbor has, although I hope we as a nation do a better job

of remembering it. Despite any Presidential declaration it is and

always will be “9/11.”

To call Sept. 11 Patriots Day means nothing to the thousands who

lost their lives or the millions who have lived in the aftermath. But

it does detract from the men and women long gone who fought for the

freedoms we enjoy, freedoms that Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda

troops hoped to extinguish.

They were, and will be, unsuccessful because Americans will

continue to unite and fight as the Minutemen did. We have seen that

in the past year.

* DANETTE GOULET is the city editor. She can be reached at (714)

965-7170 or by e-mail at [email protected].