Today is patriots day, April 19th (though it was observed Monday).
The revolutionary war began, not July 4th 1776, but April 19th 1775 when the army moved to sieze the caches of arms that his majesties loyal subjects had assembled over the previous three years of being treated as an occupied enemy territory.
April 19th 1775 was the day that Englishmen chose to become Americans, unable to tolerate any longer their suppression by force of arms.
On April 19th, an unknown subject, became a citizen, by firing his rifle at the men who would disarm him. The shot heard round the world. It took almost 15 years for it to finish it's travel, but when it did the greatest nation in the history of this world had been founded, formed, and launched on it's way.
This day is the 63rd anniversary of the final battle of the Warsaw Jewish Ghetto uprising. In early April, German soldiers began rounding up jews for their final shipment to work camps. On April 19th, passover eve, a group of less than 20 of them began fighting back, by killing a single german soldier, stealing his gun, and killing another, then another, and so on until perhaps 1000 men were armed and fighting back against the entire German army. An entire bridage worth of germans were killed, along with 6,000 of the approximately 7000 jews resident in the Ghetto. It ended on May 16th in a massacre by poison gas. The last of the fighters were trapped in a few buildings, and some sewer tunnels. They flooded the tunnels with gas, and then went in and exterminated all but a few; who they saved for show trials.
6,000 died on their feet, rather than on their knees.
On this day 12 years ago, the federal government murdered 81 law abiding citizens in Waco Texas, because they had some weird beliefs, and because they decided to defned themselves against tax agents acting as criminals. On the first anniversary of this event, the Murragh federal building was blown up, killing 161; in the bloodiest example of entirely internal domestic terrorism NOT conducted by our government (the bloodiest would have to be the bonus army).
Today is also my younger brothers 27th birthday.
Rob, I love you, even if though you are a nasty, angry, bitter bastard. Even though you have stolen thousands of dollars from me, and from our mother. Even though you have tried to kill me. Even though you have made me have to pull a gun on you. I still love you.
