War/Peace

A sign posted in Copley Square, after the Boston Marathon bombings

"At Great Barrington, a militia of a thousand faced a square crowded with armed men and boys.  But the militia divide was split in its opinion.  When the chief justice suggested the militia divide, those in favor of the court's sitting to go on the right side of the road, and those against on the left, two hundred of the militia went to the right, either hundred to the left, and the judges adjourned.  Then the crowd went to the home of the chief justice, who agreed to sign a pledge that the court would not sit until the Massachusetts General Court met.  The crowd went back to the square, broke open the county jail, and set free the debtors.  The chief justice, a country doctor, said: 'I have never heard anybody point out a better way to have their grievances redressed than the people have taken.'"  - The People's History of the United States Howard Zinn

The above concerns Shays' Rebellion (late 1700s) - poor farmers vs. Boston elite - carried out in Western Massachusetts.  It's easy to forget that at one point in time, the United States was one mess of a country, and that "rebel groups" could have included some of our founding fathers as they fought against our British government.  Then there were loyalists fighting the patriots.... democratic-republicans against the federalists.  What I was reminded of recently, by a friend, was that some of the founding fathers were under 25 when they were deciding the way this country should go.  There was a time when there were consistent slave rebellions, farmer rebellions, and people standing up for the interests of those without much land, or without human rights.  Reading about the slave ships made me lose my appetite.  Reading about the people who first arrived at Jamestown, and how their numbers were reduced from 500 to 60, how some were eating each other or corpses, makes me wonder why on earth we didn't befriend the Indians and begin a nation together.

To read about how closely people were tied to government is especially interesting, as I feel so disconnected from any kind of political decision.  I don't know who the mayor of the town is, don't vote in local elections, and find it hard to know what is really going on in the politics of this country.

"It was Thomas Jefferson, in France as an ambassador at the time of Shays' Rebellion, who spoke of such uprisings as healthy for society.  In a letter to a friend he wrote: 'I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing... It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government... God forbid that we should every be twenty years without such a rebellion... The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with blood of patriots and tyrants.  It is its natural manure."

Rebel uprisings.  Tyrannical government.  We were left to ourselves to figure these things out.  But what should be done now that our weapons have progressed and seem to threaten the whole world more easily? I wish that people would just move to which ever side of the road they agree with, and we could solve things perfectly diplomatically.

When I heard the bombs go off at the Boston marathon, I was shaken by how scary insecurity feels and felt angry that someone had disrupted the general peace that we can usually count on in public spaces - especially during such events as the Boston marathon.  At the time, I had a student from Syria in my class.  After seeing the hundreds of men in uniform protecting the city of Boston, and feeling that sense of security again, I wished I could just put them on a plane and send them to Syria to protect my student's city, family and friends from the chaos that has erupted there.... if only it were that easy.  Let's hope Jefferson is right, and that their rebellion is some kind of medicine that they.... may it not take too long to go down and may we figure out an appropriate way to help the people caught up in it.