DivePartner1
Contributor
As 911 approaches. how have you changed ? Of course, I now dive at every opportunity, at least every month.
Seriously, though, I believe that while every generation believes its experience to be unique, we as a people have been through this before, and can chose to prevail as our ancestors didor not. As a Washingtonian, Ive turned to local history for a sense of context.
In August of 1814, 5,000 soldiersthe pick of Duke of Wellingtons army fresh from beating Napoleon-- marched toward Washington with the express goal of burning down the Capitols symbolic public buildings. Before them were only local militia (they fled), and several hundred sailors under Commodore Barney. The sailors fought until they were over-run and many died in the forlorn cause of defending a small city of 8,000 against impossible odds. The invaders entered Washington, torched the Capitol and government buildings, and drank ale to the light of the burning White House.
A month later, on September 13, 1814, a Maryland lawyer stood on a warship of the invading force that had every right to expect it would crush the resistance before it. No one anticipated that another militia in Baltimore would repulse the strongest militry in force in the world, or that Major Armistead and his troops would hold Fort McHenry, and yet they did. The lawyer, Francis Scott Key, wrote a poem about it.
My point is that we should keep current hardships and challenges in context, as challenging as that might seem. Our cities and country have been through hardship before and the nation has survived with its values and Constitution intact, more or less. People fought for our principalsour Constitutional principalsin the past, and their loved ones mourned their passing as poignantly as we all mourn the loss or our own.
I cant speak for the losses of New York, which are unspeakable, but as a local in this magnificent if often maligned city to the south, I believe the memory of Barney, Armistead and their good men were honored by the brave men and women who never abandoned our modern fortress across the Potomac, which has been rebuilt.
So this year I will continue to do what I did last year, to stay on the job all day, to honor the memory of not only of those who fell last year but the likes of Commodore Barney and his men, throughout history.
Seriously, though, I believe that while every generation believes its experience to be unique, we as a people have been through this before, and can chose to prevail as our ancestors didor not. As a Washingtonian, Ive turned to local history for a sense of context.
In August of 1814, 5,000 soldiersthe pick of Duke of Wellingtons army fresh from beating Napoleon-- marched toward Washington with the express goal of burning down the Capitols symbolic public buildings. Before them were only local militia (they fled), and several hundred sailors under Commodore Barney. The sailors fought until they were over-run and many died in the forlorn cause of defending a small city of 8,000 against impossible odds. The invaders entered Washington, torched the Capitol and government buildings, and drank ale to the light of the burning White House.
A month later, on September 13, 1814, a Maryland lawyer stood on a warship of the invading force that had every right to expect it would crush the resistance before it. No one anticipated that another militia in Baltimore would repulse the strongest militry in force in the world, or that Major Armistead and his troops would hold Fort McHenry, and yet they did. The lawyer, Francis Scott Key, wrote a poem about it.
My point is that we should keep current hardships and challenges in context, as challenging as that might seem. Our cities and country have been through hardship before and the nation has survived with its values and Constitution intact, more or less. People fought for our principalsour Constitutional principalsin the past, and their loved ones mourned their passing as poignantly as we all mourn the loss or our own.
I cant speak for the losses of New York, which are unspeakable, but as a local in this magnificent if often maligned city to the south, I believe the memory of Barney, Armistead and their good men were honored by the brave men and women who never abandoned our modern fortress across the Potomac, which has been rebuilt.
So this year I will continue to do what I did last year, to stay on the job all day, to honor the memory of not only of those who fell last year but the likes of Commodore Barney and his men, throughout history.
