"Where danger is, dear mother, there must your son be. Now is no time for any of America's children to shrink from any hazard. I will set her free or die."

Dr. Joseph Warren, the hero of the Battle of Bunker Hill

Whatever happened to patriotism... in America? Sometimes I fear that we live in a nation where every man and woman lives for themselves, and patriots are considered fools. Part of the reason is our modern day school system. While we have many, many fine teachers, (especially here in Happy!) most are not given the privilege of teaching the true history of America any more. There is a very real agenda among those who control our educational system to paint all of the founders as slave-owning racists who came to America to steal the land from the noble Indian.

Such a philosophy might serve the needs of a Socialist agenda, but it does not serve well a nation that was founded on such noble principles as was America. Today, as we watch our Constitution torn to shreds by a renegade President who really, really, really does not like our nation, and as we watch a Congress composed of men and women who just seem to be there for the power and the money, it is good to take a few moments and remember what true patriots looked like. So on Fridays, in these articles, I thought it might be nice to look at the type of history that used to be taught in schools and in homes across this land that has been so blessed by God. 

Do you know who Dr. Joseph Warren was? While most people have heard of the Battle of Bunker Hill, few know what it was about, and fewer still know of its heroes. Warren, the widowed father of four, wanted to make sure that his children would grow up in a free nation, He fought in the pre-Revolution's first Battle, the Battle of Lexington and Concord where his wig was literally parted by a musket ball. When his mother saw how close he had come to death, she begged her son not to risk his life again, but his reply was the quote you see above, for he was committed to helping this fledgling nation to-be win her freedom from tyranny. 

It was Dr. Warren who devised the famous midnight rides of William Dawes and Paul Revere to warn everyone that "the British are coming". It was after the night that the midnight riders went out that the Battle of Bunker Hill was fought. In the battle intended to destroy the young militia and stop America's Revolution before it could get off the ground, Warren and his fellow patriots held the British troops off for three assaults, giving the vast bulk of their militia time to escape to fight another day. It was in the third British assault of Bunker Hill that Warren ran out of ammunition. A British officer walked up and shot Dr. Joseph Warren in the head at point blank range and rolled him into a hole. Two days later, when the British realized that the heroes of Bunker Hill had allowed the American army to escape, Warren's body was dug up, stomped on, and then his head was removed from his corpse.

The British may have won the battle and revenged themselves on a few patriots that day, but they eventually lost the war - in part because of the courage of these brave men who sacrificed their lives in a cause they believed to be much more important than their individual lives. The army did escape, Samuel Adams and John Hancock were warned by Paul Revere, and they escaped to help frame and sign the Declaration of our Independence.

I believe that it is important for parents and grandparents to be teaching their children about the history of this great land before it is lost forever. I believe that it is important for them to know the cost of their freedom, and of the sacrifice of the lives of the courageous ones who helped win that freedom.

More importantly, I believe we need to be teaching our children about the Hero of Calvary. I believe that we need to be keeping the cross ever before our children so that they will never forget the price that was paid for their souls... for if they only knew of the great sacrifice that had been made for them, I am confident that it would inspire them to fight the good fight and obtain the ultimate prize that God has promised to those courageous souls who would pick up their crosses and follow Christ every day!

"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the Righteous Judge, will award me on that day - and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for His appearing."

II Timothy 4:7-8, NIV