I’m enjoying being on break this week, so I’ve decided instead to post something I wrote but declined to publish roughly 2 years ago
I am presently writing from a well-worn park bench. It is not my favorite of the park benches, as that particular one is at such an angle relative to the setting sun that it is difficult to type. This is not a problem during the warmer months, when the trees’ leaves provide ample shade for work at all hours, but the trees are barren now, and so I am making due with an inferior bench for the purposes of this piece. Though annoying, this is an acceptable price to pay for a change of scenery and a breath of fresh air.
I spend a reasonable amount of time sitting on a bench at our local park. Our town being the stereotypical New England train village that it is, we have a charming little public park with picnic tables, a gazebo, and a small playground off of Main Street, just adjacent to the newly renovated library.
I don’t get out of the house nearly as much as I probably ought, but when I do I am immensely grateful to be able to find a place to sit down with my thoughts. I am particularly fond of our park. Though there are other benches, and indeed, other public spaces; there is, for example, a bench in front of our Town Hall, which has an arguably better view of the goings on of the town, none of these are truly community spaces in the same sense that the park is.
Our town is divided by several different churches and political organizations. Yet we all hold the park in common. It is the default rallying point for after school plans. It is the gathering place after holiday parades.
As far as aesthetics are concerned, there isn’t actually all that much to the park. There is some playground equipment off in one corner. There are some benches along the gravel paths, along with a spattering of rubbish bins and a few lampposts here and there. There is the gazebo, an old fountain that hasn’t worked since I arrived, and a small platform that is occasionally used as a stage. But other than that, it is basically just open space. This may make it sound as though I don’t appreciate the park because there are not activities hard-built into its design. On the contrary; that fact that it is an open possibility space is part of what makes it so vital to community life.
On my way into the park, I passed several banners being flown on Main Street from churches, shops, and houses applauding the pluralism and inclusiveness of our town, and many posters attached to utility poles denouncing the actions of the new political administration. While I have my own thoughts on the nature of inclusiveness in our town which lead me to believe that these people may be overestimating the exact degree of integration in our decidedly upper-crust neighborhood, seeing this display of solidarity and, if nothing else, lip service, to the idea of equality was quite heartening. Seeing these images of resistance to the new political administration being plastered on and around historical landmarks which date back to the founding of this country lead me to reflect, naturally, on the American Revolution.
One of the things which stuck with me having grown up in a formerly British, now commonwealth, country as an American expatriate was that the events which led to the formation of the United States were consistently referred to not as a revolution, but as “the American Independence war”. At the time, I brushed this off as an effect of colonial rule. However, doing a bit of reading, I have discovered that this distinction reflects not political whitewashing (at least not solely), but rather, a new consensus in understanding and interpreting history.
The argument goes that the specific battles which comprised the campaign of independence were neither a new phenomenon, nor particularly unique in history. What made these battles relevant instead of just another backwater tax rebellion, was the organization of the rebel side. What made the American revolution truly revolutionary was not the fighting, but the organization of colonists into self-governing entities. It was not the audacity to take up arms, but rather, the audacity to put mere peasants on equal footing with kings and dukes in terms of the ability to self-govern, that defined the American revolution and its later national identity.
Historians have claimed that this distinction means that the actual revolution started well before the actual fighting, and that, from a historical perspective, the correspondence committees and town meetings of the 1760s and the early 1770s were more critical than the battles of the later 1770s and 1780s [1]. For rebellions and insurrections come and go. But a revolution which has taken root in the hearts and minds of the people is far more difficult to quash.
In light of this interpretation, it is easy to understand how the local park can be such an important institution; is is, after all, the foundation of all other democratic institutions in this country. It also underscores how important the banners and posters which are now appearing on churches, telephone polls, and outside houses could become. They are symptoms of organization. And while it is too early to say whether this wave of revolutionary activity will take root, if current trends continue, it is not unreasonable to expect that this could result in a movement akin to the Tea Party on the right wing.
Personally, I would welcome such change. Since I arrived in this country from having lived overseas, it has struck me that the political climate has been consistently right of center, particularly when compared to other democratic societies [2][3]. The result, naturally, is a narrower selection of possible policy solutions to current ills. Even for those who are ardent supporters of the current political administration, this situation is still undesirable, as this kind of partisan intransigence undercuts the United States’ ability to be innovative in its policy.
As I have previously explained, good-faith opposition is the life blood of a democratic society. So is citizens’ political engagement. The United States has suffered from a lack of both in recent years.
1) Taxes and Smuggling: Prelude to Revolution. Crash Course US History. YouTube, 07 Mar. 2013. Web. 20 Mar. 2017.
2) Gallup, Inc. “Wyoming Residents Most Conservative, D.C. Most Liberal.” Gallup.com. N.p., 31 Jan. 2014. Web. 19 Mar. 2017.
3) “The American-Western European Values Gap.” Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project. N.p., 17 Nov. 2011. Web. 19 Mar. 2017.
