Payroll Patriots, Hack Heroes
Speaking of great battle anniversary observances, I missed one the other day … just like the Massachusetts payroll patriots: who insist on taking this highest of hack holidays,* Bunker Hill Day, June 17, as a paid day off, though they skipped the actual commemorations of the day in 1775 that American militia faced off against British troops on Breed’s Hill in Charlestown.
Along with Evacuation Day, March 17, marking the departure of British troops from Boston in 1776, Bunker Hill Day is a Suffolk County-only holiday, plus one or two adjacent Middlesex County hangers on. This means it is observed only by a few of the greatest hackeramas* … the Massachusetts Legislature, and the city governments of Boston, Somerville and on Evacuation, the People’s Republic of Cambridge.** You’ll note that Evacuation Day by happy coincidence falls on St. Patrick’s Day, and in a state where Irish-Americans have long dominated local politics, most holiday observances have nothing to do with the events of March 17, 1776, at all.
Amid the current fiscal crisis, there have been calls to abolish these as paid holidays, given that the general subject matter is covered by the Fourth of July, Veterans Day and Memorial Day, and if you like, Presidents Day as well. In Massachusetts and Maine, we also have a statewide observance of Patriots Day, on the Monday closest to April 19. That commemorates the day, April 19, 1775, that American militia in Lexington and Concord took up arms against their King and an absentee government, initiating the greatest experiment in individual rights and responsibilities as a form of governance yet seen in this world. I have no argument with that holiday, in fact I’d like to see national recognition. Though as a paid holiday … I dunno, we may be close to or even past critical mass on paid holidays. This is America, after all. We work for a living here.
Anyway, for a good time, read how the hacks who shouted loudest to preserve Bunker Hill Day and Evacuation Day spent the June 17 holiday. via Boston Herald, which cruelly dispatched reporters and photographers to follow them around:
Pols Pull a No-Show at Bunker Hill Day Festivities
Howie Carr: Slackerama Stars Hit New Low, Ditch High Hack Holiday
Meanwhile, in letters to the editor, Heroism Trivialized.
Today’s update, GOP Vows to Whack Hack Holidays. Good luck. The Massachusetts GOP has steadily lost numbers over the past few decades due to gross incompetence, with an assist from Democratic gerrymandering and the prevalent local Kennedy fawning and related factors. Current signs of life are on a par with the old man thrown on the corpse cart at the beginning of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. “I’m not dead yet.” OK, maybe more like the Black Knight. ”Come back here and take what’s coming to you! I’ll bite your legs off!” The champions of Bunker Hill and Evacuations days, if I didn’t mention it, are Democrats.
About that battle on Breed’s Hill, by the way. It is just one of many great battles in American history, though one of only a few that gets a holiday anywhere. The Americans besieging Boston had occupied the hills in Charlestown to prevent the British from doing the same. The British overwhelmed the entrenched Americans after three assaults, taking the ground at a cost of lost 226 dead — including a large number of ranking officers — and about 800 wounded to the Americans’ 115 killed, 305 wounded and 30 captured. The American siege of the British garrison in Boston held, and George Washington, newly named commander of the Continental Army and enroute to Boston, reportedly took the news of the loss as evidence his forces could stand up to what was then the greatest and most disciplined armed force in the world. Your Bunker Hill wiki here has all the details.
Surber also celebrates the day, weighing in on the high principles of our local hacks:
When I read a story like this, I must remind myself not to make a hasty comparison. Pond scum, after all, serves a purpose.
* Nod to Howie, from who I shamelessly ripped off the hack terminology.
** I don’t think Howie owns that one.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:13 am on Friday, June 19, 2009
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