Two Lights for Tomorrow

The events that sparked the War for Independence outside Boston in April of 1775 are immortalized in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s famous poem, “Paul Revere’s Ride” with the famous line about “1 if by land, 2 if by sea.”

Written only 90 years after those events (before the last veteran of that conflict had passed on), his words perhaps rang true, “On the 18^th of April in ’75, hardly a man is now alive that remembers that famous day and year….”

Today, 250 years later, we unite as state commissions to plan ways to ensure that not only are those events remembered, but more importantly to ensure that not just the “what” of “what happened” is remembered but the ‘why’. We are called not to remember history just for history’s sake, but to make it relevant, meaningful, and engaging for the public today.

The famous signal from the North Church’s steeple that night in ’75, 1 if by land, 2 if by sea, was a signal meant to shine across the water to others on the opposite shore so that they could carry the message forward not just as a back-up for Paul Revere, but to make sure that the message got spread as far and as wide as possible.

And just like then, we have that same calling today, to spread a message calling on everyone in the country to unite in support of one-another, to serve each other, our neighbors, and our communities.