Diary 32
Diary 32
Sunday April 19th
A hard frost this morning, following yesterday’s snow, marked the 245th anniversary of the ‘Shot Heard Round the World’. That was when the British Army shot at a British-American militia at Lexington Green, sparking off what would become known as the Revolutionary War.
Of course, the situation had been bubbling for years, and this was the last straw. I wonder if we’ll be able to identify a last straw for our present crisis. As the US death toll edges towards 40,000, we may want to wonder about that.
The situations are oddly parallel. In 1775 the British really thought they were protecting ‘their’ people from the evils of rebellion. In our day the anti-lockdown protesters truly feel their rights are being infringed. In both cases the result was a terrible toll of death for the ordinary working people.
I wonder what might have happened, back in 1775, if people had stopped reacting with fear and anger, and if both sides had decided to listen to the other, to try and work out what each needed. I wonder what would happen now?
It was therefore time to take a walk in Cambridge and see Washington’s old headquarters and the deserted dorms at Harvard. That’s what the pictures show. The city I’d always enjoyed for its life and energy is now rather ghostly. Only a couple of take-out-only places were open. It’s still beautiful. It’s just not a city any more.
