[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 59 (Friday, April 11, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E762]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        EXPRESSING SUPPORT FOR THE CELEBRATION OF PATRIOT'S DAY

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. EDWARD J. MARKEY

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 10, 2003

  Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Speaker, today my colleagues from Massachusetts and I 
are introducing identical resolutions in both the House and the Senate 
that celebrate a shining moment in the history of the United States, 
the beginning of the most enduring free and democratic experiment in 
the world. On April 19, 1775, the American colonists in Lexington, in 
Concord and in ``every Middlesex village and town'' rose up to claim 
their inherent right to govern themselves, free of the whims of the 
English king.
  While this day is already celebrated as a state holiday in both the 
Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the State of Maine, and the national 
significance of the events surrounding the ``shot heard `round the 
world'' is unquestioned, the recent establishment of a national day of 
remembrance on September 11 as ``Patriot Day'' has understandably 
confused some Americans regarding ``Patriot's Day'' in April. We 
introduce this resolution not in any way to diminish ``Patriot Day,'' 
but only to remind our colleagues and the public that ``Patriot's Day'' 
continues to serve every year as a reminder of the origins of the 
freedoms we enjoy today.
  So this year we ask all Americans to join us in celebrating Patriot's 
Day, 2003, to be celebrated on Monday April 21. As a reminder of this 
day, I am including excerpts from Longfellow's ``Paul Revere's Ride'' 
and from Emerson's ``The Concord Hymn''

                           Paul Revere's Ride

     ``Listen my children and you shall hear
     Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
     On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
     Hardly a man is now alive
     Who remembers that famous day and year.
     He said to his friend, ``If the British march
     By land or sea from the town to-night,
     Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
     Of the North Church tower as a signal light,
     One if by land, and two if by sea;
     And I on the opposite shore will be,
     Ready to ride and spread the alarm
     Through every Middlesex village and farm,
     For the country folk to be up and to arm . . .''

     So through the night rode Paul Revere;
     And so through the night went his cry of alarm
     To every Middlesex village and farm,
     A cry of defiance, and not of fear,
     A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
     And a word that shall echo for evermore!
     For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,
     Through all our history, to the last,
     In the hour of darkness and peril and need,
     The people will waken and listen to hear
     The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,
     And the midnight message of Paul Revere.

                            The Concord Hymn

     By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
     Their flag to April's breeze unfurled,
     Here once the embattled farmers stood
     And fired the shot heard round the world.

     The foe long since in silence slept;
     Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;
     And Time the ruined bridge has swept
     Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.

     On this green bank, by this soft stream,
     We set today a votive stone;
     That memory may their deed redeem,
     When, like our sires, our sons are gone.

     Spirit, that made those heroes dare
     To die, and leave their children free,
     Bid Time and Nature gently spare
     The shaft we raise to them and thee.

                          ____________________