I thought this was pretty appropriate.  Today while many people watch the Pennsylvania primaries, it is also a holiday:

Patriots Day.  While it is a little known holiday that is only observed in Massachusetts and Maine, the roots of the holiday seem more important today than ever before.

Jules Crittenden starts this off with a long but fascinating series of accounts about Patriot's Day:

April Morning

Patriots Day may be  the least knowwn American holiday, and the day  mostt deserving of our recognition. Observed in Massachusetts and Maine only. Don’t know it? It marks the day, April 19, 1775, on which Americans took up arms agaiinst their kiing, and bled, at the crack of teerrible dawn.

Orders from Gen. Thomas Gage to Lieut. Col. Smith, 10th Regt. Foot, 18 April 1775:  

…

 Paul Revere’s account: 

The post contiues with many more accounts and I urge you to read it thoroughly.

Over at The House is a very thoughtful post:

FOUNDING BROTHER

It has been a tradition at The House to republish my Paul Revere post to honor Revere, Longfellow, and Patriot’s Day which, as Jules Crittenden points out, is celebrated only in Massachussets and Maine. According to my site stats, it is the most linked post on this site next to my Katrina Timeline.

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.”

The image has captured the imagination of American school children for almost 150 years. A lone rider, braving capture at the hands of the British, riding along the narrow country lanes and cobblestone streets of the picturesque towns and villages of New England, shouting out defiance to tyranny, raising the alarm “To every Middlesex village and farm,” his trusty horse carrying him on his ride into legend.

How interesting that that image, and that poem were such vivid images of the beginning of the revolution, and yet the holiday around them is very much under the radar.  I think in a real sense, we have lost the sense of who we are and how we got here, as a nation.  And I think that affects who we are and where we go from here in ways that are very troubling.

Over at Powerline:

Paul Revere's Ride

Tonight is the 233rd anniversary of Paul Revere's ride.

A few years ago we were in Boston and got snowed in. We paid a wonderful visit to Old North Church, where two lanterns were hung in the steeple to let watching patriots know that the British were moving by sea. We got a private tour from a knowledgeable guide; there weren't many visitors with two and a half feet of new-fallen snow on the ground. I'd recommend a visit to the church to anyone.

Indeed.

Hugh Hewitt notes:

Tuesday's PA primary will be very telling about the state of the Democratic Party.  It used to represent men and women who were church-going and often gun-owning. 

Now the party is controlled by an elite that is not only not church- or gun-friendly, but often overtly hostile to those who are.  The hard-left has captured the Democrats, and incredible as it seems, Hillary is the only hope of the old regulars for getting their party back.

I see an interesting irony in this, in that it is a day to celebrate our patriots, while Obama, the candidate frequently under fire for his lack of flag lapel pin and other complaints of unpatriotic behavior is trying to lock up the nomination for president.

It is interesting how the concept of patriotism generates so much heat and ire, on both sides of the aisle.  I think that in some ways, we have really diluted what a patriot is.

Let me say real quick that I actually agree with him in principle about the pins.  Wearing a pin does not make you a patriot.  Neither does holding your hand over your heart during the National Anthem.  Both can be pure lip service and political expediency, not the sign that the person is someone who loves, supports, and defends his or her country and its interests with devotion or is a person who regards himself or herself as a defender, esp. of individual rights, against presumed interference by the federal government.  

I truly wonder…how many politicians we elect would have the stones to stand up to an attacker?  How many would defend this country against an invader with their lives?  How many will even stand up against the tyranny in their own party where strategy overrides principle?

This holiday celebrates the true patriots, the ones whose blood became the roots of this nation.  These are not politicians who wear a pin, they are the people who died in battles against a tyrant.   We have soldiers throughout history who have continued that tradition, and some of our leaders have shed their blood for the nation in battle as well.

As everyone watches Pennsylvania, I prefer to take a few minutes to really examine my own thoughts instead.  Do I spend more time paying lip service and serving hollow idealism then I do in actually trying to defend the principles of this nation?  Can I truly call myself a patriot?

Maybe this election cycle we can look at who we are as a nation, and where we are going as country.  I can hope.