As late morning rolled around on Saturday, temperatures heated up to over 80 degrees. Suddenly, Patriots’ Day weekend bore resemblance to the Fourth of July.
In the summer-like heat, town, state, and national leaders rededicated the Battle Green. Rededicating a site formally reaffirms its significance.
“[This celebration] reminds me of the freedoms people fought for right here, 250 years ago. Those freedoms remain as important, as precious to us today as they were then to those who fought for them,” Gov. Maura Healey told LexObserver. “To me, it’s an affirmation of those values, those freedoms, the things that have made America great. It leaves me with a spirit of tremendous optimism.”
Doug Lucente, chair of Lexington’s Select Board, pledged to “respect the rights of others…engage in democracy,” and honor the same ideas the town vowed to uphold in previous rededication ceremonies.
Before thousands of spectators, Lucente, Healey, Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll, and Congresswoman Katherine Clark laid a wreath at the bottom of the flag pole on the Green to honor the Battles of Lexington and Concord and the 49 militiamen who were killed by British troops.
Following the laying of the wreath, Healey, Clark, and Rosa Rios, who served as treasurer of the United States from 2009 to 2016, spoke about the relevance of fighting for freedom today.
“This is the place to be…if people want to understand the values that this country was founded upon,” Healey said passionately. “Freedom will always be worth standing up for.”
“Abigail Adams warned us about how deeply power can corrupt,” Clark said. “What will our descendants see 250 years from now?”
“I want as many Americans as possible to feel like this is the land of opportunity all over again,” said Rios.
This weekend not only commemorates the 250th anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, but the 250th anniversary of the US army, Craig Sandler, president of Lexington History Museums, reminded LexObserver. The Lexington militiamen were the nation’s original defense, after all.
In celebration of the Army, four members of its parachute team, known as the Golden Knights, skydived out of a plane and parachuted onto the Battle Green.
The crowd rose to their feet, turned their heads up toward the overcast sky in unison, and pointed their phones at the plane overhead.
All together, four Golden Knights jumped out of the plane and soared down toward earth, expertly maneuvering their parachutes so as not to collide with one another.
After about three short minutes, those men became the first to ever parachute onto Lexington’s Green. The crowd roared.
After the event, Healey told LexObserver she thinks the weekend’s anniversary celebrations are about “sending a message out to the world of hope, of optimism, of freedom, and that’s really important now.”
“There’s work to be done. We need to make sure we’re working every day to ensure freedom of the press and independence of the courts and we need to make sure that people are following the rules and following the law,” Healey told LexObserver. “Nobody’s above the law. We need to support people and take care of people.”
For all the multiple decades of my life I have lived within a quarter mile of the Green. Never have I passed it without a nod of respect to the eight who lie beneath it. Never in that time have I so feared that the 250 year legacy of their commitment is radically imperiled, that the honor we give to them this day will not be defended with the resolve that defined them.