'The shot heard round the world' 250 years later

Bostonians are recreating Paul Revere's Midnight Ride and the battles of Lexington and Concord for the 250th anniversary of the start of the Revolutionary War.

I hope schoolchildren still read Longfellow and Emerson, and honor the courage of the men who stood up to the British empire.

I remember my fifth-grade teacher discussing "One, if by land, and two, if by sea." I think we memorized "Listen, my children and you shall hear, of the midnight ride of Paul Revere."

The poem goes on:

A hurry of hoofs in a village street,

A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark,

And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing, a spark

Struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet:

That was all! And yet, through the gloom and the light,

The fate of a nation was riding that night;

And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight,

Kindled the land into flame with its heat.

My father taught me about the "shot heard 'round the world."

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 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence is coming up next year. Can we skip the politics and all celebrate together? Unlikely.