Today I missed hearing the Boston Pops play the 1812 Overture. Although rousing, Tchaikovsky’s signature piece celebrates a European event 36 years after our John Adams-led Declaration of Independence. No less momentous was the Russian pyrrhic victory over Napoleon, but its subsequent result was quite different. The Russians preserved their country’s rule for the autocratic Czar Alexander I. The Romanovs would continue to dominate until the 1917 revolution and eventual assassination of Czar Nicholas II and his family. America clearly rejected hereditary rule and began a risky experiment in democracy. Today this experiment continues to challenge the role of government and an individual’s rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
My pride was particularly poignant as I walked the streets of London today. A statue of George Washington, our Continental Army’s commander and first elected president, holds a more prominent place than his nemesis, King George III. Washington’s statue is in prestigious Trafalgar Square, named for an earlier Napoleonic loss to Admiral Nelson whose column dominates the Square. The equestrian statue of George III is around the corner on a small traffic island, its inscription barely legible. Again I am struck by irony: George III, who saw no battlefield action, is depicted as a soldier on horseback; George Washington, who also fought in the French & Indian War alongside the British, is sculpted standing regally as a statesman.
The day before was Gay Pride Day in London. After the parade, Trafalgar Square was filled with people celebrating their rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Cue the fireworks, by George!
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