My own step-by-step workout for independence

Every day of my life, I do something different from what someone else does in this country: I work in one of the oldest historic monuments of the nation.

It would be the 294 -storey Bunker Hill Monument in the Charlestown district of Boston, which is at the top of what is really the Breed hill, where 250 years ago, on June 17, 1775, our colonial ancestors fought – and lost in a mouthful – the most important battle of the revolution.

Why was it so crucial? Because it was the first moment when people of what was going to become these United States thought: “Huh … maybe we can really beat these guys”, and the idea of ​​freedom has become much more real.

I started directing circuits in the monument nine years ago, after having ended 20 years of alcohol abuse, my heart Gimpy, its irregular beat. In the streets of Boston, I am often greeted as “the staircase guy”. Usually 10 times a day, and more than 20, I am inside this obelisk, because it helps me to continue.

What people do not know about the monument is that it was not erected in 1843 to directly commemorate the most famous victory in our Republic, but rather to honor the ideals of service and sacrifice. There are so many ways to give, and yet we seem to neglect most of it, just as we generally do not realize in this myopic age that giving others is also a way of giving us.

While I direct my circuits in the monument, doing my best so as not to sweat within these narrow limits on tourists who have traveled here from all over this country, I see our country and what it has become. How we think – or not. How we easily distribute disinformation without care. How too confident we are in what we think we know, which is more a case of everything we have no idea.

For example, I could not guess how many times I have heard a father tell his child that the structure even in which they stood was built to defeat the British. Not only that, but these stubborn colonists pulled fiery arrows from the slots within its walls. Paging Errol Flynn!

Children accept it as a gospel.

I am going to think about how these adults think that events must have been transpired, the colonists building a 20 -story granite building under the cover of darkness, then really, really, really, really, the British presented themselves to fight here and did not insist on another environment, which would ring the plans.

There is a balustrade on the left side when you go up. The reason is simple: if you fall ascendant, it is not a big biggie. Fall goes down, you have a situation. So stay on the right.

What do you think a lot of people do? You guessed it – They want this balustrade in both directions, it doesn’t matter if they are in the life sector. If I say to them: “I suppose the balustrade is too?” They will look as overwhelmed as anyone I have ever seen, completely frozen by … common sense. Justice. The idea that others exist.

More and more, we want what we want when we want it. We want to be considered good, it doesn’t matter if we are.

What I would submit respectfully is that we do a lot of self-exchanges these days. That we are always less qualified to be free. When this is the case, the suzerains are excited. It becomes easier to subjugate people. And stronger for them to set up the precious exit.

An outing is an attempt to recover the land. To say: “You can try to move from this place, but I will try not to take it to me.”

For this, we need knowledge. We have to take the time to do something good. To make sure that we do our best in the name of impressable minds. Our children. Children in general. Direct as an example of someone oriented towards service and sacrifice.

These trends have only increased over the years that I have led these stairs. For such a confined space, the monument offers an expansive view where we are and explanations to explain why. Do not limit your own freedoms. Do not stand on the lower staircase when you can go up. Define the example. Pass the word. Take people with you.

As I say to myself every morning, “the stairs do not run themselves, son.”

Extrapolate the idea, because it is freedom. Before you realize it, you will go up and descend as if it was the most important thing in the world, which, in a way, is also somehow.

Fleming is a writer.