Nathan Hale Day

 Today is the 240th anniversary of the death by hanging of patriot spy Nathan Hale. And while I'm no stranger to doing private little memorials to the deaths of historical figures, I was pleasantly surprised to find that while Hale (whom I have written about on this blog before) isn't terribly well remembered back in California, here in New York every year a group called the Sons of the Revolution does a little commemoration for Hale every year on this day, which is officially Nathan Hale Day. Of course as soon as I found out about it, I knew I had to go, just for the chance of celebrating Hale with a group of people who respect the man as much as I do.

The event did not disappoint.

The event was held in front of the statue of Nathan Hale in City Hall Park. It opened with a welcome speech from Ambrose M. Richardson III, the president of the Sons of the Revolution (who I later found out is a very cool man but more on him later). There was an advance of the national colours, which means all those fancy flags you see in the photo were marched around in a formal procession, followed by the National Anthem, which is par for the course for this kind of ceremonial event.

Speeches were given by Neil Hohmann, the vice president of the Yale Club of New York City (Nathan Hale was a Yale graduate) and Mitchell J. Silver, the Manhattan Borough Commissioner of the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation. These speeches were very moving. I got a little misty eyed but I did not cry.

Then, there was a solemn wreath-laying ceremony. Three wreathes were laid. One, by the Sons of the Revolution. One by WWII veteran Colonel Charles J. Lercara from the Veteran Corps of Artillery. One by Neil Hohmann from the Yale Club. The memorial event concluded with a memorial prayer in memory of Nathan Hale led by the Reverend Christopher Cullen. (As a non-Christian this was a little jarring at first, but then I remembered that Hale was very Christian - the few writings we have from him confirm that without a doubt - and that this prayer likely would have meant a lot to him.)  The colours were retired (all the fancy flags were marched away) and just like that the ceremony was over.

I wasn't ready to go yet. I wanted to thank Mr. Richardson for putting the event together. Someone else had gotten to him first, and I didn't want to interrupt, so I actually ended up talking to Colonel Lercara for awhile, because I overheard him talking to someone about how they weren't sure how young Hale was when he was hanged, and I knew the answer. (He was only 21, the poor thing.) I thanked the Colonel for his service in WWII because what else was I supposed to do, especially considering my own family history? He shook my hand and told me "Shalom!" What a sweet old man.

And then as soon as I was able, I thanked Mr. Richardson (and by proxy the Sons of the Revolution) for putting this together. Hale is so often forgotten, and as I am rather fond of the man it really was meaningful to me that such a thing even existed.

Mr. Richardson asked where I was from, and I told him I had recently moved to New York from California but originally my family is from Poland. And here is where he surprised me. See, I am very used to older white men being rather... conservative on things such as immigration. Not Richardson. He launched into a talk about how immigrants were instrumental in winning the American Revolution, and how this country owes its history to immigrants. He name-dropped Polish revolutionary heroes who fought for American liberty, such as Tadeusz Kosciuszko and Casimir Pulaski - he even pronounced their names right. That all meant a lot to me, you know.

And even though he had no reason to, he stood and talked to me for like twenty minutes about how instrumental the American Revolution was in changing the course of world history - we often take it for granted now, but this was the first revolution of its kind and the revolutionaries, Nathan Hale (who supposedly uttered "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country") included, had no way of knowing it would succeed.

Do you know what its like to converse about a beloved era of history with someone who knows it and loves it just as much as you do, if not more? It was a treat.

On my walk back to the subway station, I passed one of the uniformed men who had marched the flags. I waved at him and he called out to me, "Happy Nathan Hale Day!"

Happy Nathan Hale Day, indeed.
-Nym-