The Boston Globe, April 2025
Two hundred and fifty years after a motley band of patriots battled the British at Lexington and Concord, a bitter fight continues to rage over who exactly is a patriot. To be sure, one person’s patriot has been another’s scoundrel ever since the Revolution. Loyalists considered the patriots to be traitors. Desertions plagued the Continental Army. The rebellious colonies squabbled among themselves.
But as New England and the United States as a whole prepare to celebrate and reexamine the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution and the Declaration of Independence, President Trump’s expansive makeover of the federal government has for many of his critics and defenders alike made the question of how to serve one’s country a more difficult and urgent one.
