Die Fahne heute zu Hause

by Johannes Froebel-Parker, ©2024

(May 31, 2024) — From the youngest age Father would take brother, our pet dachshund, Otto, and me to the cemetery founded by his 2^nd great-grandfather, a Revolutionary War Veteran. Asa Parker enlisted at age 17 in the 23^rd New England Regiment from his home in Rhode Island. He had set aside part of his Revolutionary War Tract to bury immediate family, then extended family, later neighbors and friends. His father, James, had enlisted the day after Lexington and Concord, the moment that news of the battle reached his ears. One assumes that young Asa was urged by his father to stay home until he reached age 17 to assist his mother and help maintain the household. Asa was descended via his mother from the Warners, ancestors of General George Washington, a relationship in which they took great pride.

With ancestral heritage in the English landed gentry, the Parkers were ready to battle for liberty; the notion of being “free men” was integral to their self-understanding, having lived as such in England, established themselves as such in the colonies and been raised to accept such a state as God-given. Imagine what cause for alarm the increased tyranny and over-regulation without representation from the Crown had unleashed against their sense of well-being.

Asa was not alone, with his father also answering the call to arms. Uncle William Parker went to battle as well as cousin Lt. Col. Moses Parker, taken prisoner at the Battle of Bunker Hill. They had originally arrived in England from Normandy as the family monikered “D’Alinkote,” landed and free, with William the Conqueror in 1066 AD. After nearly seven centuries of relative self-determination, there was no doubt that the absolute rejection of the Crown they had once served was not only a declaration of their rightful independence, but a sovereign duty to a freedom imbued to them by a benevolent and omnipresent Creator.

The example we can draw from these early colonial era patriots is clear. When tyranny again emerges from the forces of elitism which rejects the Judeo-Christian foundations of the Republic, the call to defend freedom is immediately clarion. The American Revolution was a paradigm shift with its unpleasant consequences and demands for sacrifice. Afterwards emerged order, although one which requires, as Thomas Jefferson reminded us, eternal vigilance. Our paradigm is shifting on this day as well. The times again are unsettling. The times again require decisive action. History again PROMISES order after the ink dries on its pages, while Jefferson’s exhortation will remain eternal in its application.

J (Johannes) Froebel-Parker earned a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in German language and literature as well as a master’s in education from the University at Albany. Parker taught English as a Second Language for almost three decades in upstate New York. Previously, he taught English as a Foreign Language for one year at the Marie Curie Oberschule, in former West Berlin, in an academic exchange program sponsored by Akademischer Austauschdienst. From the earliest age he was captivated by the stories of his maternal and paternal grandparents, who shared with him their oral histories from both sides of the Atlantic. To learn more, please visit https://www.authorhouse.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/811856-anastasia-again-the-hidden-secret-of-the-romanovs, and see his latest book here: https://histriabooks.com/product/grand-duchess-anastasia/.