On my second day in Boston, I walked most of The Freedom Trail, which is a route that includes many important Boston historical sites related to the American Revolution. Pictures are posted on Facebook. The guidebooks say you can walk the entire trail in a day, but I didn’t find that to be the case. I suppose if you just walked the trail and didn’t take time to actually tour any of the actual sites, you could do it pretty quickly, but what would be the point of that? I started at Boston Common and made it up to Copp’s Hill Burying Ground. I’ll have to go back and see the rest later. I have to go back to see the inside of Faneuil Hall anyway because they were having a citizenship ceremony, so it was closed to the public. That’s ok. It’s nice to have an excuse to go back to the adjacent Quincy Market; I just love the food stalls there.

The Freedom Trail was put together in the early 1950s to make it easier for people to find important historic sites in Boston. The trail itself is just a red painted or brick line that leads you from site to site. It’s a good idea because it’s pretty easy to get lost in the older parts of Boston due to the narrow streets and the fact that the historic buildings and sites are dwarfed by more modern buildings these days. Each of the sites on the trail is individually managed, which is kind of annoying because it means you are constantly being asked to pay small (usually under $10) admission fees if you want to go inside. It would be great if the places on the trail that charge admission would get together to create some sort of a pass that you could just pay for up front. It would be so convenient, even if you didn’t get any kind of discount. But then again, doing something this sensible would run counter to the culture of Revolutionary Boston, where factions seemed to be formed quite frequently. Indeed, several buildings on the trail were built as the result of religious congregations spiltting up over irreconcilable differences.

Still, walking the trail served its intended purpose for me. It got me thinking about the core American values of freedom of speech and expression upon which the country was founded. Revolutionalry Era Americans harbored the save love of debate, controversy, and independence held by many Americans today. For all of the cultural diversity we have, there are some things that are truly American.

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