Betsy's Heroic Cats

The slinky, slender cat reaches toward the water, but as her paw touches the pool, its water disappears. Extremely bad History works like that.

The story of Betsy Ross was conjured up for the 1876 Centennial of the USA to promote tourism. A descendant claimed that she had stitched the first stars-and-stripes US flag. She existed, but if she had not existed, the war would have gone the same way as it did. Besides, a national flag is best not overused or made the object of fetish.

Thomas Paine's story is actively suppressed in Philadelphia because he was a Freethinker, even though he caused the War of Independence to become a victory instead of a certain defeat. No statue or painting of Paine is on public display in the city where he wrote The Crisis, which began thus:

THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.

This cat and its two friends on a fountain are the most important contributions that Betsy Ross ever made to American History, and they didn't exist till two centuries after her death. They just hang out next to her house --who knows why? Remember that if you should happen to drive over the Betsy Ross Bridge.

Betsy Ross is admired for sewing. It would be better to celebrate someone like Anna Smith Strong, who risked her life as an operative in the Setauket Spy Ring just a few miles from my home town. She was an example of women in so many wars who make the victory possible by being bold, intelligent, and heroic --not just loyal and hard-working in the home.

The student reaches toward the comforting, sentimental tale, but when she looks closer, it's just a load of hogwash.