The Wrath of the Doves

On the Common in Lexington, Massachusetts, a granite boulder commemorates that town’s intrusion into world history. There, on the morning of April 19, 1775, a certain Captain Parker gave commands to his seventy Minutemen: “Stand your ground. Don’t fire unless fired upon. But if they mean to have a war, let it begin here.”

Today, 195 Aprils later, the sentiment in Massachusetts has changed, and a modern Captain Parker might declare instead, “Don’t fire unless fired upon—if they mean to have a war, they’ll have to go to Congress.” Ironically, the chief evangelist for this new spirit is the Reverend John Wells, Unitarian minister at the First Parish Church which stands beside that Lexington Common. Once a major and judge advocate in the Air Force, Wells is the originator of a Massachusetts law that aims to have the war in Vietnam proclaimed illegal by the United States Supreme Court.

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Roger Donway

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On the Common in Lexington, Massachusetts, a granite boulder commemorates that town’s intrusion into world history. There, on the morning of April 19, 1775, a certain Captain Parker gave commands to his seventy Minutemen: “Stand your ground. Don’t fire unless fired upon. But if they mean to have a war, let it begin here.”

Today, 195 Aprils later, the sentiment in Massachusetts has changed, and a modern Captain Parker might declare instead, “Don’t fire unless fired upon—if they mean to have a war, they’ll have to go to Congress.” Ironically, the chief evangelist for this new spirit is the Reverend John Wells, Unitarian minister at the First Parish Church which stands beside that Lexington Common. Once a major and judge advocate in the Air Force, Wells is the originator of a Massachusetts law that aims to have the war in Vietnam proclaimed illegal by the United States Supreme Court.