Remember, Remember..

It is something of a significance that the day after our country elects Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States, one of our closest allies, Great Britain, celebrates a historic day of defiant action. For in 1605, Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators put into action the Gunpowder Plot, a plan to blow up the Houses of Parliament by sneaking in barrels of gunpowder into the cellars below. Fawkes was caught in the act before he could set flame to the explosives, and he and his co-conspirators were sentenced to brutal executions. But this treacherous act has gained respect over the centuries and is now a cause for a celebration. Fawkes and Co.'s methods were blunt, but their ideology was to bring religious freedom to the lands of King James I, specifically for other Catholics like themselves.

This Powder Treason is violent in nature, but is symbolic of the desperation of a group of people seeking religious freedom from an intolerant dictatorship. And its 403rd anniversary comes a day after our much younger country chooses an entirely new kind of President to lead us in an entirely new kind of direction. It's also notable that we've elected an African American, a racial group our country once enslaved, and very very slowly did we finally allow them the rights other white Americans were insured. And that this man is now mandated by the American people to break down the old walls of past administrations and bring our country something entirely different and new that will be able to successfully govern our modern civilization.

So celebrate this holiday as if it were our country's own. For now we too have faced a standing power, and shown that we the people have enough of our own gunpowder to shake things up.

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I can think of no reason
Why the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.

Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t'was his intent
To blow up the King and Parli'ment.
Three-score barrels of powder below
To prove old England's overthrow.

P.S. - This is always a fine day to watch V for Vendetta, especially with so much political discourse surrounding us. Here's a clip of V giving a rather wordy, but meaningful speech: