The juxtaposition of these events seems bitterly ironic and somehow emblematic of the larger context in which our country observes its 250th anniversary.
Washington's Headquarters State Historic Site is located Newburgh. It is the house where Washington lived and worked during the final sixteen months of the Revolutionary War. Washington's Headquarters is also the country's first publicly owned historic site, acquired by the State of New York in 1850 and opened to the public on July 4 of that year.
It is for good reason then that Washington's Headquarters is the focal point of Newburgh's Fourth of July celebration for the Semiquincentennial, the details of which are described by Secret NYC: "Less than 2 hours from NYC: this historic Hudson Valley small town is transforming its waterfront into a sprawling Revolutionary craft beverage trail for the July 4th weekend."
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| Photo: Michael Goldin | Secret NYC |
In sad contrast to the plans for Washington's Headquarters and the Newburgh waterfront for the upcoming weekend, Hudson Valley Post reported this morning that in the wee hours of Saturday morning "gunfire erupted . . . right across from George Washington's historic headquarters": "Historic Area in Hudson Valley Now a Huge Crime Scene."
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| Photo: Rockland Video | Hudson Valley Post |
COPYRIGHT 2026 CAROLE OSTERINK
Some additional context:
ReplyDeleteViolent crime in the United States is experiencing a downward trend that many describe as 'historic'. Just this morning an NPR headline read, "U.S. murder rate approaches a record low" (caveat: records are only kept back to 1950, but 'lowest murder rate in 75 years' is pretty darn good, too).
Newburgh remains an outlier, but the Mid-Hudson Valley region has seen a 33% reduction in violent crimes since 2010.
Happy Semiquincentennial, all. Some things aren't horrible. :D
Attaboy, Chris. Now go tell the area Democratic Socialists and WFP that America’s poor live better than Europe’s, and New York taxes the rich harder than Europe. And that more people die in Europe from a lack of air conditioning, or in India from bad plumbing, than in America from gun deaths.
ReplyDeleteGreat to see your patriotism, now go full American and help us lower property taxes in the city / county to make housing more affordable.
NYforAll?
I'm unsure what your reply has to do with my comment or this post, but please don't feel compelled to clarify on my behalf.
DeleteMaybe a clarification will put an end to this exchange. The irony specific to Newburgh is that the centerpiece of the city’s Fourth of July celebration was just a week prior a crime scene. The larger irony I was alluding to has nothing to do with street crime but rather that, as we celebrate the country's 250th anniversary, there is someone in the White House who embodies everything the founders feared and who threatens the principles basic to its creation.
ReplyDeleteReally Carole? Now this is a forum for nonsensical TDS political commentary?
ReplyDeleteYou (of all people) are interpreting "everything the founders feared"?
Thank you for that clarification. I don't think I ever would have connected those three things.
ReplyDelete