Page 10 RevereTV Spotlight C elebrate St. Patrick’s Day for a little longer by enjoying the coverage of the Rossetti-Cowan Senior Center’s annual holiday party. This St. Patrick’s Day party was at the function room at St. Anthony’s Church last week. Seniors were entertained by live music and got treated to a classic boiled dinner! Watch this year’s RTV coverage playing daily on the Community Channel over the next few weeks or at any time on YouTube. Mayor Patrick Keefe’s 2025 State of the City Address aired live last Thursday on RevereTV. If you missed it or would like to rewatch this speech, it is now replaying on RTV GOV within the daily rotation of meeting reruns. The full address was also streamed to YouTube and remains posted there to view at your convenience. Hear Mayor Keefe talk about progress made during his term and his hopes and plans for the future of Revere. Tune in to RTV GOV, which is channel 9 on Comcast and channels 13 and 613 on RCN, to watch the replay on your television. There are still replays of cooking shows playing daily on the RevereTV Community Channel. In “Fabulous Foods,” chef Victoria Fabbo is joined by special guest Esteban Cruz, the founder of Clara’s Gourmet Sofrito. Together, they explore the creative ways sofrito can be used and put their own twist on a classic Puerto Rican dish. “What’s Cooking, Revere?” features Estephany and Johanna from Concilio Latino of MasTHE REVERE ADVOCATE – FRIDAY, MARCH 28, 2025 HISTORY | FROM Page 6 sachusetts as they guide you through the preparation of a traditional Dominican breakfast. In “Northeast Cooks,” culinary arts students from Northeast Metro Tech demonstrate how to bake blueberry muffi ns from scratch! All of these cooking shows and more are currently airing daily on Comcast channels 8 and 1074, and RCN channels 3 and 614. The announcers from “In the Loop” are reminding you to mark your calendars for the city’s annual spring cleanup to help keep Revere beautiful! The event will take place on Saturday, April 26, from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Meet at City Hall fi rst thing in the morning to pick up supplies. Be sure to wear comfortable clothes and bring water. After the cleanup, enjoy a celebratory barbecue at McMakin Memorial Park (249 Broadway). For more information on how to get involved, check out the fl yer for this PSA on all RevereTV social media outlets or playing in between programming on all television channels. Catch replays of the latest Revere City Council meeting now scheduled to RTV GOV. This meeting aired live on Monday, preceded by the Appointments Sub-Committee and Legislative Aff airs Sub-Committee. Other meetings to watch this week are of the License Commission, Zoning Board of Appeals and Revere Board of Health. All meetings play live on RTV GOV and YouTube and then replay on the channel for the following few weeks. feudal forced labor by both indentured servants as well as Negro slaves to become a successful economic venture. In 1645, John Winthrop, who had served as Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony on six diff erent occasions, wrote about British North American economic expansion, stating: “I do not see how we can thrive until we get...a fl ock of slaves suffi cient to do all of our business...and it will be cheaper to maintain twenty Negro slaves cheaper than one English servant.” A number of those very slaves now rest in our Rumney Marsh burial ground located on Butler Street. Slavery in Massachusetts would last for 159 years. It was not until the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780, and its subsequent judicial interpretation in 1783, that there was an end to slavery in Massachusetts. On March 27 & 28, 1775, members of our town’s militia joined together with 1,000 militia men from all of the then New England colonies and tenaciously confronted 400 British Royal Marines, with their fl eet of three naval vessels, assault barges and fi eld artillery, encountering British troops beginning at the inner islands of Boston Harbor and ending in the marshlands and mudfl ats of Chelsea Creek near Slade’s Mill, resulting in the capture and sinking of the British Royal Navy schooner Diana. The Battle of Chelsea Creek, although mostly forgotten to history, was notable since it was the fi rst planned off ensive battle of the Revolutionary War; the fi rst instance of military cooperation by the New England colonies, battling the Redcoats; the fi rst naval engagement of the Revolutionary War; the fi rst capture of a British vessel of war; and the fi rst time that artillery was used by the colonial militia against the British. While the colonial losses were minimal, the Redcoats lost 64 of their elite troops. On April 19, 2025, our nation will commemorate the 250th anniversary of the “Shot heard round the world” on April 19, 1775, when we celebrate the confrontation of Massachusetts colonists and British Redcoats at Lexington and Concord, marking an important battle of our war for Independence from Great Britain and another transition from a war of words to one of bullets. Although little known by many of our current Revere citizens, a number of the then residents of our early town played an important role in this confrontation for independence from Great Britain, when the pastor of The Church of Christ at Chelsea (now Revere), Reverend Phillips Payson, lead a party of men from his church congregation halting the retreating British Redcoats, after the confrontation at Lexington and Concord, engaging the Redcoats at Menotomy (now Arlington) in an intense rear action confrontation, when the men of the church congregation killed a number of the Redcoats and took several of the enemy as prisoners. By their courageous action the men from our town enshrined themselves in the history of our nation by their heroic participation in this important confrontation of the American Revolution for Independence from Great Britain. Also, for his heroic leadership of the men from his church congregation, Pastor Phillips Payson would become forever known as “Fighting Pastor Payson.” Payson would go on to participate, with John Adams as a contributor, in the writing of the Massachusetts Constitution and as a founding member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, along with John Hancock, Robert Treat Paine and John and Samuel Adams. Twenty days later, on June 17, 1775, the colonists once again battled the British Redcoats at the bloody battle of Bunker Hill. The battle, which actually occurred at Breed’s Hill, only lasted two hours; however, the losses were signifi cant, resulting in 1,054 British casualties and 450 colonial losses, demonstrating the fi ghting ability of the colonial forces to eff ectively do battle against the British Redcoats. Over one year later, on July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress of the 13 American Colonies, meeting at Philadelphia, sent a bold message to the King and Parliament of Great Britain by proclaiming the American Declaration of Independence from Great Britain. Recognition of our past, acknowledging historical events and experiences of a bygone era, including both positive and negative aspects, allows us to gain important insights and lessons learned as we strive to shape a better future. We can’t change history but we certainly can learn from it. As William Shakespeare wrote in his play “The Tempest”, “The past is prologue.” John J. Henry served as Revere City Clerk for 32 years from 1977-2009. Over the years he has written numerous articles about the early history of Revere. Local residents named to Simmons University Dean’s List T he following Revere residents have been named to the 2024 fall semester Dean’s List at Simmons University: Ariana Aguilar, Khadija Chafi q, Stephanie DelCastillo, BrenDEAN’S LIST| SEE Page 11
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