Djelloul Marbrook

Captain Nathan Hale may or may not have said, “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.” Much has been written about what he might have said. But no one questions that on September 22, 1776, the twenty-one-year-old scholar from Connecticut gave his life for the unborn United States with a dignity and composure that impressed and rattled the British who hung him for spying.

Today a bronze plaque  outside a Banana Republic store on Manhattan’s Third Avenue commemorates this deed that resonates down through time. Hale (statue in New York’s City Hall Park, inset) was hung not more than 100 yards from the store on what is now 66th Street and was then rural. This intersection of patriotism and commerce is today posh and stylish. Hale could not have imagined its diversity and wealth. One can hope that we still live in a country that values patriotism over money, but the quaint position of the memorial site  is less than heartening.

—DM