Holy Pascha of this year, 2025 A.D. (7533 A.M.) also happened to coincide with the 111th anniversary of the infamous Ludlow Massacre of April 7th (O.S.) 1914, where the Colorado National Guard gunned down unarmed workers who were on strike with machine guns -- partly -- because they didn't want to work on Holy Pascha.
The entire background and context of this event transcends what I wish to write about here -- as Wikipedia has articles on the Colorado Coalfield Wars and the Ludlow Massacre specifically -- I particularly wanted to write about its relationship to the Orthodox Church. The leader of the strikers at Ludlow was a man named Elias Anastasios Spantidakis (when he emigrated to the US, his name was changed to Louis Tikas). Born in Loutra on Crete in 1886, he emigrated to the United States in 1908. He was considered pious by many who knew him.
Being the only Orthodox Christian who was murdered at Ludlow when the Colorado National Guard launched their attack on the campsite of the strikers and their families, he is of particular note to us. He was beaten with the stocks of rifles and shot in the back of the head despite being unarmed and witnesses saying he did not fight back against the guardsmen.
Many Greeks were among the workers and their families who were in the camp, and while all the others killed -- including women and children as young as 3 months old -- were not Orthodox, it was still a cowardly attack by the Colorado National Guard that undoubtedly left many traumatized. The Colorado National Guard did not apologize for their actions, and in many cases, bragged in the local newspapers about their attack, and posed with the armored cars and machine guns which they called "death specials".
While I know many other Orthodox Christians were involved in the labour movement and the armed resistances to create a middle class in this country, Ludlow is one of the most overt examples I know where the Orthodox Faith played a role in the fight for religious freedoms -- and subsequent murder -- of innocent people.
Links to articles: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludlow_Massacre
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Tikas
https://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%9B%CE ... E%B1%CF%82
Pictures attached, Elias Anastasios Spantidakis (Louis Tikas) before his emigration to America, Ludlow monument with a statue of Lous Tikas.