Situation is familiar

In December 1773, American patriots in Boston protested against the British decision to levy an unfair tax on the American colonies on tea imported from China. Known as The Boston Tea Party, the colonists dumped tea from British ships in protest of being taxed without representation.

This was the beginning of a War for Independence from Great Britain by the colonies. It was to be a long, bloody war taking on the most powerful military in the world. Odds were against them but those odds did not deter them from seeking freedom from the rule of what was a tyrannical government.

On July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress convened and declared independence from Britain in a document appropriately named “The Declaration of Independence.” Though the war was far from over, many brave patriots signed the document at the risk of being held for treason against the crown. They loved liberty and freedom from an oppressive government more than they valued their lives and property, and established a republic.

This republic in time became the United States of America. Through a great war in which hundreds of thousands of Americans perished, this country was brought together again. Two world wars tested the resolve of a country to defeat other oppressive governments seeking to establish their will upon the world.

Now it seems we have begun to experience situations not unlike what the first patriots encountered, a government seeking to impose its will upon its citizens.

“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.” (Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence)

LES BLEDSOE North Little Rock