Notes from our History Part 3: Avoiding Enslavement

Stripped of every civil tool the colonists turned to the one source of power the British had left them and began to outfit their militias with more firepower. Realizing what was about to happen the British sent an expeditionary force to seize the militia armories and disarm the colonists. Two lanterns in the tower of the Old North Church sent men like Paul Revere racing through the countryside shouting "The British are coming! The British are coming! To take your shot and powder!" On Lexington Green in the predawn hours of April 19th, 77 men used their last recourse to stand up to the best army in the world. The colonists saw disarmament as their last resort to ever resist the British being taken away. Other colonies realized they no longer had inalienable rights and that everything they had could be arbitrarily taken on the whim of the Crown.

I realize I have done a wholly inadequate job of conveying the panic the colonists felt in the lead up so I just want you try to look at this from their prospective. The actions of the British Government put them in such a state that they were desperately peering down the flash pans of their flintlocks looking for their last flickering glimmer of freedom. These were not destitute peasants rioting for bread to eat, like in the French Revolution for example, (Louis the XVI was arrested when a bread riot got out of hand and stormed the palace) but the upstanding and prosperous citizens of the colonies. If you think nothing like this could happen today in a constitutionally run country because now people have certain inalienable rights set forth in law, remember, so did the colonists. English law has recognised a bill of rights since the Middle Ages, longer than any other legal system.

How this applies today:
I can't stress enough that things only got violent after every other possible option was taken away. I also can't stress enough that every other option was taken away. We owe it to ourselves and to our posterity to exhaust every legal and peaceful means to rectify the sad state of affairs. That said, if what happened to the colonists ever happens to us we owe it to our posterity to not shrink from what must be done. I really really want to avoid that. Let the Government know this November that disregarding us will not be tolerated. If we don't we are risking enslavement not only for ourselves but our children.

To paraphrase Patton, "When you stick your hand into a pile of goo that a moment before was your children's children's liberty, you'll know what to do."