1760: The French and Indian War ends in 1754, but the debt remains. The British government increases taxes in the colonies to pay the debt.
1763: A proclamation restricts expansion westward.
1765: The Stamp Act imposes taxes on printed materials, sparking protests and boycotts.
1767: The Townshend Acts tax imported goods like tea, glass, and paper.
1770: Five civilians are killed by British soldiers in the Boston Massacre.
1773: The Boston Tea Party.
1774: The Intolerable Acts punish Massachusetts for the Boston Tea Party.
1774: First Continental Congress coordinates a response to British policies.
1775: On April 19, on the road to Concord, the shot heard ’round the world.
We delight in remembering we have been here before. It is not just an indulgence. The recollection reassures us of our survival—we lived through it and are here to tell about it. It might also provide pointers on how we survived before and how we can do it again.
Folks keep telling us this period is unique—it is not. Humankind has been here many times before, and so has the United States. Other countries may not have fared as well as ours—we survived and flourished.
It was the 18th century; we had a king, and he had an army and a will to have his own way. The colonists felt like the provisioners of the king with precious little left over. Not unlike today when some in power see this country as a giant ATM, ripe for withdrawals. Then and now, they tax to redistribute wealth.
For 15 years, the colonists met in taverns grumbled and tried to decide what to do. For 15 years, they did not agree. The colonies were divided. The loyalists saw the king as their liege lord and just wanted to negotiate a better deal. The patriots wanted to fight and make a new nation.
The patriots constantly attacked the loyalists and their property. They hit-and-ran in the fields and on the backroads. The British Army saw it as a series of police actions, not a war. The patriots released broadsides defending and explaining their actions. Over time, the size of each side grew or shrunk, but the divide remained.
Finally, on April 19, 1775, the British marched to Concord to restore order and there was “the shot heard ’round the world.” It was declared the beginning of the Revolutionary War. No one knows who shot it—a British soldier or a patriot. No one knows if the shot was intended or accidental. To this day, no one knows if the shot was aimed, but if it was, the musket ball missed. So began the establishment of the United Staes of America.
It continued in much the same way: skirmishes and roadside attacks. A man fought for a week and returned to plant or harvest his fields. Another fought in his dooryard or back 40. If a man dropped, his woman picked up the musket. They had no uniforms, only a coat allowance. The weapons were farm implements or the cannons and muskets they could steal from British forts.
Our wisest move then was to simultaneously meet and write—the Bill of Rights, the Constitution—to formerly determine how the new country would carry forward whether in negotiations with our king or as an dependent nation.
If we stand together in the doorway of the federal building where some kids under orders from a billionaire are trying to fire people, we are probably doing as much as is necessary. To stop the steal? No, to stem the tide. The question is how much damage will be done before we rise up and wrest control?
It was also on March 15 that they stabbed Julius Caesar—another dictator. What followed the Ides of March was 400 years of dictators and 1,000 years of the Dark Ages. Caesar ruled for five years. What will follow Trump’s four years?
We cannot change what is here and now, but we can mitigate the damage. Do not equivocate. Do not deny. We can stand shoulder to shoulder and protect each other. We can stand with the lawyers and the judges. We can demand that judicial rulings be obeyed. We can protest, and we can protect. We can remember, and we can recite—remember the old definitions and recite our Constitution and Bill of Rights. We can do what our ancestors did: simultaneously turn to those who remember and tell the stories so that we know how to lead when the baton is passed. We can control the damage so someday something better can be rebuilt not on an ash heap but on our earliest foundation.
