Will history repeat itself?

I have been thinking a lot about our country since Election Day and, being an amateur historian, I would like to share a small piece of American History with you that might pertain to the current course of our nation.

Were you aware that the final spark that ignited the American Revolution (primed already by the Boston Tea Party...see previous article) was the attempted seizure of arms and ammunition from the Colonials?

You might be aware of the fact that our Revolution started with an exchange of gunfire between Colonial Militia and British Regulars on Lexington's town square (or greens as they were referred to in that day). On April 19th, 1775 at sunrise, 700 British Regulars entered the town of Lexington, Massachusetts Bay Colony and were confronted by 30 men from the Lexington Militia's "Training Band" who had been forewarned of their approach by Paul Revere and his forgotten, but no less heroic, counterpart William Dawes. Led by John Parker, A French and Indian War veteran, the Colonial Militia did not engage the British troops, but in the confusion, someone fired a musket. The British returned fire, killing 8 militiamen outright. You can read more about this incident on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lexington_and_Concord

But what were the British doing there anyway? Why turn up in such large numbers, concealed by darkness, in a small town such as Lexington?

The British were there to seize the Colonists weapons. Weapons guaranteed to the Colonists by the Militia system, guaranteed to them for their own personal safety. The British government, the Colonists own ruling government had decided that ownership of weapons by citizens of the Colonies was no longer good policy and had made a move to confiscate these weapons. Sound familiar? This very scenario threatens to rear it's ugly head again, right here in the very land those brave militiamen fought to create and preserve.

If you combine the oppressive taxes that are potentially coming, a government out of touch with the values of it's citizens and the outlawing and possible seizure of legally owned personal weapons, the irony is both bitter and tangible.

What our government seems to forget when trampling on the Bill of Rights, is that the Second Amendment is the one that assures we get to keep all the other ones.

I leave you with a quote from one of Founding Fathers that sums it up very well...

"And what country can preserve its liberties, if it's rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure." - Thomas Jefferson

Well said TJ. Read up America. The time may be coming when we need to water that tree.