Three cents.
Three lousy pennies.
That’s all it took to start the American Revolution more than 250 years ago.
While this Saturday marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, recognized as the birth of the United States of America, this all really got fired up three years before because of a simple tax.
Only the tax wasn’t all that simple — it was more like a “we’re in charge and there’s nothing you can do about it” statement the British made toward the colonists that proved to be the last straw.
In May of 1773, the British Parliament passed the Tea Act, which essentially granted the British East India Company Tea a monopoly on tea sales in what was then the American colonies.
The Brits had gotten a little too big for their britches and were taxing the American colonists to death, which prompted a group known as the Sons of Liberty to slip into Boston Harbor on the night of Dec. 16, 1773, disguised as Mohawk Indians, and begin dumping shipments of tea into the water. (No word on if any sugar or lemon was also tossed in for a good pool of Arnold Palmers.) When it was all over, 17 million pounds of tea was destroyed, causing about $2 million (in today’s dollars) in damages.
It wasn’t the tax itself that was the problem, though — it was the constant taxation without representation that the British government was throwing at the colonists that got the party started. By the spring of 1775, the Revolutionary War started, taking almost 8 1/2 years before the Brits finally gave up. By then, the Declaration of Independence was seven years old, the ink barely dry as we began our journey to becoming the greatest nation the world has ever known.
And after 250 years and all the wars and skirmishes and events that would have brought lesser nations to their knees, here we are — still kickin’ butt and serving as the beacon of possibility that the world still looks to.
What this nation has survived in MY lifetime has been amazing.
I was born a few years after the JFK assassination that shocked the world. I grew up during the Vietnam War and saw our nation struggle mightily through the high inflation and the “crisis of confidence” that marked our lowest point since the Bicentennial of 1976.
I came of age during the Iran hostage crisis, the end of the Cold War with Russia saw the turn of the millennium with all the anxiety of seeing the year 2000.
And then came 9/11 — when our nation was brought to its knees by a bunch of terrorists. Rather than fold, we came together as one nation and responded. We’ve seen so much since then that would kill other nations’ hopes, and yet here we stand.
Even as we fight amongst ourselves over things that, in comparison, are insane, we’re still the best place to call home on the planet. As the World Cup soccer tournament takes place here in North America, we’re seeing people from all over the globe come to America and revel in what we have to offer — things that aren’t even an idea back home — and it’s been refreshing to see how the people visiting from all over the world see us, as compared to how the mainstream media continues to portray us as the source of all the world’s evils.
I wonder what it would take, in this day and age, to spark a SECOND American Revolution. After all, we told the high-and-mighty Brits to go pound sand over three cents. Considering the lack of representation we now have in our own nation’s capital, we’ve been far too forgiving by comparison.
Our national debt is nearing FORTY trillion dollars (and I’m still young enough to remember when it was just surpassing the trillion-dollar mark, which wasn’t THAT long ago). The amount of corruption we’re seeing from BOTH sides of the political aisle is staggering. We are being conditioned to hate one another based on our political beliefs, our religion, our personal preferences — remember when it was the color of our skin that determined who we like or didn’t like? While equally appalling, it seems to have lost its punch when it comes to who we’re “supposed” to love or hate.
Even though America seems like an impossible mess to some who claim to know what we’re about, the fact is that IN SPITE OF all of that, the United States of America is STILL the world’s gold standard when it comes to living free and being independent of unfair behavior of those who would claim to be in power. This is STILL the place people want to come to escape oppression or violent behavior that is controlling things in their homeland. America is the “land of the free, home of the brave,” and people still want to be a part of that after 250 amazing years.
Say what you will, but the three cents that started these fireworks 250 years ago have proven to be well worth the investment. And if that’s all it takes to keep this country going another 250 years, I’m willing to pony up.
Happy 250th Birthday, America.
