Beyond the tea party

Am I the only one who sees a parallel between events of the colonial rebellion that began in New England in the 1770s and events of the last few years in neo-colonial America?

In 1773, the Sons of Liberty protested taxation without representation in a mild act of civil disobedience known as the Boston Tea Party.

In 2010, American citizens, most of whom had never marched in protest nor rallied against government tyranny in Washington, did just that, dubbing themselves tea-party activists. They dumped more than tea. They actually led an electoral revolution that stunned the Washington establishment.

But just as the original tea party in Boston didn't really solve the problems between the American colonists and their British oppressors, neither did a fleeting moment of political activism by the tea party of 2010.

In fact, both of those acts of defiance awakened the sleeping giants of oppression in 18^th century London and 21^st century Washington.

Rather than bring reforms, both of the tea-party movements actually prompted the tyrants – King George and King Barack – to turn up the heat.

In both cases, their next moves were to try to disarm the freedom movements.

In 1775, fearing the prospect of armed rebellion, the British sent 750 soldiers to seize a storehouse of firearms and munitions in Concord, Mass. They knew that a disarmed liberty movement was no threat to their continued occupation of colonial America.

Likewise, just two years after the tea-party revolution of 2010, the tyrants in Washington have announced their move to disarm America's citizens in violation of the Constitution and the inalienable rights of the people.

In two years, we've moved from tea party to 21^st-century America's Lexington and Concord moment.

Will the tea-party activists of 2010 be willing and able to transform themselves into Minutemen – putting at risk their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor?

That is the question.

It may be too late for marches and rallies.

I strongly believe Barack Obama is serious when he talks about deliberately exceeding his executive authority, bypassing Congress and abrogating the Constitution to disarm and neuter all effective opposition by outlawing or confiscating firearms.

I take him at his word.

I think he's serious.

It would be a mistake to underestimate his intentions and his will to turn American citizens back into the status of subjects, as our courageous forefathers were in the 18^th century.

Against all odds, those men and women fought for their liberty against the most powerful empire on earth at the time.

They knew how important those arms and munitions were to that struggle – all-important.

But where are today's Sons of Liberty?

What will we do when the soldiers or federalized policemen come knocking on our doors because they know who has the firearms?

Will we meekly surrender any firearm that fires one round at a time while another fills the chamber – which is how the New York Times and Washington Post characterize a semi-automatic "assault weapon"?

Or will today's Sons of Liberty do what yesteryear's did and quietly train and organize themselves, developing their own communications systems with plans to defend themselves, their families and the cause of liberty? In other words, will they be a part of the citizen militia at the heart of the Second Amendment?

Are we prepared to mobilize at a moment's notice like our Minutemen forbears against any and all threats?

It might be time to reflect on the immortal words of Capt. John Parker, a veteran of the French and Indian Wars, who blocked the British advance at Lexington April 19, 1775: "Stand your ground; don't fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here."

Within moments, a shot rang out. No one knows whence it came. But Ralph Waldo Emerson later dubbed it the "shot heard 'round the world."

Why was it heard 'round the world?

Because it was the shot that heralded the greatest outbreak of liberty the world had ever known.

Can we still hear the echoes of that shot today? Or will we mutely watch the lamp of liberty just flicker out?

Fortunately, unlike our colonial forefathers, today's Americans still have the ability to peacefully prevent the imposition of total tyranny on their country. If tens of millions of citizens are armed to the teeth – and the government knows it – that in itself should be sufficient to discourage any would-be tyrant from ever attempting to disarm, and thereby enslave, the American people.