On December 16, 1773 American Colonists destroyed 45 tons of tea in Boston Harbor. The original Patriot Act! This protest against Great Britain sparked the American Revolution. If these Sons of Liberty had decided that they just could not be inconvenienced by a lack of tea which in that day was as good as gold...where would we be today? If old Sam Adams and John Hancock had not acted, but instead took the easy and comfortable route we would be sitting near Her Majesty’s throne drinking over taxed tea today. Think about it! If these patriots of old had been in a modern frame of mind there would not be a United States of America at all! What if Sam Adams and others of his ilk had protested the tea party because they individually were not willing to go without that which they really prized. The hardships would be too grueling! What if the founders of our sweet land had not risen up with pitchforks and whatever else was on hand because the blood of their sons could be spilled. Their sons would have been born to kneel before a queen and put all of their hard earned pennies in her pocket. They would have no pride, no country of their own and no hopes of a better tomorrow. But hey, they would be alive right? Why should they have cared about the bigger picture? Take care of your own, and when things are not going the way that you like PROTEST! Hmm, but no, no protesting under Her Majesty’s rule! A treasonous Colonist could be hung for that. During WW2 there were shortages of fuel, food, clothing and just about every commodity known to American citizens of that day. Rationing was a hardship and some items were not available at all! In a millennium frame of mind these Yanks would have been picketing the White House in righteous indignation! Effigies of President Roosevelt would have been burnt in Times Square and folks would have been saying that he was a war criminal! When an American girl must paint on her stockings and use ration stamps that just did not cover enough… Roosevelt would have been declared an international terrorist! This war lasted for over four years and the headstones at Arlington commemorate the sacrifices made and the path taken. Theirs was not the path that would have been chosen by Americans in 2007. What if in 1941 Americans had protested as loudly as we do today and no action was taken after Pearl Harbor? What if Americans in 1942 were unwilling to handle rationing and voted to end the war immediately. What if they had not been individually willing to send their sons? What if the citizenry had cast a vote that made the President tell the Nazi’s we would be out of that mess by Thursday and the Japanese that we bow to them by Friday? Would we all be saying Heil Hitler today or would most of us have been exterminated for lack of perfection and have no voice to protest anyhow? On a Tuesday Morning in September, 2001 Americans were blasted from naivety and innocence into a world of hate that none could ever have imagined! The horror of it should never be forgotten! Our enemies believe that American’s have short attention spans! They believe that when things get tough we will force our government to QUIT! They think we are so spoiled that if we send our sons and daughters to fight but the fighting lasts too long, we will protest and force them home again! They don’t believe that we can see it through if it inconveniences us for too long a period! These Jihade think that we want what we want now and if we can’t have it then we QUIT! They know that we will tell our government that we want to pull out because we were lied to or that this is a non humane way to go. That we don’t want our children dying for business that is not ours. They know that we will say these things but that the truth is just inconvenience and maybe even boredom. When it doesn’t play like a movie that is over in 2 hours and have a happy little ending we will make signs that say “1 2 3 4 we don’t want your stinking war” and make it go away. They wait for notice from our President that on a certain day next week or next month we send our soldiers home. They laugh and they celebrate! What if American people today had the mind frame of folks back in 1773? What if we swore to not drink tea and created a world of equality and justice for all? What if we could see the big picture and though we weep for sons at Arlington, we rejoice for future sons who live in a terrorist free world and are not exterminated for human differences? What if? -Tereasa Sanders-Halligan