Happy Boston Tea Party Day!
It was 235 years ago today that the Sons of Liberty threw tea into Boston harbor, and they still haven’t been able to clean the place up.
Please join me in celebrating this most American response to taxation.
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10 comments on "Happy Boston Tea Party Day!"
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In those days, they didn’t take government they didn’t like so passively. I guess the people have lost their passion for freedom. I wonder how the “Founding Fathers” would have reacted to the last eight years. (From “so what” to “we have abandoned free market principles in order to save the free markets”, there should have been a revolution in there someplace.
I’d be more happy to celebrate “this most American response to taxation” if there was any sign that it had had any lasting effect. The US taxes tens of millions of people who can’t vote. I am one of the huge number who file a 1040-NR each year but don’t get any vote. There are 25 million more green card holders who live and work in the US yet suffer the indignity of being taxed by the US on their world-wide income without getting a vote. Nearly a million US born convicted felons are still taxed but stripped of their right to vote.
“No Taxation Without Representation” might be a fine rallying cry but unfortunately it has no bearing whatsoever on the current state of US tax policy.
By the way, now that’s I’ve had a good rant I’m off to Pete’s to get some of their excellent “Winter Solstice Blend” to throw into San Francisco Bay…
I walk b y the harbor every day and it’s not that dirty any more. You can hardly smell the place.
Wow – lots of fail here today….
It was not the tax that was the real issue. It was representation. It was a remote power using the colonies as a checking account without allowing the people being taxed to address their grievances. Big difference!
@nicko
Bostonians where citizens of England so not the same as your situation. You are obviously here for a reason – why? As far as I can tell – you don’t get our history nor our tax laws so I don’t get it. My suggestion is to find an accountant, read a history book and then become a citizen. Its not that hard – i’ve witnessed a number of citizenship ceremonies ….
And furthermore – voting rights are really dealt with on a state by state basis (look up federalism). Some state allow felons to vote – others don’t. Its not specifically addressed in the constitution so its left up to the states (look up 10th amendment).
Oh – and what I consider more important than throwing tea into the harbor – yesterday was the 237th birthday of the Bill of Rights!
bah! 217 years … too fast on the submit …
(18 years from the tea party to the passage of the bill of rights – pretty darn quick considering how long its taken other things to get resolved – women suffrage, equal rights for blacks, gay marriage rights, … oops – still working on that last one)
Tim,
Please keep it civil.
(I happen to know Nicko, and think he has entirely valid reasons for both being here & for his decisions around citizenship. I also think he knows a great deal about US history–sometimes to the point of irking me with hard to refute arguments.)
You should ask some Native Americans how they feel about the fact that those who carried out the Boston Tea Party disguised themselves as Native Americans.
Good luck finding any, we sure have done a good job of making them rather scarce (which is the ‘most American response’ to peoples and cultures unlike our own).
Go Nick!!!!! I am a native American ( I like the term you used “native American” instead of “indian”.) and you bring up a valid point. You are right on the money. Plus what about the “trial of tears”