America, the Land of Revolution, As Usual

THE UNITED STATES of America has a proud and venerable history of revolution. If you think that Christianity or capitalism is the backbone of America, you're wrong. The backbone of America, other than baseball, is, dear reader, revolution, pure and simple. The country began in a flaming torrent of revolution. All of our founders were flaming revolutionaries. During America's two hundred and forty six years of legalized slavery, there were frequent slave uprisings, which you never hear about today. The colonists often defied their British masters, with tea parties and trail blazing in Tennessee. George Washington had his notorious Whiskey rebellion. What we call "the Civil War" was nothing other than a massive revolution, a great rebellion, a second revolutionary war. Then came the labor strikes, protests, riots and armed battles with authorities in the late nineteenth and dearly twentieth centuries. Tens of thousands of America's women marched in America's streets trying, successfully, to force the government to give them the right to vote. The summer of 1932 was particularly exciting in Washington D.C., as thousands of World War One veterans walked in to Washington D.C., demanding their pay, and taking over the town, until being driven out of town and slaughtered by their own government. After World War Two, and indeed before World War Two, America's former slaves marched and rioted for decades, trying to force the country to accept them as equals. In that, they have made progress, but have not yet been entirely successful. Some cause take longer than others, it seems. The anti Viet Nam war protests of the nineteen sixties gave way to a renewed women's protest movement, once again fighting for equality. In America, the land of the "ahem" free and the home of the brave, most of us must fight for equality, it seems. We haven't always been free, but we've always been brave, brave enough, at least, to fight for our own freedom. Americans are always rioting, rebelling, and protesting, usually against themselves, against their darker side. Most recently, many of us occupied wall street. So, why stop now? Bring on the next revolution!