Walking the Freedom Trail in the Tea-Party Era
I had to think a long time before writing this entry. We live in a time where "The Founding Fathers" are thrown around to justify any right-wing anti-government policy and nut-job. So I had a lot of second thoughts before I sat down to put pen to paper (or finger to keyboard in this case). But I learned several things during my walk and in doing some research during the past week. Let's start by putting the American Revolution into historical perspective. The era from the 1600's to the 1800's was one of change from feudal societies to capitalist societies. This was a progressive movement at the time. And along the spectrum of the leaders of the American Revolution the Boston leaders were among the most liberal. Many were influenced by the reaction to a movement towards Puritan orthodoxy in the 1760's and then by the arrival and formation Unitarian Universalist congregations in the early 1770's. Read about the history of the UUA here . Massachusetts St...