Bostonian - Patriots or Terrorist

After a while studying about the American Revolution, we have discussed about the reasons that led to the revolution. On Wednesday we did a Socratic Seminar about the Boston Tea Party.  The day before Wednesday we were assigned to read a primary source about the Boston Tea Party told by George Hewes 60 years later. The story was mainly about the time the colonist were boycotting British goods such as tea because they had to pay too much taxes. They wanted to send a message to the King that they wouldn't buy the tea if they were being taxed. As a result, they decided to disguise themselves as Mohawk Indians and board the British ships that were lying at the Boston Port. The first part of the plan worked, so now they had to throw all the tea into the ocean - there were 342 chest of tea. Now that we have read it, we were supposed to do a Socratic Seminar about it. We started off by clarifying things that were confusing. Later on, Ms, Torie led as into the idea that "Were the Bostonian counted as patriot or terrorist?”

For me I don't think that all those heroic Bostonian should be called terrorist due to their diminutive action. Comparing to what the British were doing to those poor colonist, the Boston Tea Party isn’t really half of it. The British were taking away the rights of the colonist (English Bill of Rights), one by one. The colonist must do something to reveal that they also disserve to have rights as an Englishman. The British weren’t treading the colonist like men, because if they did they must have giving them their rights. According to John Locke theory, every person was born with the 3 natural rights – life, liberty, and property.  But the colonist didn’t have any of the rights. The Bostonians were patriots; they loved their country and were willing to have independence.

Unlike the terrorist at the southern part of Thailand, who are murdering government’s officials such as Police, Soldiers, Teachers, etc. These are real example of terrorist – it is for sure that they do not appreciate being in this country, they are not grateful to be a Thai, but all they want is to cause troubles for others.  Nothing like the patriotic colonist, they were willing to fight for the independence of their country. At the end, they really got what they wanted after all, they are now Americans. I would like to leave a quote which is not mine but I’ll have to borrow it, it says; “I rather die on my feet, than live on my knees”.