Happy Fourth, American Friends

[Tio_Narratore]

HAPPY
FOURTH OF
JULY!​

 

[sr71plt]

Why, thanks. That's very neighborly. (or, to some, "neighbourly," I guess.)

 

[fsa52]

HAPPY
FOURTH OF
JULY!​

Thank you; it's my very favorite holiday!!

 

[PennLady]

Thanks, Tio.

 

[johneb87]

Thanks!

Also a shout out to our brave men and women in the military serving overseas. Be safe, get home soon.

 

[3113]

How very thoughtful of you! Thank you! Won't you join us in setting off some firecrackers?

http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/images/smilies/new/flageagle2.gifhttp://www.thereeftank.com/forums/images/smilies/new/fireworks.gif

 

[estragon]

Thanks, Tio. Best regards to our neighbours Strong and Free.

 

[TE999]

Thanks for the salute, Tio.

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY EVERYONE!

Here's to our brave men and women who stand guard so that we may enjoy our freedom.

 

[lance gt]

'Oh, say can you see, by the dawn's early light?
What so proudly we hailed, was the twilight's last gleaming.
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
gave proof through the night, that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star spangled banner yet wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.'

Happy Independance Day my American friends. It's the least we Canadians could do for you, was to give F.S.Keyes a reason to write your anthem.

 

[songhan499]

Also a shout out to our brave men and women in the military serving overseas.http://www.interbankforex.info/kv.gif

 

[oggbashan]

Happy Fourth!

Enjoy yourselves and don't forget to drink some tea.

None of your taxes now go to the UK government.

A reminder: At the time, many people in the UK didn't support the UK government's stance on taxation for the 13 Colonies and endorsed 'No taxation without representation' but were overruled by the majority political party. Sound familiar?

A few prejudiced idiots caused a war and a new country was created.

 

[Handley_Page]

Good Day, Americans.

Happy Forth of July.​

 

[whynotjustsayit]

Happy Fourth of July, everyone ! ​

 

[3113]

A reminder: At the time, many people in the UK didn't support the UK government's stance on taxation for the 13 Colonies and endorsed 'No taxation without representation' but were overruled by the majority political party. Sound familiar?

Actually, that's the mistake most people make with American history. Colonial Americans at the time actually agreed that Parliament had a right to tax them, and likely would have paid some of the taxes without argument if they'd better understood what those taxes were about (Parliament wasn't in the habit of explaining itself). What they didn't agree to was being taxed without being allowed to have representatives in the government to speak up for them in how they were being taxed.

Meanwhile, Parliament mistook their upset over being taxed as meaning that they were arguing that Parliament had no right to tax them, which Parliament couldn't let them get away with. The big to-do over the tea was just this, a way for Parliament to maintain the right to tax the colonists, while saving a struggling company (The East India Company).

In the end, the revolution wasn't about taxes; it about the Mother country not treating those born and raised in their colonies as equals, as the British Citizens they thought they were and wanted to be. Thus, forcing them to forge a new identity. I highly recommend, by the way, Prof. Joanne B. Freeman's "American Revolution" lectures from Yale University found on iTunes U. Her talent at storytelling and quotes from both sides are really wonderful--and put in context how a relatively simple attempt to tax the colonists to pay for wars which had protected them and from which they benefited got out of hand, was totally misunderstood, and finally led to revolution.