Observations from Williamsburg, VA

We're staying for a few days of alone time at Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. The town is about one-half mile north to south and 1 mile east to west. They have 3 hotels on the campus and a regular shuttle to carry to the far sides of the park.

Yesterday we went to a program where George Washington took the stage in an outdoor amphitheater. He gave a reasonable yet impassioned speech about the necessity in 1774 to boycott all British imports, but to not yet ban all exports to them.

After his speech, he took questions from the audience. Most of which were well informed, and his responses were entirely in character and knowledgeable. He spoke of the reality that the taking up of arms against unreasonable oppressors was to be an absolute last resort, and that men of character and reason would exhaust every means necessary to foster dialogue and charity before acting aggressively. He renounced the actions during the Boston Tea Party and honored John Adams as a man of character for defending the British Regulars after the Boston Massacre.

After spending 2 in-depth days in the colonial town, having read, discussed, and witnessed recreations of many of the actions taken here in Virginia, I feel solidly that revolution could have been avoided altogether under the following circumstances: 1) that the British Parliament had been filled with honest and humble men, 2) that American businessmen and women had a greater sense of community and responsibility to withstand the pulls of greed during trying times, and 3) that the Crown's representatives, like Gov. John Dunmore of Virginia, had been men of humility to see the pains of unjustice that these colonial Americans were suffering, rather than usurping their rights by use of the threat of military force and the disbanding of their legislatures prior to their seasonal work having been finished.

All in all, revolution stems from unjustices being met by the forces of impatience, a lack of faith in God's providence, and an insatiatible greed on the part of the oppressed; and continual arrogance and presumptuous power and control on the part of the oppressors. Add to this a growing relational distance between the governed and the governing, and you have the makings for a bloody and irrational war.

Violence only begets more violence. Retribution and revenge are the work of the devil.