Late Night History

Last night as I was brushing my teeth my thoughts turned to Glenn Beck and his recent "Rally to Restore Honor." I told Josh that I wanted to write a book in response called "What Honor?" and talk about all of the ways that the U.S. has been very dishonorable throughout its history.

I got into bed reciting the list of offenses that the United States has committed - the syphilis experiment in Guatemala, several experiments done by the government on Native American peoples, the Tuskegee syphilis experiment, treaties broken with Native tribes, slavery... the list goes on.

And then Josh chimed in: We dumped the British tea into the sea because they were charging too much tax.

Me: It wasn't the tax on tea they were mad about. I think it actually helped the British when they dumped the tea.

Josh: (laughing) What are you talking about?

Me: The ship was stuck in the harbor, because they couldn't unload the tea and it couldn't leave with the tea and it was causing problems for everyone.

Josh: So, the British Tea Party was an inside job by the British?

Me: No, maybe it didn't help the British. But I'm pretty sure it helped the ship captain.

Josh: Are you saying the ship captain dumped all of his own tea and started the Revolutionary War?

Me: He didn't dump his own tea, but I think he told everyone when they could come and dump it... or at least he didn't try to stop them. Although if it was his tea, maybe he lost money.

Josh: We should write a history book.

Me: Unless the tea belonged to a trading company...

Josh: It would be all of our late night history discussions and would talk about how the Tea Party actually helped the British. At least one British ship captain.

Me: What was that trading company called?

Josh: We could call it "Late Night History with Josh and Rachel."

Me: That would be fun.