Is Now Such a Time?

According to the U.S. Veterans Administration, approximately 25,000 American colonists were killed in the American Revolution and roughly an equal number of British soldiers. At the time, the population of the thirteen colonies was approximately 250,000. So, about ten percent of the new nation’s population gave their lives for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

The colonists had to decide that freedom was worth dying for. Of course, they didn’t and couldn’t know the price of that freedom at the time they made the decision. When he penned the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson didn’t know that the document would lead to the deaths of 25,000 fellow countrymen.

Of course, it’s one thing to rise up against tyranny, and another to be successful at it, and something else altogether to hold the gains. We learned that as a young country. After the first shots were fired at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, it would be another 14 months before the Second Continental Congress would declare our independence. General Cornwallis would surrender to the Americans five long years after Jefferson’s words were adopted, and it would be another two years before the Treaty of Paris would end the war. You’ll remember that a few short years later, in 1812, the British would nearly regain their territory.

Rising up against tyrannical leaders, of course, is only the first step, albeit a crucial one. It begins, however, with a few committed people who make a conscious decision that they can no longer tolerate the tyranny. They can no longer sit idly by while the tyrants gain more and more power and put more and more people in subjection.

1775 was such a time for the Americans. I’m wondering if 2025 might be such a time for the people of Iran.

Iran’s current population is 92.4 million people. I’m not suggesting that 10% of them will have to die, as in the American Revolution, but many will need to perish to purchase the freedoms and the inalienable rights of their fellow countrymen.

What do you think?