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All Things N ebraska
If you’re like me, you probably have tuned in the latest, excellent documentary by Ken Burns, “The American Revolution.”
If there was only one reason to donate to public television, it would be to help Burns produce more historical documentaries like “The American Revolution,” and those on the Civil War, baseball and country music.
There is nothing more interesting on TV, if you ask me. Personally, on PBS, I’m also a big fan of “Frontline” and the excellent reporting it provides. Plus, I’m a junkie when it comes to watching the state tournament games broadcast by Nebraska Public Media. Wow, that Wynot team was something! But I digress. What really struck me about the American Revolution series was not how disorganized the patriots were, or how brutal the battles became, but how the Americans were fighting— in many cases — against fellow Americans.
There were the patriots, those who objected to “taxation without representation” and wanted some independence from the King of England and his Red Coats.
But there were also many loyalists who were still loyal to the king, and couldn’t fathom how 13 colonies, who disagreed on several issues, could somehow work together.
Some joined the revolution and fought against the Crown; others joined the Red Coats and fought for the King. It was brother against brother in many battles. In local communities, patriots burned and ransacked homes of loyalists, and vice versa.
The New England colonies were very different from the southern ones, in their choice of religion, their national origin, and their local economies.
While it took only 17 days to draft the Declaration of Independence (which we celebrate on July 4th), it took years – because of the differences of the colonies – to draft and ratify the young nation’s first Constitution because of their disagreements.
Different regions of the country had different views on how they should be governed, who should vote, how much power should be granted to the states (and not the central government), and how taxes should be levied and distributed. Differences about slavery were just about to emerge.
It was the urban North against the rural South on many issues. Does any of this sound familiar? It did to me. The harsh divisions we now see between Americans and their political views seem like a national tradition after viewing “The American Revolution” series.
I couldn’t help thinking about the 1960s, and the demonstrations for Civil Rights and against the Vietnam War. Talk about divisions – neighborhoods burned (like Omaha’s north side), university buildings were bombed, the National Guard was called out to truly restore order.
It was interesting that back in the revolutionary days, democracy was viewed with suspicion as “messy.” There were fears that a loud-voiced demagogue would steer the populace down the wrong path.
Over the years, we’ve seen that in the U.S., and democracy, indeed, gets messy at times.
But I came away from “The American Revolution” with a sense of hope. If our fledgling country could work out its disagreements, and band together to defeat the superpower of that era, the British, and form a new nation, I had to think that we can work out our differences in today’s world.
Let’s hope so.
Paul Hammel has covered the Nebraska state government and the state for decades. Prior to his retirement, he was senior contributor with the Nebraska Examiner. He was previously with the Omaha World-Herald, and Lincoln Journal Star. A native of Ralston, Nebraska, he loves traveling and writing about the state.
