MY PERSPECTIVE, Gary Damron

Since the Sugar Act of 1764, Committees of Correspondence in the colonies had connected leaders across great distances, allowing them to share critical information, spread ideas, and promote unity against increasingly oppressive British policies. Passage of the Coercive (Intolerable) Acts in 1774 dramatically sped up the process. As the English Parliament appeared determined to strip away fundamental rights, these committees, along with town meetings, evolved into powerful extra-legal governments. Stepping into the vacuum left by diminishing royal authority, they enforced local policies, organized and managed militias, and raised funds for defense.

Non-importation agreements no longer seemed sufficient, especially with British warships blockading ports. So, when royal governors began dissolving citizen assemblies to stop the growing resistance, colonists responded by electing broader provincial congresses that represented a wider segment of the population. These new bodies overwhelmingly called for a Continental Congress to present a united front.

L&T Publisher Earl Watt

Why haven’t you signed up yet?

With less than a week to go before the deadline for candidates to sign up, there is only one name so far for three Seward County Commission seats.

When three commissioners resigned in December, 13 people stepped up to fill the empty slots, and three were selected to finish the last year of the unexpired terms, and whether or not you agree with how those three have served, they deserve our thanks for being willing to serve.

And not just them but the other 10 who also put their name on the list. Each of the three district had choices, and that is critical to a functioning democracy.

After all, if there are no candidates, how do we, the people choose our representatives?

All 13 provided the precinct committee men and women choices.

THE POSTSCRIPT, Carrie Classon

“I had a mother who read to me

Sagas of pirates who scoured the sea,

Cutlasses clenched in their yellow teeth,

“Blackbirds” stowed in the hold beneath.”

I am “up north,” as people say, spending time with my parents at their cabin. My parents are spending more time in town, especially in the winter. But now it is spring, and to hear them tell it, being a nonagenarian is no reason to stay away from the place they love best.

MY PERSPECTIVE, Gary Damron

After ten articles which have highlighted some causes of the Revolutionary War, we'll pause this week to show some applications, as a transfer of power began between the mother land and her subjects across the Atlantic.

Until the conclusion of the French and Indian War in 1763, salutary or benign neglect had been the practice of Britain toward the colonies. Economic systems and methods of governance had been developed in accordance with royal charters; so in most respects, Colonials were free to practice self-governance according to English common law.