PBS has released a Ken Burns Documentary on the American Revolution and I was shocked at how important that piece of our history is to the times we are living in 2026. I suspect some of our current turning of our backs on authentic American history might be partially motivated by shame for how far we have fallen from the bar of courage that birthed this nation. The American Revolution was an collective act of creating something great out of materially nearly nothing. The time we are in seems at times seems devoted to salvaging nothing out of a tanking material prosperity. 

In the time of the revolution, the people in this land were divided between the Loyalists and the Patriots. The Revolution was, like the civil war, often fought between family members, some of whom wanted the security of a king who would patronize them with instructions at a cost and the Patriots who were forwarding the idea of liberty and a new kind of united republic. This writer was shocked at the violence and cruelty of the Revolution. At the same time my respect for the courage and persistence of Washington was doubled. Finally, the documentary didn’t overlook how we, as an emergent nation, turned our backs on the slaves and indigenous Americans who fought both with the Loyalists and Patriots to finally evict the British army. This nation was birthed at a place far from the north star of its aspirations that all men and women were born equal. Washington, Jefferson and the founding father’s calculated slavery was the price of unity among the new states and the cost of that decision was incalculable human suffering that extends to the present day. 

A modest proposal for good

Gather the family and watch the PBS documentary called The American Revolution. Talk about it and debate its meaning. History however you take it teaches. We are a culture who once again needs a teacher. You will find yourselves asking one another who in the 21st century is the patriot and who are the loyalists? Are we turning our backs on the Revolution as we cater to an authoritarian government? Is the Constitution the dynamic instrument of democratic governance or simply becoming one more artifact ready for the Smithsonian? The debate itself would be but a word of warning to the adults who might be facilitating this conversation; your children might be able to see the truth of this debate more clearly than you. That also would be good.