Journal entry 25: June 5th 2120
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In history class today we learned about the original Daughters of Liberty, and the original Minutemen. On 24 these groups are often just limited to the terrorists who are sometimes allies, but it turns out the original groups during the revolution were pretty cool. The original Daughters of Liberty were a patriotic group. They were often the ones who bought the household goods so they enforced the boycott against british goods, made sure their patriot husbands kept true to their word. During the war they helped stitch up clothing for the patriot soldiers. During this war the minutemen were citizen militias. They had to be ready to fight at a minute's notice, hence their nickname. The were pretty democratic, electing their own leaders. I wonder how they'd feel about their name being used by anti-immigrant groups. Then again, there were minutemen militias during the french and indian war. Perhaps they didn't like their name being used by those who they considered to be traitors to the king. Other groups have attempted to use that name. In the 1860s a seccessionist group in Missouri, a union state, tried to sieze the local arsenal. They were defeated, and arrested. The governor, still trying to keep some semblance of peace, offered these individuals amnesty if they would take an oath to never again take up arms against the federal government. Some stood by their oath, others went south to hook up with the confederate army. In the 1950s and 60s the Minutemen were a fanatically anti-communist group. They stockpiled weapons because they believed a soviet invasion was inevitable and they could then mount a core of resistance. Several leaders were arrested for conspiracy to rob a bank. In the early 21st century two different groups called themselves Minutemen. Both were known for their anti-immigrant views. One was moderate, they monitored the border with Mexico and reported undocumented people and migrant workers who crossed the border. They didn't engage in violence and expelled those who waved the nazi swastika. The other group was much more extreme, they waved the swastika and openly declared their hatred of all foreigners. And today, it seems that the title of Minutemen has once again been taken my extremists, which is a pity, given what the original minutemen did for this country.