You say you didn't compare "them to animals". I don't know whether this means you believe the current rioters and thugs beating people in the streets as animals or whether they are not, or you're saying you didn't compare the Boston Tea Party (Sons of Liberty) to the current protesters.
You are in fact trying to compare the Tea Party actions to those of today's rioters by asking this over and over. But I don't mind your line of questioning, because my values don't change depending on who asks them or current events. I am steadfast in my principles.
So. Was it OK, in my opinion, that the Tea Party broke the law and stormed American owned ships to protest the signing of the bill? I am not sure. I am an ardent supporter in using violence ONLY as a means to protect my family and what is mine. War should be the answer once all other alternatives are exhausted. I cannot say, having not lived in that time and only having the knowledge that historians have bestowed upon me, whether all other options were exhausted or not.
Not sure if you ever saw the movie The Patriot. But there is an interesting similarity here when Benjamin Martin (played by Mel Gibson) is speaking in Charleston at the gathering of whether Virginia will "vote the levy" and cast its intent to secede with other states. He is concerned about his family and what war will do to the innocent (having been through it already in the French and Indian war a few decades earlier) and he says "I will not fight. And because I will not fight I will not cast a vote that will send others to fight in my stead." He clearly is for what the vote supports, but believes at the time that violence is not the solution. When asked about his principles, he says "I am a parent, sir. I haven't the luxury of principles."
Later in the movie, of course, when presented with no alternative, he eventually gets into the fight when his son is murdered. I like to believe my philosophy is similar. But it is hard for me to make the call as to whether the decisions by the Sons of Liberty were indeed correct from the perspective of my armchair and computer 250 years later.
To be clear, however, the current riots and thuggery let loose on the country right now is nothing like the Tea Party and the Sons of Liberty. The only similarity is that violence was used. That isn't nearly enough to bring equivalency.
