Mark Twain is credited with a quote that goes something like this: "History may not repeat itself but it does rhyme." It seems that every time in our history we needed great people to step up, they did. The fire service has been blessed with people stepping up, whether it was folks like Benjamin Franklin in the early days; Chief Croker at the turn of the century; or Chiefs Brunacini, Stapleton, and Coleman in our day. These firefighters found solutions to the vexing problems of their day. Sometimes their thoughts threatened the status quo, but nonetheless all of these men held their principles far above their popularity.
And as is often the case with history, we sometimes forget these great ones and the sacrifices they were willing to make for us with the passage of time. Take, for example, "the Loyal Nine." You may not know who these men were, but if you're an American, you owe your American way of life to their courage and sacrifice. Their amazing story is related to an unfair and unwanted tax that met with tremendous resistance from the people beginning in 1765.
The tax was called the Stamp Act, and the reason the folks in the colonies were so upset by it was that they had no say in how those taxes were raised or how that money would be spent. The tax required that anything printed in the colonies be printed on paper carrying a stamp produced in London-thus, the name the Stamp Act. The money from this tax was redistributed to pay for troops that the British stationed in the colonies. The folks in the colonies did not feel the troops were needed, and at first they petitioned vigorously to have the tax revoked.
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