>Tamar, I'm sorry to have to ask this, but do you consider yourself a good student of American history??? This last sentence from you would strongly indicate otherwise

Yes, I do, and if you think my final sentence was wrong, then you're not a good student of American history. It took many years for most of our founding fathers to get to the point where they decided that they weren't going to be able to get what they wanted and remain English. If you recall, there was a whole series of petitions to the king and to Parliament for redress from grievances. It wasn't until they were turned down repeatedly that the Declaration of Independence was drafted.

Tamar