A brave female athlete just took a stand against males participating in women’s sports. Stephanie Turner was competing in a fencing competition in Maryland last weekend and chose to forfeit a match against a male opponent who claimed to be a transgender woman. Because of her actions, Stephanie was disqualified and kicked out of the competition. She paid a price for standing up for her beliefs, but she should be a role model for all of us. The only way women’s sports will ever be protected from male competitors is when the women athletes refuse to participate against them.

Some pundits have called her action this era’s Rosa Parks moment. That is an apt comparison, but when we reflect on where our society is today, there is a better comparison. She showed the same willingness to use civil disobedience against tyranny being forced upon her that Samuel Adams did before the Revolutionary War.

You might not be familiar with the story of Sam Adams, other than his name being used on a popular beer from Boston Brewing Company. Sam is the less famous of the two Adamses from Boston who were prominent during the Revolutionary War era. John and Samuel Adams were cousins of about the same age who lived in Boston before the war started. While not wealthy men, both were successful and prominent in the community. What set them apart was how they chose to face the challenges of unfair British taxation.

The pre-revolutionary era was a tumultuous time in this country’s history, similar in some ways to today. The people were unhappy with the English government’s unequal treatment of the colonies. Just as we talk about two systems of justice in Joe Biden’s America, the English government was accused of similar inequalities.

However, some Alaskans have taken a cue from Sam Adams and started acting outside the regular political channels.

There were two schools of thought about the best way to fight back against excessive taxes, and the Adams cousins epitomized each.

Because of his career as a lawyer, John Adams believed in the established English system of government. He preferred working within the system and distrusted people arguing for independence from Great Britain, believing these ideas were radical and non-productive. In the years before the war, John Adams did not support separating from England and was a late convert to the independence movement. Today, when talking about his early pre-war beliefs, we would probably describe him as a RINO.

Samuel Adams was just the opposite. He was an outspoken political activist in print and in person. He favored independence and was a vocal critic of British tax policies. Sam Adams tried to work against the establishment using civil disobedience as a tool. He did this by pressuring Boston merchants and consumers to boycott British products and organizing public protests. He was also a member of the Sons of Liberty and participated when they protested by tossing British tea into the harbor at the Boston Tea Party. He was so impactful that some historians have said there would have been no revolution without Samuel Adams.

They had very different ideas on how to resolve the disputes leading to the Revolutionary War.

We see the same division of ideas in our society today. Many people in Alaska are currently from the John Adams school. They believe our current political situation can be fixed by acting within the system. One example is Alaskans who continue to elect the same old RINO politicians in the hope that they will eventually act like conservatives. That never happens because no matter what they tell you, politicians like state Senator Gary Stevens and Senator Lisa Murkowski are leftists to the core. They are who they are, and we are foolish to expect anything different from them.

However, some Alaskans have taken a cue from Sam Adams and started acting outside the regular political channels. People who belong to the Alaskans for Grand Jury Rights movement in Kenai and those up in the Mat-Su valley, leading the initiative to repeal RCV, are firmly in the Samuel Adams camp. These individuals recognize that our freedoms are at stake, and we aren’t going to get change unless we stand united and work toward a common goal.

The brave fencer Stephanie Turner should be an inspiration to all of us. She refused to participate in a competition she knew was rigged against her. Without competitors, no women’s sporting event can be contested, and without our approval, no politician can hold office. So, what’s it going to be? Will you start to act like John Adams or Samuel Adams?

The views expressed here are those of Greg Sarber. Read more Sarber posts at his Seward’s Folly substack.

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