". . . I give you the fair-minded American patriot Josiah Quincy of Boston. In the 1760's he boldly opposed the British occupation, but when a mob of Bostonians tormented British troops into shooting some of them -- the Boston Massacre, it was called -- and the troops were charged with murder, he and John Adams defended the redcoats and saved their lives. Remember when American leaders did things like that? The country [at that time] wasn't just threatened by jackleg terrorists, it was occupied by an army, and yet people like Quincy and Adams felt strong enough to focus on due process -- to resist the occupation but still identify with the occupiers as people. Those were the days."
-- Roy Blount, Jr., in Alphabet Juice
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