Franklin Roosevelt said that “Nothing happens in politics by accident.” That sure was true of America’s independence, where people spoke out, got together, took action. Like Sam Adams, today known as the father of the American Revolution.

Don’t you wish we had people like old Sam living today? Well, we do. The Sam Adams Alliance is finding them and bringing them together to make government more accountable, to put citizens back in charge.

Now, at the end of its first year, the Alliance is recognizing some of these citizen leaders with awards dubbed The Sammies. For 2007:

• Ben Cunningham won a Sammie for his blog, Taxing Tennessee.
• Sal Costello won for best video satire with his film on Texas legislators turning highways into toll roads.
• Leon Drolet and the Michigan Taxpayers Alliance won for best video documentary, with their “Pig Protest” featuring a giant papier-mâché pink pig named Perks.
• Stephan Sharkansky won a Sammie for his work using open records to unearth government corruption, and informing the public on his Sound Politics blog.
• Working with Hoosiers for Fair Taxation, Melyssa Donaghy won the Tea Party award.
• And last, but certainly not least, Daniel Regenold and Jason Gloyd with Hamilton County, Ohio’s “We Demand” coalition, won the Modern-Day Sam Adams Award. They put a sales tax increase on the ballot and defeated it.

Many people know Sam Adams mainly as a very substantial beer. Now, here’s a toast to very substantial political activism!

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.