I AM The Tea Party

A person by the name of J. Ruben from MoveOn.Org posed a question to a Patriot friend of mine, who asked me to formulate a response. And this was my Response:

J. Ruben,

A friend of mine asked me to help you with this emotional turmoil that you find yourself in:

“Due to all of the negative press coverage of the Tea Party groups, I now find myself forming sympathetic emotions and wondering if they could truly be as demonic as they are being portrayed. After all, they are fellow Americans, even if somewhat misguided as to what’s best for the nation………How can I cope with these sympathetic feelings..?? What can you tell me about the Tea Party movement to help me..??”"

Your note reminded me of a Viet Cong defector who we interrogated. He defected because he found himself relating to the people to whom he had done horrendous things, and he was in anguish and in turmoil that probably lasted a lifetime.

I fear that you may have come in contact with the Red-White-And-Blue Flu; it is not typically curable.

Do we have our share of fringe people and groups? Absolutely! Just as the liberal community has devout communists and socialists and anti-Americans of all sorts.

But the vast majority of us are simply unhyphenated Red, White, and Blue Collar Americans just like you.

You ask: “What can you tell me about the Tea Party Movement to help….”

I sincerely would like to try to do that because I am the Tea Party.

I am one of too many kids of an Army sergeant who served in two wars for this country: Korea and Vietnam.

My mother came from less well off circumstances and gave to us all a reverence for God and a love of country.

My father gave us a sense of honor and taught us the value of hard work and commitment and the humble nobility of service to country.

My father’s job allowed us to live in many countries, and in each country, my father reminded us that we needed to learn the language, learn the history, learn and adapt to the local culture, and above all: “remember that you are a guest in someone else’s home, so ACT LIKE IT – Do NOT Bring Shame on your country.” These are the same values that all immigrant families once taught their children.

My siblings and I, each in our turn, left home soon (within days) after our respective graduations from high school; graduating high school was something my father had never done.

We had no trust funds and no scholarships and such to ease our way into the mainstream of life.

We each had a car and whatever belongings we could carry, a car that each of us had worked and paid for on our own.

But most importantly, we each had a strong sense of right and wrong and an understanding of the value of hard work.

I served two tours in Vietnam before I could vote or buy a beer but still managed, with the help of a wife of great courage and resolve, to raise three children (all of whom I am proud of.)

Like most Americans, I became engulfed in pursuing the American Dream and lost sight of what was happening to this country that I had fought and spilled blood for.

I lived the American Dream and am of the strong opinion that my children and their children will not know what that was.

I have lived in about two dozen countries, with my father as a child and with my children as a contractor to the likes of the Shah of Iran, the Saudi Arabian Royal Family, the military heads of Europe, and two American Presidents (Bush-One and Reagan-Two).

I have seen this country through the eyes of an outsider looking in. I have experienced moments of great pride in being able to declare myself an American.

In more recent times, I have experienced far more moments when I am almost ashamed to declare myself an American.

I marched for civil rights in the early ’60s and got my butt kicked in thanks. And I fought and spilled blood of friend and foe in Vietnam for the freedom of a grand and ancient people, only to be spit upon and refused a job in thanks from an ungrateful nation when I returned.

And I still managed to live the American Dream; I am the American Dream; I am the Tea Party!

Just forty-eight years ago on August 28th, Dr. Martin Luther King made his historic “I Have a Dream” speech; and like the tune of an old song that you just cannot get out of your head, nobody remembers the words.

Dr. King’s dream is the American dream, One Nation, Under God, unhyphenated, with justice and liberty for all – a dream that has been highjacked.

It has been replaced by a doctrine of entitlement, hammered into the people for whom the dream meant the most and cemented into place by the lowly hyphen.

What can I tell you about the Tea Party?

I can tell you that we are unhyphenated American Patriots of all races and creeds and religions who love this country for what it was, what it should be, and what we fervently believe it can be again: the beacon of Freedom, with Liberty, and Justice for all.

We have been called racists.

And exactly what race would that be? The black race because we have more objections against the current regime than we can list – a regime headed by a black man.

We preach the non-violence of Dr. King.

We promote candidates like Herman Cain.

We elect representatives like Allen West.

And we have leaders like Lloyd Marcus.

The charge is bogus, so you can forget that charge.

It is perpetuated by subtle things like the mainstream media showing only the Old White Guys at Tea Party gatherings and not the black, oriental, and Spanish faces at our gatherings. Actually, some of my friends and neighbors (yes they are from all the above demographics) feel terribly slighted.

We have been called ” Gun Nuts”.

It is true that more than a few of us own firearms; so do my REALLY BIG Democratic neighbors.
It is also true that some of us are ranchers and farmers; most of whom live on the land and own firearms.

And there are those of us who were raised with firearms like myself, and then there are others who never actually saw a firearm until they were asked to shoulder a weapon in defense of this nation and the freedom of people everywhere.

We are not “Gun Nuts”.

Most of us abhor the thought of violence, some because we have seen too much and some for more personal reasons.

This is also because most of us have read the history of this country and recall the words of our founding fathers like:

Firearms are second only to the Constitution in importance; they are the peoples’ liberty’s teeth. ~George Washington

And…

Men Trained in arms from their infancy, and animated by the love of liberty, will afford neither a cheap or easy conquest. (From the Declaration of the Continental Congress, July 1775)

As we watch the U.S. Constitution being eroded from both sides of the aisle, we pray that the re-establishment of our constitutional government need not be done in the same manner as was called for by our founding fathers.

We are not “Gun Nuts”.

We are freedom-loving citizens of what was once the greatest nation in the world, and we intend to stay that way and are committed to restoring The American Dream – not only for We The People, but for ALL the freedom-loving people of the world.

We have been called ” Religious Extremists”.

“Extreme” is one of those relative adjectives; and relative to those who attack us, we may well qualify as extremists.

It would be safe to say that the vast majority of We The People have one or more religious threads in our character, some more so than others. That would include the Protestants, Catholics, Jews, and others in our ranks.

The Marxist/Socialist doctrine is to supplant “God” with “State” or Government.

We are parents and grandparents and soon-to-be parents: generations of American Citizens who simply want to see a smaller and fiscally responsible government. We want our children to be able to pursue the American Dream: the opportunity to dream and succeed and the opportunity to try and to fail.

Opportunity. A word that was once synonymous with America.

We want representatives who represent We The People, people who serve out of a sense of duty and honor, not a bunch of shameless harlots who sell their favors to the highest bidders.

We want to be able to start businesses, create things, and profit from our inventions as the Constitution says we should.

I was a small business person for more than twenty years until the burden of taxes and government over-regulation forced us out of business.

My mother always told me that using foul language was what one did when they had nothing intelligent to say. Name-calling certainly qualifies as foul language.

The ever-increasing volume of offensive name-calling and race-baiting originating from the current regime and acts of violence and calls for more of the same by their supporters is that and nothing more – bad language; they have nothing intelligent to say.

And we are called ” Terrorists”.

Terrorist: A person who terrorizes or frightens others.

Of that charge, we may in fact be guilty.

If the groundswell of patriotism and demands that Congress and the Executive branch be reigned in to the parameters as defined in our Constitution terrorizes those who have worked so diligently to destroy this nation and strikes fear into their dark little hearts, then all I can say is: Thank God, and may God have mercy on their souls.

I am the Tea Party, J. Ruben.

And if you were to visit some of my friends in the heartland of this nation and spend some time with them (I’m thinking Nebraska, Iowa, Ohio, Idaho, and other places) and pull your head out of the swirl of the Toilet Politic for a few days, you might find out that you too may in fact be one of us: a Tea Party Patriot.

I hope that I have given you a clearer view of who We The People are, and you are welcome to be a part of us.

Simply attend a Tea Party function in your area; and if you do so with an open mind, you may find that you have in fact contracted a life-long case of the Red-White-And-Blue Flu.

If I can be of further assistance, please feel free to drop me a line.

Regards,

–
Darwin Rockantansky
Las Vegas, Nevada

Photo credit: formatted_dad (Creative Commons)