by RNH Nello

Created on: May 16, 2009   Last Updated: May 19, 2009

It's been interesting seeing what some have written about the 15 April 2009 Tea Party Protests that were held around the country. What I attended is not what so many described.

First, my community is not large, so the slightly more than 500 who attended was a pretty significant number. More over, being fairly active in my community I knew many of those who attended and can make several points about them.

First, this was not put together by either of the two major political parties. If there was any group who drove this local get together, it was the Campaign for Liberty which (I know all of the members of the local county group) is comprised of people of both major political parties, third parties, independents, and people of all ages. Attendees were just your local neighbors, friends, and even some relatives. There were no elected officials of either party. The only news representatives were four youth from a local high school newspaper.

Secondly, listening to people talk (both officially and in the crowd) the common interests were:

Concern over increasing taxes.

Concern over uncontrolled spending at both federal and State.

Disappointment, even anger at both major political parties.

Concern that Washington DC is not listening to the people.

Concern that the federal government is increasingly enacting socialist programs.

Beyond that there was no radical talk. Certainly there were a few people who wore home made costumes and there were home made signs (none that I saw which were professionally made). It was relaxed and people seemed to, for the most part, enjoy themselves.

Will it lead on to additional local demonstrations? Time will tell but listening to people talk subsequent to 15 April 2009 I would guess that there will be some coming events because those concerns seem to be growing.

What was surprising was the following the event news reports. During the next day or two I learned that those who attended were "Yahoo gun-toting goobers meeting in the woods" (from the columnist Leonard Pitts). I also learned what the term "tea bagging" means from the double entendre of Rachel Maddow talking with Ana Marie Cox. Of course there was also the statement of Janeane Garofalo who made the firm statement that the only ones attending were red neck racists who hate having a black man in the White House.

Certainly I have no way of proving the motivation for such inaccurate comments lacking even a modicum of research, but I have found in the past that when people make statements intending to demean people through the use of lies rather than address actual issues, it has been because they are in fear of the people they intend to demean. Of course it could well be that such illogical fear of others is valid in this case, because, if these individuals continue to meet and coalesce into fledgling political movements, it could be detrimental to those holding office (since they have been the primary cause of the current problems) and those who desire government actions to force people to act certain ways.

These tea protests may turn into real solid political movements directed at replacing current office holders with new people prepare to try and reduce the size of government.

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