THE ELEVENTH HOUR
As is so often the case in modern-day America, it takes a rattling and thrashing at our very door to get us up off the couch. September 11th, 2001, was a good example. The most graphic example of an "in-your-face" wake-up call in recent history, it provided an expensive rallying cry for Americans. We were united, even the smallest American flag was unavailable, scooped off of shelves in the manic aftermath of that dreadful day, by people reaching out for anything, for a way to give the country a hug.
So, as the scent of tea wafted across the land on April 15th, otherwise known as Wednesday, it was refreshing to see so many regular folks taking to the streets to air their exasperation. I have written here before of my amazement at so many "cause-of-the-day" groups, and their ability to rally thousands of people at the drop of a hat. The Gay-Rights groups, PETA, you name it. Think "Extreme Networking". Even the call to people to show support for tougher laws protecting our children seems to fall on deaf ears. However, make too frequent, or too deep, a grab at the average American's wallet, and I guess all Hell will break loose. Better late than never. Better the eleventh hour, than no hour at all.
And it is a sensible complaint. Finally, decades too late, the faces of America are making themselves known. Not the new faces we have been led to believe overwhelmingly comprise our population, but the types of faces that most of us have grown up seeing our entire lives. Working people. Many, if asked five years ago, if they could ever imagine themselves at any kind of protest, would have laughed. No time for that. I can't count the events, over the years, that I would have attended were it not for the demands of steady income. I suspect that many who attended these "Tea Parties" may have been recently unencumbered of the need to be at a job somewhere. Many more, I suspect, considered it more important to air their views.
It is reassuring, in some back-handed kind of way, to see these folks waving signs and stomping their feet. In nearly every major city across the country, and many small towns as well, people marched in the streets, demanding change. They are correct in their fears. In just 90 days the current administration has quadrupled our national debt. We have created a legacy of debt, the manifestation of unbridled corruption and greed, to hand down to our children and grandchildren. It leaves no room for whatever national or international emergencies that may arise between now and forever. For every American who took to the streets on Wednesday, at the very least, you can tell your heirs that you tried. That you didn't just leave your head in the sand...that you finally stopped assuming someone else would fix it...that in a moment of clarity, you decided to take action.
We can also be grateful for the unintended consequence of the national Tea Party. Anyone on the planet who may have had any remaining doubt regarding the flagrant bias of the overwhelmingly liberal media in this country, should be able to put that argument to rest. Rumors are reported as fact, innuendo reported as theory. Fox News orchestrated the Tea Party? Laughable. The "hard-right" are a bunch of Timothy McVeigh's, waiting to blow up buildings, using their election loss as a foundation for some kind of military coup? It is remarkable isn't it? All the protests under President Bush, over the war, over the NSA, over everything, basically, touted by the press then as being "patriotic dissent". Now? Not patriotism this time, just a bunch of conservative nuts.
Most fascinating about the news coverage of this event, is that not a single reporter from anywhere besides Fox considered the crazy possibility that maybe...just maybe...people are just simply fed up. Working families clipping coupons to buy groceries, forgoing simple pleasures like movies with the kids or pizza night, while our government spends us into oblivion, not only showing no restraint, but a recklessness that is truly frightening. Bending over backwards to give our earned money to non-citizens who do nothing but take from this country. No longer happy with 40% of our paycheck, they want more than half now. They tease us with the idea of a $400.00 tax rebate, while legislating the death and estate taxes in such a way that most people will lose everything they've worked their lives for when they die. Hand it down to your children? I don't think so. Uncle Sam needs it to buy shoes for the Juarez family.
Note to CNN, MSNBC, NBC, ABC and all the others. See ya later. This wasn't a one-day stand. It's the beginning of something bigger, I believe. People are realizing that we are no longer free, and we have an administration that wants to take away what little is left. Working half of every week for the government, is not freedom. It's not even close. And it certainly is not what our forefathers had in mind. Thomas Jefferson, I suspect, took a brief respite from spinning in his grave, to smile just a bit, no doubt flattered that all these years later, the scent of tea was in the air, once again.
Karl From New Hampshire