TEA Parties

Yes, I attended the Wichita Falls TEA Party, and my sign and comments were cited in the front page of the local paper. I guess that officially makes me a "right-wing extremist" according to the Department of Homeland Security. I consider it an honor. This may be the biggest risk I've ever taken, but it certainly does not even come close to the risk taken by our founders and made by ALL of our military personnel (including my father and grandfather who lived to tell and my great uncle who didn't) who fought to preserve our unalienable rights.

One nagging question in my mind though is "Why did we low-tax-supporting, freedom-loving citizens not rise up earlier?" These unconstitutional expenditures, and inevitable burdensome taxes, have been in place for decades even before my grandparents were born. Why rise up now? Well, the following excerpt from the Declaration of Independence helps explain it.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established (now 222 years) should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies (now States); and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.

I think of the frog-in-the-pot-of-boiling-water analogy. The frog (citizen) would never jump into a pot of boiling water (i.e. despotism, hard tyranny, communism, fascism, etc.), but it would jump into a pot of luke-warm water (constitutional republic). As the heat is applied and the water slowly warms, the frog either doesn't notice or does so and likes it because it feels good like a hot tub (government education, unemployment, welfare, healthcare, retirement, etc.) which soothes and relaxes after a hard day. A little while longer, the frog gets addicted to the warm water because its really cold out there in the real world. Eventually, the water is boiling, and the frog becomes a tasty meal for the cook (government).

A few local responses to our TEA Party lamented our grievances saying "What about the military? Money from bases comes into the community." or "What about education? Who else will pay for it?" The answer to the military is simple: we have no problem with the military or its funding because it's constitutional and, at this time in the world, very necessary. The answer to education is simple too: we have no problem with public education at the state, county or city level, but at the federal level it is unconstitutional, and if we do have a problem with it, we have a better chance of changing it at the state, county or city level than we do at the federal level. We agree with the founders that the federal government serves the states primarily by guarding against foreign enemies and guaranteeing each state a republican form of government, and all other powers, such as education, should be left to the states and the people. We TEA partiers believe that this model has served us well, and we protest the discarding of it.

Our Declaration says it is our right and duty to throw off such oppressive government. We do not intend to do such a thing; we believe that there is still time to change it peacefully. I hope that it doesn't come to the point where we must do what our founders did. What is the last straw for America though?