… arbitrarily angry ass people are not what I have in mind. I won’t go into detail about what I KNOW tea baggers are, but let’s just say it ain’t got nothing to do with no damn politics, OK?
The sentiment of tea baggers everywhere.
So, anyway, all over the country, clusters of people unhappy with the POTUS and Congress’ fiscal decision have formed “tea parties” in honor of the Boston Tea Party where people threw tea into the Boston Harbor in 1773 in protest of the British government. (Mmhmm, I wasn’t just passing notes in Mr. Kemp’s U.S. History-Honors class)
So, because these modern day protesters can’t very well toss sick and poor people into anybody’s harbor legally, so they have been holding symbolic tea parties, some going as far as to decorate signs and head gear with actual tea bags. Hey, I’m all about protesting the things you’re against. I’m all for exercising your rights to freedom of speech and the right to peaceably assemble, but some of these tea parties and tea baggers have gotten out of hand.
You guys have seen/heard me discuss Twitter here before. My time line boasts some of the funniest, smartest, most intelligent, thought-provoking Tweets on Twitter. So, simply put, my timeline > than yours. Anyway, the events of the last two weeks, mainly health care reform, has pissed off the tea baggers to the highest level of pisstivity.
**Side note** Can we call them something else? When I say tea baggers, my mind just goes to the wrong place. I can’t call them “tea party people” because then they sound like they’re cool and they’re characters in “Alice in Wonderland.” And when I hear “tea party” I think little girls in frilly dresses with tea sets and dolls and miniature tables and chairs.
Anyway, I follow radio talk show host Claudia Jordan on Twitter. She said Sunday morning in two Tweets, “be for or against this Health Care Bill-but using words like “N*gger & F*ggot” should be kept out of this discussion-cause now we just–question your REAL motive. Keep this about the issue & NOT about the fact you oppose ANYTHING our Black President does. Calm down”
Jordan was referencing the fact that prominent U.S. Representatives were attacked with racial and homophobic epithets and spat upon for voting to make the first step toward securing adequate health care for Americans everywhere. Because the Liptonites (Get it? Lipton tea?) are angry and they haven’t been getting their way, their protesting and freedom of speech has turned to venomous hate language for absolutely no reason at all.
I agree with Jordan, if you disagree with the vote, disagree. Write a letter. A blog post. Call your congressman. Call the congressmen who voted a different way. Why are the epithets and spitting necessary? This behavior is not only vile and disgusting, it’s shameful. One congressman said he hadn’t endured such behavior since he was marching for Civil Rights in the 1960s.
If that’s not enough, there are even fools actually calling for the President’s assassination. One fool in particular, on Twitter, said that if he lived in Washington, D.C., “I’d shoot him myself.” Folks are all up in arms, as they should be, about this fools comments that he says were made in the heat of the moment. He claims that he said that foolishness at a time when his emotions were running high.
*blank face*
And, in case you didn’t click the link, the fool in question is black. Now, I’m not surprised that he said these things, because let’s face it, bat shit crazy people come in every color of the rainbow. I think I’m surprised at the aggression in his Tweets. I’m not naive, I know people grow ginormous balls when they are sitting in front of a computer screen, but this is the POTUS! Any threat made against him will be treated as real.
This crazy man’s Tweets and the Liptonites’ comments and signs are simply a side effect of free speech. The First Amendment guarantees the freedoms of speech, religion, the press, the right to peaceably assemble and to petition the government. I think the initial goal of the tea parties was to say what they had to say in peaceful assemblies, but like everything touched by humans, it got flawed.
The tea parties have become over run with bigots looking to incite fear to push their own agendas. It’s sad really. I don’t think this bastardization (yea, I made it up) of the First Amendment is what the founding fathers had in mind when they wrote the Bill of Rights. As a journalist and blogger, I’m all for free speech, but let’s be responsible about it. The kind of behavior displayed by these extreme protesters is nasty. It’s deplorable and it’s Un-American. Whether or not you agree with the POTUS and our lawmakers, it is our job to support them the same as we support the troops in these two totally senseless wars that Bush 43 started.
Now, let’s move forward and have some DISCOURSE and not just spewing of racist, homophobic ideology because you don’t have a counterpoint or a real reason for opposition. Do your research and come back with some facts that can be discussed and debated and not shouted at people like you’re in a high school cafeteria.
So, last weekend, I went to a dinner party, nearly all of the attendees use Twitter. There was more conversation going on via Twitter than in the room. I mean, what is up with that? Everyone you were talking to on Twitter was in the room, yet, they (we) were communicating through a social networking site. Is this what we’ve become? Is this what technology has done to us?
All this technology has afforded me the opportunity to better keep in touch with friends from high school, college and former jobs who are now spread about the far corners of the world. It’s also given me a chance to come in contact with some awesome people who also happen to blog. (Shouts out to the NYC delegation!)
