Alabama Tea Party Voices - Who We Really Are
by Retired USAF Colonel Woody Snell
Pelosi calls TEA Party "Astro-Turf" |
It is more than bothersome that Nancy Pelosi and other members of the current House of Representatives have attempted to paint the TEA Party movement as racist or somehow affiliated with a Nazi movement. Aided by major media, this false portrayal of the TEA Party and its members has gained traction in some areas. This is written for those who are unsure about why TEA Party members continue their passionate efforts and exactly why they came together as a movement.
On the racism issue, I can report firsthand that I have been to numerous local Tea Party meetings and, had there been even one person who tried to make a racist statement, carry a racist sign or even hint at being a racist, that person would have been denounced on the spot. Pelosi likes to comment about people at Tea Party meetings wearing Nazi swastikas and spewing hate; a weak attempt to discredit a very real and honorable movement in this country.
The TEA Party movement has no race, no political party nor any religious denomination. It is made up primarily of political conservatives (including both major political parties and a large independent contingent), people from all walks of life who recognize that our nation was founded by people who leaned heavily upon religion and who want this nation to return to it's founding roots to save the nation from the destructive avenue they feel the current administration is pursuing. They are people who voted both ways in the last election; those who voted for the current President lament that mistake, recognizing that he has confiscated banks, major auto companies, and has taken other actions detrimental to our nation which I won't go into here. Members want less government in a time when the President and his runaway Congress are expanding it, tax cuts in a time when they are moving in the opposite direction, and advocacy of individual responsibility and freedom in a time when our government moves to take those away. The "TEA" in "TEA Party" stands for "taxed enough already" and members want to see a reversal in both government growth and spending.
The TEA Party Movement |
TEA Party members know that what has made this country economically great was not it's government. It has been individual imagination, entrepreneurship, and risk taking to build the best small businesses, medium sized businesses and huge corporations in the world, not to mention the strongest military in the world to preserve all that. As TEA Party members see those American strengths being eroded daily, they have decided to fight back. They want this country to go back to the values which made it great and kept it great, values which have been lost in some areas of our country through the dumbing down of children in our school system, rewriting American history in their minds to discount the religious underpinnings and even discount the greatness of some of the leaders who made our way of life possible.
Most of all, TEA Party members want truth. This aspect is what scares the current administration the most. As they attempt to discredit what has made this country great, the last thing they need is for somebody to be exposing our actual history and the fact that individual freedom, responsibility and love of country can make us great again; and that includes belief in our God and His enduring involvement in our individual lives as well as our country's future.
We need to remember and embrace the sacrifices our Founding Fathers made to establish our form of government; if we do not stand up now for what they did for us back then, denouncing Socialist or Communist solutions for our country, we are lost as a nation and as a people (as has been the case with so many other countries in our world). The United States has been a great light to the world; we have been the hope for so many nations, including ourselves. To throw all that away now because there are those who are ashamed of the greatness of our national achievements and the hope we give to every citizen who wants to achieve (male, female, black, white or purple) is where we are. Those who work in the opposite direction either don't understand what it takes to make and keep our country great, or they don't want it to be great for whatever reason.
If you want to learn more about our local TEA Party effort, please go to www.wetumpkateaparty.com.
Woody Snell is a retired USAF Colonel who writes from Slapout, AL.
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