Read my face. I am told that I’m a racist bigot for my political views on the state of the national economy and my voiced concerns regarding a “new kind of capitalism” being imposed by one party rule in Washington.
Hum… the new bigot best friend with one of the few men in my 1984 Ventura County Police and Sheriff’s Academy class, for whom I felt real brotherhood; Mike Gillespie, a black cadet. Last time I saw Gillespie he had tears in his eyes as we parted. I had a lump in my throat. But men of different races don’t feel that way for comrades in arms, do they? After all…
Media elites say that I must be a racist— I went to a Tea Party rally.
Look into my eyes. I am one of seven sons of a man who fought Nazi’s in WWII. I’m being called a Nazi now. (National Socialist Party of Germany, for those historically challenged.) I have written three bestselling WWII love stories with hero American men and women who hated Hitler and everything he stood for. I’ve never done the salute thing, but have placed my hand over my heart many times and teared up at the playing of the national anthem. Must be a Nazi…
I hung with people the media called, “members of the Tea Party.”
Get a good look at my devious mug. I am a man who has written other bestselling works on American culture and patriotism; and, oh yea…Christian themes too. I must hate Jesus though. I have trouble with the leftist militaristic redistributive “social justice gospel” thing I can’t find in the bible. I seem to favor heart-felt charity; doing good on my own and that kind of poppycock. Probably reading the wrong version. But I’m a bible reader so that means…
I probably am a member of the Tea Party.
Homeland Security defines me well. I am suspected of being a potential “domestic terrorist” for my use of words like “constitution” and “founding fathers” and “God” and “patriot.” Hope you aren’t watching me from the “other side” Dad. Don’t want to embarrass the family name and all you fought for. See, as a book title might suggest, my Dad is special. He is: DAD, The Man Who Lied to Save the Planet. Must be a domestic terrorist though, fighting against everything he stood for—
I might just be a member of the Tea Party.
Haven’t burned any trashcans on the public square yet…so I’m not real good at this protesting stuff. In fact, I’m embarrassed. Nearly 60 years old and I’d never done a protest in my life before April 15, 2009, though I witnessed many in the 1960’s. You know the kind; violent, loud, angry, flag burning, spitting on soldiers, trashing cars, setting fires; the kind draft-dodger Bill Clinton and close Obama friend and advisor, SDS leader Bill Ayers of Pentagon bombing fame, were participants in. I didn’t learn a darn thing from those experts… BUT, there is hope.
I can learn to protest. I am a Tea Party member.
No organization existed when my “army of one” showed up that day in 2009 to a local unstructured town rally. No one invited me. I just kicked my own lazy rear out of a comfortable redneck, racist office suite and went. It wasn’t a comfortable thing to do. I value dignity. Don’t like holding up signs or shouting at buildings or cars whizzing by honking horns in support of my thoughts.
Not sure how I evolved into this; an angry word-hack who goes to courthouses to listen to people say terrible things about government leaders who, after all, only want to redistribute our wealth, grow our taxes, nationalize our economy, and borrow more money from the Chinese to keep the ponzi scheme going. Because I’m angry, I am intolerant, but then…
Look at my face. I’m one of “them.”
A person who believes government’s role is not to regulate my life but to validate my rights; I’m a fallen man, part of a larger group of fallen people who look just like me. Ugh…
How did this happen? How did I become a member of this loosely knit group of Americans representing every demographic in something the media has dubbed “the Tea Party?”
Get a good look at the face. I’m not going away. I am coming back with more about my new friends, peaceful believers in freedoms promised in the U.S. Constitution.
James Michael Pratt is a New York Times bestselling novelist and non-fiction author of nine works , CEO of PowerThink Publishing, public speaker, and Founder of Reagan Revolution 2.