[Peace-discuss] tea parties miss the boat

Wed Apr 15 17:50:37 CDT 2009

I did see Mort there with the flyers that had some good information.

I actually did not hear any remarks that I would call racist.

I did hear some attacks on Obama and on Acorn, most of which were 
unfortunate as well as unedifying. 

I heard the organizer say also that he really didn't like that sort of 
thing either.  But the organizer, who invited me to speak, did not 
provide me with
any restrictions or guidelines either.  It was left up to me to decide 
what to say and consider what would resonate with the
audience and also move them toward some introspection and contemplation. 

I heard some in the audience remark that McCain would have been at least 
as bad a choice for President as Mr. Obama, and they were about as 
unimpressed with the partisan Obama-bashing as they are with Mr. Obama 
himself.  One of the Leno-esque remarks about Obama was fairly clever 
and did get a chuckle from me but I can't recall it now.

Ricky's observation that it was "Libertarian nutjobs" (emphasizing the 
capital "L") holding the event is incorrect.
There were a couple of active local Libertarians there and a couple of 
out of town students who identified themselves as Libertarian,
but none of those were among the actual organizers. 

Kevin Waite, the organizer, identifies himself as a Constitutionalist, 
and one of the speakers was Randy Stufflebeam, who is the director of 
the Illinois Constitution Party.  The
Constitution Party was originally called the USTaxpayer's Party, and 
considers itself neither liberal nor conservative, but most of us would 
identify
most of the members of the Constitution party as traditional 
conservative.  The Constitution party is pro-defense but anti war and 
opposes
the war in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan. 

The Libertarian Party is not opposed to abortion while the Constitution 
Party is 100% pro-life.  Constitution Party members tend to be Christian 
and church-goers.

There were a variety of Republicans there ranging from RonPaulers to 
paleocons, not many  neocons,  very few of the mainline GOPers other 
than a few who stopped by
to take pictures and then vanished.  Some indicated they were followers 
of Glenn Beck and some sported signs with Glenn Beck slogans.

There were people there from Champaign and Urbana, as far away south as 
Charleston and Arthur, and as far north as Iroquois county.

***
Here is an excerpt from my comments- full text of my "notes" is at 
http://www.liberty4urbana.com/drupal-6.8/node/172

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect 
Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the 
common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of 
Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this 
Constitution for the United States of America.

Rather than a more perfect Union, we have inherited a monstrous Federal 
government that is insinuating itself into every aspect of our personal 
and private lives.

Rather than the establishment of Justice, we have 2 million of our 
fellow citizens incarcerated behind bars.  The legal-justice-prison 
industrial complex has become an out-of-control monster.  Justice is 
perverted for profit, job creation, and the accretion of political 
favour, at tremendous cost.

Rather that the insurance of domestic Tranquillity, we have embarked 
upon the establishment of a police state at home and often unreasonable 
surveillance and monitoring of our fellow citizens. 

In the name of common Defence, we have embarked upon the insanity of 
world-wide empire-building that drains our economy and constantly puts 
us all at risk. 

Instead of promoting the general Welfare, we have allowed an oligarchy 
of elitists to plunder our treasury, debase our currency, export our 
jobs, destroy our state and national sovereignty and erode the very 
structure of our society by destroying its basic unit, the family.  
Welfare has come to mean handouts and redistribution of income.  Indeed 
the sharing of our wealth is a good thing, but we need to provide to one 
another the opportunity and the obligation to be productive.  That is 
the right to life, the right to a future.  We have killed by Abortion -- 
50 million  not quite 4000 per day. Can you hear their voices, "I am a 
person too.  My life means something!"

Rather than securing the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our 
posterity, our governments are robbing us of our liberties and our 
properties and are taxing us and our future generations into a life of 
perpetual servitude.  The government established to protect us has 
brought us the Military industrial complex, Medical pharmaceutical 
industrial complex, Education industrial complex, Entitlements we cannot 
pay, Ponzi schemes beyond the imagination, and  under the table, behind 
the curtain, in dark corners,--- theft, and fraud.  Why do they do it?  
Because they can.

Morton K. Brussel wrote:
> Good work, Ricky.
>
> I attended the Champaign Tea paryty with a little flyer put out by 
> AfterDowning Street.org which I displayed walking around, and which 
> pointed out that over 50% of the income tax dollar are military costs 
> and that there is a huge bailout to the banks. People there were 
> interested, surprisingly. I had many questions and positive nods 
>  while I walked around. One comes to the conclusion that many are just 
> confused about hy they may be suffering, and are vulnerable to 
> "fundamentalism" just like elsewhere in the world. 
>
> On the other hand there was a lot of ignorant and hateful speech, 
> absolutely scurrilous and racist  from the podium.  "Patriotism" was 
> the order of the day, flags a-flying.  Of course, this "Tea Party" has 
> its origins on the far right, so what does one expect? Wayne Johnson 
> was there to give a speech, but I couldn't stay to hear what he had to 
> say; I hope it showed the costs of our wars. 
>
> Too bad more didn't show up to show what's behind our budget.
>
>
> On Apr 15, 2009, at 3:34 PM, Ricky Baldwin wrote:
>
>> My 2c...
>>
>> http://theclayeater.blogspot.com/2009/04/missing-boat.html
>>  
>> Ricky
>>
>> "Speak your mind even if your voice shakes." - Maggie Kuhn
>>
>>
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