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April 20, 2009
Tea Bags and a Grey Wig in Tennessee
As regular readers know, I very seldom rely on other people’s reporting. Most reporters are lazy, or biased, or both, so you cannot trust what you read or watch from them. There are shining exceptions, and one of those is Michelle Malkin. Toward the end of this column I’ll cite two of her columns that cover much necessary background on the Tea Parties around the nation on April 15th.
In the meantime, let’s talk about white stockings, a grey wig, and a trip to Tennessee.
Last week I was asked to take part in the program of the Knoxville Tea Party this Wednesday. The invitation was not to me, technically. It was to my friend Ben Franklin. The photo accompanying this article shows how I was dressed when I arrived in Knoxville.
Here’s the opening:
My name is Ben Franklin.
I lie still, in Philadelphia.
These things I did in my day –
Captured lightning with a kite.
Wrote a successful Almanack.
Set up a Post Office that worked.
Signed the Declaration of Independence.
Coaxed a Treaty with France
that brought victory at Yorktown.
Engineered the Treaty with Britain
which ended the Revolution.
But most of all, persuaded 39 men
in Independence Hall to sign a document
that gave you, “A Republic, if you can keep it.”
I said only three lines about high taxes, which were the immediate issue bringing these people out to the Knoxville Tea Party, and to 500+ similar events across the country. Instead, I focused on the failure to read and obey the Constitution which opened the door for these trillion-dollar spending programs and trillion-dollar deficits.
There were several details that made this Tea Party unique among the many “political” rallies I’ve taken part in, in Washington and elsewhere. First was the fact that there was no single national organization which had sponsored this. Second, almost all of the people who put it together locally were political amateurs. Third, there were almost no pre-packaged, pre-printed signs. Almost all were hand-made and came from the heart. I was pleased to see that some signs actually mentioned the preserving the Constitution.
The entire two hour program was taped. I’ll put up a link to YouTube as soon as it’s available there.
Michelle Malkin, an excellent Internet reporter, has tracked down the origin of the Tea Party movement, in the actions of a Seattle housewife who decided that a rally in her home town against the excessive taxing and spending was a good idea. She made it happen. Then her rally was reported on the Internet. Then many others took up the cause. In all instances, local radio talk show hosts played a critical role.
As for what happened, and who was involved, and whether the rallies attacked fat-spending Republicans as well as Democrats, Michelle wrote that up, too. She lays out the facts, and in the process credits the two mainstream media reporters who got it right, and exposes the rest as, at best, too lazy to do their jobs.
In the immortal words of Thomas Jefferson about the American Revolution, “We have counted the cost of this contest, and find nothing so dreadful as voluntary slavery. Honor, justice and humanity forbid us tamely to surrender that heritage which we received from our gallant ancestors....”
I wrote that from memory because it’s also the opening words of Randall Thompson’s “Testament of Freedom,” which I’ve sung. I defy anyone who cares about this nation to hear that work and not have a catch in the throat and a tear in the eye. To read Jefferson’s words, as spoken in Congress, search on his first line.
I know to a moral certainty that the Tea Party movement is not over, it has barely begun. The ghosts of Sam Adams’ group of citizens, The Sons of Liberty, are with us. Read about the Tea Parties (the honest version). Enjoy what you read. Join us.
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor John Armor practiced law in the Supreme Court for 33 years. He now lives on the Eastern Continental Divide in the Blue Ridge of North Carolina. Contact him at John_Armor@aya.yale.edu.
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