The majority of the time I hear the word party I associate it with something pleasant. I try to forget about the political assignments, instead looking forward to hearing about people getting together for fun and enjoyment. Not to be naive about it all, I fully understand that most words in the English language have multiple meanings and uses. It's easier to just make the same word mean different things rather than think of a new word. That's the beauty of this language that we speak here in America. A combination of slang, shortcuts, standard and substandard English, ours is a language that begs for it's own definition and isn't easily contained in one or two concise dictionaries. I always joke that what we speak in America isn't English but rather our own language, American. We speak AMERICAN. Why not?
Really, why not say we speak American? If we can ruin all of the ideals of the word party through various assignments to groups that are anything but "party-like" then why not say we speak American? I'm not going to be lobbying to change what we call the language spoken by Americans. On the contrary, whatever we end up calling it is really irrelevant as long as we can use it to communicate our messages but I digress. I really want to talk about parties.
Most people who have attended and graduated from secondary schools in America are aware that throughout the history of this great land there have been many parties, some more famous than others. Our government has chosen to divide itself into two major parties, Republicans and Democrats, and a few more minor parties. Within those parties there are other parties. We have Liberals, Conservatives, Left-Wing, Right-Wing, Nationalists, Independents, Peoples and the revival of an old name with a new agenda, the Tea Party. I think it's ironic that an event thought to be significant in the history of America, the Boston Tea Party, would be the party that this new fangled Tea Party is supposed to be fashioned after. Oh, the similiarities are there to be had. It's a party that's expressing it's discontent with the current state of affairs and wanting to call attention to what the party believes are slights and wrong directions. The members of the party appear to be Americans or at least people who have the interest of this land we live on at heart. I'm sure there are other similiarities but I'm hardpressed to find them and quite frankly, based on some of the antics coming from this generations Tea Party, don't really give a damn to find any more. But that's my perogative.
The Boston Tea Party was protesting the overrule of Britain and the way that Britain was systematically milking the hard earned monies from the people through high prices and even higher rates of taxation. This created hardship for folks living in America. Hardships that meant being able to enjoy living in the new land an all but false reality. My intention is not to linger in details of the Boston Tea Party because if you want a refresher on that time in history, go to the library or look it up online. We know from accounts that the folks got angry, went to the harbor, took the tea and other products from the docks and boats and dumped them in the harbor. If there were no goods to be sold there would be no taxes to be collected and the fatcats back in Britain wouldn't get anymore of the hard earned monies from folks in America. Some might say that was a noble cause and that it showed Britain and the Royals that America wasn't going to standby and be taken advantage of. Nope, America was aching to have a say in how things were going to be run from then on.
History notes all of the events that occurred after that. The Colonies eventually ended up going to WAR with Britain to break away from the tyranny and taxation. America became fully independent and set about to create it's own constitution wrought full of promises for every man, woman and child. America would be different than Britain; America would treat it's citizens right, give them a say in governance and make sure that everybody had the right to "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness". Yeah, America was on her way to where we are today. A land in the midst of turmoil once again.
Yeah, here we are again. What's creating the turmoil of this generation? Why is there a need for another "Tea Party" in a land where the very constitution that was created to eliminate the reasons a Boston Tea Party occurred in the first place? You can put money on the fact that it's not just about healthcare reform. It's about fear, about not being able to handle living under the directives of the constitution that was designed to manage this country years ago by the founding fathers. The sway of power and economic might coupled with people all clamoring to have their piece of the pie so eloquently written about in that greatest of documents, the constitution bouyed by the Declaration of Independence written earlier. Many people have heard the phrases taken from the context of those documents. "We the people", "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness", "The right to keep and bear arms", "All men are created equal", "Freedom of speech", "UnAlienable rights", etc, etc, etc. Mighty lofty terms born of the emotions surrounding becoming it's own land, much like when a child moves from their parents home into a home of their own, "things are going to be different because I'm gonna do them MY way". Okay, good luck with that; let's see what reality has to say about that.
It's too hard to live up to those expectations when they become reality. As long as everything is going the way we want it to, everything is fine. The minute a change is required, a new direction we didn't see coming is to be taken, an idea we didn't think of starts to develop, it becomes uncomfortable. Things get scary. We don't know what the pecking order will be, what our place at the table will hold and how the stakes will be divided. Worry sets in. Will our piece of the pie be as big as it once was? Will we get our share? Will we be relegated to the miserly pickings we once handed out to others? Will our existence have been for not? Our labor easily forgotten? What will become of us if the bearings of the Declaration of Independence and of the Constitution are followed? We've been bought out be another company and we don't know who they are gonna keep and who they are gonna let go. Am I getting a "pink slip" today?
So the Tea Party is formed to talk about the current events. Not a bad idea. Why not come together and discuss, intelligently, rationally and fairly the events that are occurring and about to occur in America? That makes sense. This is a land full of intelligent people. We have history to look back on to guide us as we move forward. If we sense a loss of direction we have only to look to our founding documents....wait, no, let's not do that. No, those documents are the cause of all of this anyway. If it wasn't for those documents that our country is founded on, the minority wouldn't have a place at the table. The weak would still be downtrodden and the poor left out in the cold. There wouldn't be a change in powerplayers and the status quo would still be going on as before. Those damn founding documents. They are the cause of all of this commotion. Look what they have wrought. A House and Senate where rules and respect have gone by the way; decorum is no longer a standard that can be confidently expected. Name calling, rudeness, deliberately trying to stall and derail progress simply because it can be done. Leaders, or so called leaders, elected to positions to serve as representations of Americans everywhere, seem only intent on serving a few select with a few select ideas. Not every American is being represented fairly.
The Tea Party represents a group who feel they have been slighted and are being "taxed" unwantingly. The illusion that the Tea Party is all about fighting healthcare reform is supported by the media and has grown like weeds in the rough. The Tea Party is more interested in protecting the status quo; keeping things the way they were. Why look out for our fellow man? What do we need reforms for anyway? Why should government intervene and try to control what hasn't been controlled? This is a great land built on capitalism, entrust the future to those who have worked so hard to all but bankrupt us so far. Let the greedy keep dictating which direction we go. Let them run their companies...yep, run them right overseas and close down the factories and businesses we need right here in America. Allow them to profit from the misfortunes of the many and give extraordinarily to the few. Close our eyes to the suffering of children here in this great land. Turn our backs on those who somehow haven't found a way to achieve the American dream as it's expressed in the Declaration and the Constitution. Forget that we've had hundreds of years to do better and we haven't. Who wants to heal this nation anyway? "Them" people should stay over there to 'themselves" and "us" people will stay over here to "us-selves". (YES, I KNOW WHAT I JUST WROTE, FOCUS HERE, FOCUS ha ha ha)
I understand. Really, I do. Nobody wants to give up their position at the top of the hill no matter how they came to be at the top of the hill. I get it. I'm sure most Americans get it too. Healthcare reform is just a symptom of the "flu bug" that has America ill. The Tea Party probably figures if they can get rid of the "symptom" nobody will really care to notice the sniffles and those who do care won't be allowed to be heard. Healthcare reform, maybe this particular revision is not the best it will be yet but it's a start down the right road to reforming the care of the health of America. That's what I think and I'm allowed to think freely, it says so in one of them there founding documents folks keep running from.
VH
3/2010
"An Original Musing"
