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I consider myself to be a fairly thoughtful and compassionate human being. So imagine my distress to discover, after reading various letters to the editor, that because I support the Tea Party Movement, I am an idiot regarding history, and so greedy with my tax dollars that nothing short of kicking kids and old ladies into the gutter will satiate my miserly soul. Apparently, I am a historically challenged Scrooge.
But here's the thing: I actually think I'm not Scrooge. I think I'm a pretty good kid with years of background on this subject matter. So, just for today, I'd like to pick up the baton and defend the movement and myself from these scurrilous attacks.
Let's start with the accusation that we “Partiers” will never be satisfied until all benefits for all citizens are wiped off the face of the map. Okay, that's just stupid. We're not against taxes, but we sure are against the obscene mishandling of our hard-earned dollars by those who do very little to earn theirs.
When someone like the millionaire Speaker of the House dismisses me as a member of the discontented elite, then it's clear the governors have lost contact with the governed.
To claim that I am nothing more than a wealthy malcontent is two things: 1.) so inaccurate that my H&R Block accountant would accuse me of perjury after she got done laughing, and 2.) arrogant beyond belief. I can't even find the words to convey how offensive a comment like that is to someone barely able to keep up with her bills.
This woman's Congress (certainly not my Congress) consumes my money on egregious “stimuli,” mortgaging our children's future in the process, and they can't even afford me the most basic level of respect while taking it. An entity like this cannot possibly represent me.
Next is the argument that the Partiers are nothing short of mentally defective when we compare our movement to the original Tea Party. We're told that we need to get it together, that the original Party was about “no taxation without representation,” and because our representatives in Congress are the ones voting for these (monsoon-size) taxes, the comparison doesn't apply and we should quit our bellyaching and sign up for a history class.
Like today, the Patriot Movement of the 18th century was not a majority cause. My favorite Founding Father, John Adams, estimated that only one-third of the American colonists supported independence in 1776. Without a doubt, today's is not a majority movement, either; however, then as now, it is surely a righteous one.
Finally, the critics are right, as far as they go, about the original Party being about taxation and representation, but they're not looking at the bigger picture. The big picture is that our founding fathers believed that the mother country had strayed dangerously off track from far greater and deeper principles — the principles of life, liberty and property (and do I really need to point out here that taxation is taking away property?).
The cry “taxation without representation” was the greatest symptom of an even greater concern: That the mother country had become an abuser, rather than a protector, of our most profound rights.
The revolutionaries felt that the mother country now threatened these fundamental values instead of harboring and defending them. Feeling this to our very core, we came to believe that we were the true protectors of English liberty. We had to become the torchbearers to preserve our nation. We had to fight the mother country in order to save her.
And so, I fight now, too.
I fight to be heard by a media and a Congress that belittles and disrespects me. I fight to stop the tentacles of an ever-expanding government encroaching on my rights under the insulting guise of taking care of me. I fight to remind people that there is such a thing as tyranny of the majority.
I fight my government, that I may save my country.
Vicki Fortini is a 14-year resident of Nevada County and a history instructor for 21 years. She has taught at Sierra College for the past 13 years.
But here's the thing: I actually think I'm not Scrooge. I think I'm a pretty good kid with years of background on this subject matter. So, just for today, I'd like to pick up the baton and defend the movement and myself from these scurrilous attacks.
Let's start with the accusation that we “Partiers” will never be satisfied until all benefits for all citizens are wiped off the face of the map. Okay, that's just stupid. We're not against taxes, but we sure are against the obscene mishandling of our hard-earned dollars by those who do very little to earn theirs.
When someone like the millionaire Speaker of the House dismisses me as a member of the discontented elite, then it's clear the governors have lost contact with the governed.
To claim that I am nothing more than a wealthy malcontent is two things: 1.) so inaccurate that my H&R Block accountant would accuse me of perjury after she got done laughing, and 2.) arrogant beyond belief. I can't even find the words to convey how offensive a comment like that is to someone barely able to keep up with her bills.
This woman's Congress (certainly not my Congress) consumes my money on egregious “stimuli,” mortgaging our children's future in the process, and they can't even afford me the most basic level of respect while taking it. An entity like this cannot possibly represent me.
Next is the argument that the Partiers are nothing short of mentally defective when we compare our movement to the original Tea Party. We're told that we need to get it together, that the original Party was about “no taxation without representation,” and because our representatives in Congress are the ones voting for these (monsoon-size) taxes, the comparison doesn't apply and we should quit our bellyaching and sign up for a history class.
Like today, the Patriot Movement of the 18th century was not a majority cause. My favorite Founding Father, John Adams, estimated that only one-third of the American colonists supported independence in 1776. Without a doubt, today's is not a majority movement, either; however, then as now, it is surely a righteous one.
Finally, the critics are right, as far as they go, about the original Party being about taxation and representation, but they're not looking at the bigger picture. The big picture is that our founding fathers believed that the mother country had strayed dangerously off track from far greater and deeper principles — the principles of life, liberty and property (and do I really need to point out here that taxation is taking away property?).
The cry “taxation without representation” was the greatest symptom of an even greater concern: That the mother country had become an abuser, rather than a protector, of our most profound rights.
The revolutionaries felt that the mother country now threatened these fundamental values instead of harboring and defending them. Feeling this to our very core, we came to believe that we were the true protectors of English liberty. We had to become the torchbearers to preserve our nation. We had to fight the mother country in order to save her.
And so, I fight now, too.
I fight to be heard by a media and a Congress that belittles and disrespects me. I fight to stop the tentacles of an ever-expanding government encroaching on my rights under the insulting guise of taking care of me. I fight to remind people that there is such a thing as tyranny of the majority.
I fight my government, that I may save my country.
Vicki Fortini is a 14-year resident of Nevada County and a history instructor for 21 years. She has taught at Sierra College for the past 13 years.
