Tea Party

Forenote (not sure if there's any such thing... there is now): I was told not to use capitals because it looks like I'm yelling. I am. Thanks for the tip. This gives my writing more feeling.

I'm sure that many of you know about the tea parties that went on; on April 15, tax day, people protested the fact that the government was irresponsible with money, and not just ANY money. OUR money. Both in the way they spend it and in the way they so freely take it from us. I had the privilege to join one of those tea parties.

We protested high and ever-increasing taxes.

We protested the stimulus bill. Taxation without deliberation is what we called it. Some people say, well, the stimulus bill is over and done with, so why protest? Well, if the government got away with it once, they'll think they can do it again. The idea that stimulus bills are okay will be kept alive. We, the people, said NO.

We dumped biodegradable tea in the bay, because just because we're resisting them doesn't mean that we won't be civil. I have a classmate who is the most liberal person you will ever see, besides Obama. He said, mocking me, "Oh, yeah, we're rebels, but we don't want to get in trouble, so we're using biodegradable tea." First of all, we're not rebels. We're people, fighting for what's right. And we're really only doing what's right all the way around. Protesting peacefully. Not hurting the water by doing so. We're not VANDALISTS. We're citizens. But we won't just let the government grow and grow and gain more and more power. Not right. We're citizens. It's our duty to say, "NO WAY!!!"

We delivered letters to our Congressmen, and as we walked, we carried signs that said,

Commander and Thief

Keep your change, I want my money back!

Taxed Enough Already

You can't spend your way out of debt!

Our Congressmen spent MY FUTURE!

Give me liberty, not debt!

We'll keep our money, guns, and freedom, you stick your change!

And things like that.

Once I was asked, "What's wrong with codependence?" Nothing, if it's not overly present and pretty much a way of life. But it was codependence that got us into this economic mess. And don't we celebrate Independence Day, not Codependence Day?

We were--and are--too, too dependent on our government. Times got tough and we ran to our government, time and time again--"Save me, save me!"--and voila! look at the government! We let them grow and grow and grow, did nothing to stop them... we PROMOTED their growth ("Save me, save me!"). Sure, it's not really our fault that 787 billion dollars was wasted, there are probably more bailouts coming, and we're 13 trillion dollars into debt. We didn't do any of that. The government has a lot of greed and powerlust woven into its very core. But who let that happen? It's like, you give a murderer a gun and later say, "Oh, look at the news! Homicidal rampage! OMG, I know that guy!!!! Hey, I gave him that gun for a birthday present!" It's indirectly our fault. The government is still a LOT at fault, but we elect them, we don't stop them, and what do we expect? We crawl crying to the government. They open their arms to us, simultaneously broadening the reaches of their tentacles.

I signed the proclamation to our Congressmen. I signed the big sign that says, "We'll keep our money, guns, and freedom, you stick your change!" And you know what this man said as he handed me the permanent marker to sign it? He said, "Go ahead, sign it. It's your future they're peein' away." I couldn't have said it better myself.

Tea parties are great, but there needs to be more. It needs to be a combination, a coalition, a collection of blogs and protests and letters and marches and speeches and everything we can think of, plus one. It's gonna take words out loud and on written paper, actions as an ASSEMBLY, which we have the freedom to gather in, and actions individually. It's going to take upset members of the present, and OUTRAGED founders of the future. It's going to take we, the people, including you and me. We're included in the "every man, woman, AND CHILD" that has 300,000+ dollars of debt, if the government's debt were to be divided among the people. That's us (excuse the language some might call crude, please; thanks). And it's our future they're peein' away.