My First Tea Party

Well, I had the experience of my first Tea Party. Does that make me a Tea Partier? I guess I can officially say that they are not violent events. I went to the one in Grand Prairie, TX. Mike Gallagher was there, and the main reason we went. But all the other speakers went over, so Mr. Gallagher only spoke about 3 minutes. He's a very humble man, and didn't want to take up a lot of time.

I saw a lot of signs, but none were racist. I think the best was carried by a black man. It read, "Stop calling me racist." I'm a people watcher. I watch people. It's something that I've just always done. I watch their habits, how they react to things. I can usually tell if they're comfortable, upset, nervous, etc. There were some people milling about, not really knowing what to do. I know not to follow them, because it was my first tea party, and obviously it was their first one, too. You follow someone who looks like they know what they're doing.

The rally was in an open field. We actually went in the VIP area, so there were areas that had seats. They didn't kick us out. There wasn't really any class distinctions. We struck up conversations right away. Even if we didn't fit in economically with some of the VIP crowd, we fit in emotionally. We all had in common our ideals. I was wearing my AsAMom t-shirt and a breast cancer ribbon hat. My sign said, "Will I get to Keep Tricare Prime?" and had pink ribbons on it. The first lady I came up to asked if I was a survivor. She was an 11 year survivor. We talked about health care and the changes I faced.

Later, I met a man who told me that he was told that Tricare wouldn't be affected. I told him about my experience, of emailing Tricare and asking specifically about Prime. I told him how they responded with an explanation of Tricare Standard for Retirees. He felt the same way as I that I got my answer, that I would no longer qualify for Prime. He said, "I wish I had met you a month ago." I met veterans, other moms with pictures of their kids on their signs. I had a picture of my oldest on the other side of my sign. It also said Taxed Enough Already! My oldest wouldn't have been able to handle the crowds, he stayed home with grandpa. My youngest, at 10, had written his own sign. It said, "Come on, it's 4th grade math, if you don't have it don't spend it."

We had a lady come up and ask how old our son was. When I told her he was 10, and came up with his own sign, she said, very sarcastically, "yea, right!" She came up later, and took his picture again, and he said she rolled her eyes at him. I think she must have been a member of the liberal media. She was the only one who was negative that I ran into.

There were people selling things. The food was expensive, but I guess that's capitalism. If you go to a ball game, the food is expensive. I could have gone there for only the $5 parking. We only got a bite to eat. I think they were giving out free literature, I'm not sure. My husband has a bad knee right now, and we didn't move much from where we were. That's probably why he was disappointed. He's a very social person. He would have enjoyed himself more had he gotten to talk to more people.

What surprises me, is that I know people are angry, and that anger didn't really come out. We were all there, we were showing our support, but there wasn't anger. We were all patriotic. They had all the people clap for our active duty soldiers, and had every one who had ever wore the uniform raise their hands. My husband and I got to raise our hands (with the other veterans) while everyone applauded us. Humbling.
It wasn't anti-government. There was a sign that said no fedzilla...but he meant stop big government. We're not anti-government, in the respect that the 60's wanted to destroy GOVERNMENT and replace it with something else. We want to shrink the government we have back down to something that is manageable.

OK. Time for how I've always understood things to be. The local government controls local things...then the states determine what goes on in a broader sense. The federal government is supposed to settle arguments between states and other countries. Since when does the federal government get to decide what I eat as a citizen? I don't even what my town government deciding what I eat. That's like saying you're too stupid to run your own life, we have to step in and do it for you. I want the federal government to run the highways between states and settle arguments between states, commerce between states, and stay out of business that states can decide on their own. If you don't like what's going on in one particular state, move. If enough people move out of that state, it will fail. They'll look at the mass exodus and say, wow, we're doing something wrong, we have to change things.

So, leftists, where is the violence at these meetings? Unless you guys infiltrate and create the violence, there just isn't any. We even cleaned up after ourselves. My son is a boy scout. We left no trace.

Lori Ann Smith