Hello I am here to speak today as a representative of the Tea Party.
Now most people my age remember the 1960s and all the protesting that occurred against the Vietnam war. The people who protested were loud, obnoxious and, in many cases, violent. The term “Silent Majority” was coined in a speech by President Nixon in 1969. It came to symbolize the silent indignation of the people who made up the greatest generation. People who were, by and large, humble and soft spoken. I think that description still fits most of most of us who are here today. We, by and large, just want to work, go to church and raise our families as best we can and until recently our idea of participating in the political process was voting.
President Theodore Roosevelt said the following: “The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life."
Winston Churchill said: "If you have ten thousand regulations you destroy all respect for the law."
These two quotes I have just read to you ring with the truth for most of us are here today because we have begun to fear our government is out of control and for the future of our republic. There was a statement we used when I was growing up that when something seemed lacking in common sense then it was “ eaten up with ignorance” I will tell you today that we are eaten up with ignorance in Washington, Sacramento and even at the County and City levels of Government. The time to be silent is over.
Over the last year or so I have come to a decision that I, as an individual, needed to be more involved. I started writing letters to the Editor and later a blog on political affairs. I got involved with the Tea Party movement in March of this year and on 4-15-2010 I stood with 2000 people in downtown San Francisco and our voices shook the window panes on the surrounding buildings. In May I got involved with the Solano County Tea Party Patriots and we have since spoken at a City Council meetings, Congressional Town Halls, and Solano County Transportation meetings. In a couple of weeks we are going to a City Council meeting in to fight for our first amendment rights of free speech to be able to put up campaign signs in our own front yards. We have learned not to be silent and to speak up but there still was one area I must confess that until recently I have been quiet in.
Thousands of us conservatives drive the freeways each day in the Bay Area and we listen to Rush, Hannity Beck etc and we get pretty worked up by what we hear. But as we drive down the road we often feel alone. The number of liberal bumper stickers on vehicles seems to have increased with time and I feel that when I am on the highway I am in a never ending Obama campaign.
You see, I have this thing about bumper stickers. Maybe it involves the fact that most 1980s Volvos you see on the highway are held together by them. But there is another reason and that is that bumper stickers are never truly silent. They speak for you in your driveway, on the highway and they speak for you at work. To be honest until recently I did want to come out of my conservative closet and I worried what some people would think.
So a few weeks ago I was getting out of my truck and was going to get a haircut and I noticed a little powder blue Miata sitting in the parking spot next to my Toyota Tundra. On one side of the Miata bumper was an Obama bumper sticker and on the other side was a bumper sticker complaining about the supreme court ruling on campaign financing stating "A Corporation is Not a Person" Now at that moment a little man about 5-2 and 110 pounds walked out of a Starbucks and got into the car and drove off. On the same day my wife and I drove to Petaluma to look at antiques. On several of the cars parked on the streets of Petaluma were bumper stickers that were were not just critical of GW but verged on just being plain vulgar.
At the end of that day I had an epiphany of sorts. Why was I worried what that little person in the Miata might think or even less why those people in Petaluma might be offended. by a bumper sticker on my car. I sure as heck was offended by theirs.
The late great conservative William F. Buckley had the following to say: "Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views."
One of the greatest American Orators of all time was a former slave and great Republican.
His name was Fredrick Douglas he had the following to say:
"If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet despise agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle"
The great founding father Samuel Adams said: "It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds
And finally Ronald Reagan said this: "Let us be sure that those who come after will say of us that in our time we did everything that could be done. We finished the race; we kept them free; we kept the faith."
We in the Tea Party Movement have made a decision, WE will no longer sit idly by as our county and our state approach a waterfall in a barrel. WE will be loud, WE will be heard, WE will no longer be silent. I am here today to tell you there are bumper stickers on my car . If you want to be heard too please Join the Tea Party!!
Thank you and may God Bless America
A Voice In the Wilderness
Epilogue : Over the last week or so I have kept a careful eye out for Obama stickers and to my amazement they are disappearing from view.
