Hats off to the people of the Odessa Tea Party who pulled together the West Texas Tea Party of 4/17/10. The speakers were good, the crowd was enthusiastic, and the tea was free.
McAlister's Deli provided the tea -- regular and sweetened -- and it hit the spot.
The weather could have been better, though. The temperature was in the high 50's, but that stiff North wind made it feel much colder. Those clouds had a silver lining, however, which in this case meant no rain.
The news reporters were there in full force. So I'm sure the who-said-what should be available from them shortly. However, I would like to share one especially good story.
Apostle Claver of Raging Elephants told the story, and he was addressing the charge of "racism" that seems to be hurled so freely at Tea Party attendees by liberals. He told about a game he and the other kids in his neighborhood played when they were growing up -- The Dozens. The boys would sit around and throw insulting jokes at each other. And the one who kept it up the longest was the winner.
Anything that might get under the skin of the other kid was fair game. Anything, that is, but his mother. As the game wore on, most of the kids would run out of steam, and it usually got down to two guys slinging barbs at each other. But you always knew when the game was up when one of the guys got so desperate that he started in on the other guy's momma. "Yo momma so fat ...", etc. A fellow's mother was off limits, so once a guy invoked the other guy's mother he was signaling that he was running on empty. He was desperate. He had lost the game.
Mr. Claver analogized that to the way people charge racism in today's political arena. When a lefty accuses someone he disagrees with of racism, he is signaling that he's got nothing else. He's run out of argument. He's desperate but has nothing. He's lost the game and knows it.
It was a heart warming story for a cold wintry day. And if the people at today's Tea Party have any say about it, there's still hope for the nation.
Be sure to check out the photos. You will see Michael Quinn Sullivan, Apostle Claver, Mark Williamson, Javier Joven, Elizabeth Wooldridge, Dottie Chavez and many others plus a cup of tea. [I'm having a little trouble uploading photos to Flickr at the moment. Please check back later for photos.]
Later. Photo upload successful! Click West Texas Tea Party photos to see the pictures.
I read & enjoyed this blog.
Posted by: DarenBowel | January 31, 2011 at 06:51 AM
Nice party & i like it.
Posted by: AbnerJack | February 22, 2011 at 12:53 AM