image courtesy of SodaHead.com

Bigotry and disinformation are alive and well in the USA.

In Washington, DC for a Tea Party Patriots leadership conference, my wife and I entered our hotel elevator and joined three black women, expecting a friendly conversation with some locals.  Their eyes dropped to the prominent “Tea Party” ID badges we wore, and the reaction was stunning.

The youngest of them jumped back against the wall, her eyes wide with palpable fear.  The other two also shrank back, hands over mouths, mumbling obvious displeasure.  It was as if Count Dracula himself had appeared before them.

“Hmmph.  Tea Party, huh?  Mmm, mmm, mmm, not good, not good . . . ,” the older ladies lamented.

We were stunned speechless.  Before we could come up with a response, the door opened at our floor and the younger one jumped past us to the hallway.  We followed.

“You people are trying to take my job away from me!” she shouted over her shoulder, rushing away from us as quickly as possible.

My wife and I looked at each other, wondering what her job is, why we would want to “take it” from her, and what we would do with it if we got it.  As the young lady fumbled for the key to her room, I blurted out, “Wow, if you are afraid of Tea Party grandmas and grandpas, you need a new source of information!”  Her door slammed.

Back in our room we tried to make sense of what we had just seen and heard.  While race wasn’t mentioned, I’m very sure it played a role, because the left and the media have so successfully branded the Tea Party as racists.

My mind went back to the speakers we had just enjoyed at our Tea Party Patriots 5-year celebration event.  One was Sonnie Johnson of Breitbart News, a bright and beautiful young African-American woman who abandoned her prepared speech to talk instead about something that “hit her heart”.  Miss Johnson decried the federal government’s quest to replace God and religion with government dependency.  She passionately prayed for the success of the Tea Party and America.

I remembered the fiery words of Anita Moncrief, the hard-nosed little African-American woman who, as an ACORN official, finally had to blow the whistle on the corruption that oozed between that organization and the Democrat party during the Obama campaign.  “That was not helping people,” she cried.  “I got tired of the victimhood and the race card.”  She now works with True the Vote.

K Carl Smith, black Tea Party leader, spoke eloquently of Frederick Douglas‘ respect for the constitution and belief in limited government.  US Representative Raul Labrador joked about his status as a “Puerto Rican Mormon Tea Party Member”.  George Rodriquez, Mexican-American radio host and president of the San Antonio Tea Party, observed that every family wants the same opportunities for prosperity, regardless of race.

These people, and so many like them, not only know the Tea Party, they ARE the Tea Party.  Which raises the question: Would the black ladies in the elevator have feared Sonnie if she had entered the elevator instead of my wife and I?

The Tea Party Patriots want to ensure that the children and grandchildren of all Americans have a chance to enjoy the freedoms and economic opportunities that we did.  Yet the hateful left and the mainstream media have demonized us so successfully that under-informed black women fear for their safety in the presence of white grandparents wearing Tea Party badges.

It’s sad.  And it has to stop.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

We can’t go on together
With suspicious minds
And we can’t build our dreams
On suspicious minds