NAACP vs. the Tea Party

One of the great cultural advantages of life is the public debate. Humanity engages in these spirited struggles with as much enjoyment and enthusiasm as a football game. The debate has become the subject of movies. Civil Rights leaders are often made of the stuff. People lock horns with each other. Sometimes, as in the Lincoln –Douglas debate, as a prelude to war . So on February 23, 2011 the Black American Law Students Association (BALSA) invited the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP); Community Legal Services and the Tea Party to a debate at the University of Pennsylvania’s campus. Representing the NAACP was Jerome Mondesire, President of the Philadelphia NAACP. Representing the Tea Party was a little old woman whose name for some reason I failed to remember. She insisted that her organization was not a wicked one. In fact she challenged the audience to the fact that most wanted limited government which was the goal of the Tea Party. There was only one disturbing thing. Though we spoke openly about the insults the Tea party had made on minorities, handicapped, gays and the President of the U.S.; the first black man to hold the office. The Tea Party representative denied any responsibility for the attacks. While she admitted to having taken no steps to find the perpetrators or to punish them, she felt she didn’t have to. In fact she stated, the Tea Party allows people to belong to any organization they wish to. The disturbing fact is that many members of the Tea Party are members of the ultra right Nazi, Klan and Nativist groups. When questioned further about certain instances of harassment and assault. She stated she didn’t believe they occurred. In fact, she stated she was but a few feet away from where the alleged n –word was used on Congressman John Lewis and the spitting on him and other members of congress. She stated the whole thing never occurred or at least she didn’t recall the incident happening. When I heard this a thought flashed through my mind. “Am I my brother’s keeper” Genesis 4:9(NSRV). The Tea Party doesn’t have to be responsible for men or women who carry guns and insult and threaten people. She bares no responsibility in the shooting of a congress woman and the deaths of nine others. According to the Tea Party,working men and women can be denied collective bargaining rights. It doesn’t matter what type of job they do. How many sanitation workers have died emptying trash cans and keeping the streets clean? How many bouts of communicable disease did they prevent? No one in his or her right mind would ask the Emergency Medical Team person whether he or she worked for the government. At the cost of $30,000 a year for a private school education, most can ill afford to leave the public school system. So why would the school board of Providence, Rhode Island layoff over 1900 teachers at one time? Why for sake of a small reduction in taxes would the wealthiest people in the U.S. society refuse to pay taxes? In the hard cold reality of greed one has to ask the question God asked Cain. “Where is your brother?...Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground”. Genesis 4:9-10 (NLT) Where is a fireman that has been laid off? Where is a water department employee without who you could not even get a glass of water? What happens when he is laid off because you believe the rich could better utilize the money? Are our lives that simple, brutish and short? Are we as working people that expendable? The rich men and women the conservatives view as our betters just how much better are they? After the billionaire Prime Minister of Italy Silvio Berlusconi gets caught with an underage prostitute. How many working class men and women do we castigate for pandering and prostitution? Your brother’s blood cries up from the ground. Those in Egypt, Tunisia and the United States are answering you in judgment.