Old, fat and mad!

That's what I looked like at the 2010 Denver Tea Party Tax Day rally.







But I really wasn't mad, not until later, when I saw this character go by me. But I'll get to him in the next post.

















I went to the rally with the Aurora Coffee Party, and while I really enjoy the group, I'm not much for discourse when I can spend my time moving and doing.

So I took my little sign and did some dancing and waving across the street from the rally. I was both heartened and disheartened by my time there. Heartened because I had many, many thumbs up, fist pumps and thank you's for my statement. Disheartened because it was just me. And this seems to be one of the problems with moderates, they are the silent majority.

But the politicians do not hear silence, they hear noise, they count heads and act accordingly. So bad behaviour becomes worse in state and federal government. And we let it happen by our disapproving silence. Shame on us. If you want to be heard, get up off your hind end and speak up. You don't have to scream, you don't have to froth, but you do have to speak. Speak up, speak up, speak up, because if you don't, things you don't want to happen probably will.

Maybe it comes down to a questions of manners. Maybe that's what the moderates are worried about, that speaking up will be perceived as being rude. Ok, let's go at it from this way:

It is not bad manners to speak out. It is bad manners to make crap up. It is good manners to tell the truth. It is bad manners to gang up and shout down anyone that has the temerity to disagree with you. It is not bad manners to stand up as a group and protect free speech for everyone, not just the few. It is bad manners to use thinly disguised racial slurs. It is not bad manners to call out those slurs. It is bad manners to call someone a traitor/socialist/communist/what-the-hell-ever-the-new-tag-of-the-day-is for daring to disagree with your stance. It is not bad manners to call that behaviour unacceptable.

So sayeth little Ms. Manners here.