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Tea Party Express comes to Wichita, KS
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I used to consider myself a fairly tolerant person. I thought I was able to hear my adversaries out and debate them on the points of the issue without rancor or prejudice. I prided myself on being open to the other side.
Well, I guess that is true no longer.
I came to this conclusion when I attended the arrival of the Tea Party Express here in Wichita, Kansas, on Wednesday, November 4, 2009, and found myself unable to stay and listen to the speakers.
I came expecting to hear them call President Obama names and accuse the Democrats of being determined to undermine the country by passing health care reform. I would just sit and make a note of the names of the speakers and what basic points they made, I told myself. I wouldn’t get into an argument with anyone, not even an imaginary argument in my head.
But then a woman got up and announced that she was the mother of a Marine. There was no one more dangerous than a ticked-off Marine, she said – unless it was a ticked-off Marine’s Mom. And she was ticked off. I waited to hear her complain that the President was still studying the situation in Afghanistan before deciding whether to send more troops over there, but what she said took me completely by surprise.
She wasn’t mad at the President. She was mad at the First Lady. Why? Because the First Lady had visited Camp LeJeune and spoken to the Marines there, and, get this, she had spoken from a prepared speech written by a speechwriter. At first, I didn’t understand what point the speaker was making. The First Lady had read a speech written by a speechwriter. So what? Did this woman think that Laura Bush had written her own speeches?
No, it wasn’t that. This woman was upset because Michelle Obama had not simply spoken “from her heart,” that she had to have someone else tell her what to say, that she hadn’t been able to ad lib a sincere, warm expression of her love and admiration for the Marines who were serving their country, some of them going into great danger to do so.
It’s hard to explain why that particular assertion made me turn and leave. It’s not exactly that I was upset by it. It’s more that I was disgusted by it. Did this woman have such a slim grasp on reality that she really thought that every time Laura Bush or Nancy Reagan spoke to the troops she merely spoke from her heart?
Politicians and political spouses read speeches. They try to avoid ad libbing, because ad libbing can easily get them into trouble, when they say something in a way that others can misunderstand or willfully misinterpret. Furthermore, ad libbing often leads to leaving out the most important points. Ask anyone who has ever had to stand up in front of a group and make an announcement about an upcoming event. When I do it, I either forget to mention the time or the location – unless I make notes in advance.
So the First Lady speaking from prepared remarks is not a sign that she lacks respect for the troops, but a sign that she really does respect them – enough to make sure her remarks set the right tone and say everything that needs to be said.
If the woman speaker couldn’t understand that, why should I continue to stand there and listen to anything else she had to say? And if the crowd was so out of touch that they cheered this woman and jeered the First Lady, what was I doing standing among them?
So I left.
And if that makes me intolerant, then so be it.
If you enjoyed this article, read a different take at Wichita Headlines Examiner
