I never thought I would attend a protest. My ideas are fairly moderate and I am both unreceptive to fiery rhetoric and quite averse to extremism of any kind. Most of all, I find overly passionate political protestors to be rather off-putting. But for all of my hesitations, something this past Thursday compelled me to go to the Tea Party's Tax Day protest just a few blocks down from my apartment in Washington, D.C., where I'm spending my off term.
My opinion of the Tea Party movement prior to attending their rally was, I'll admit, quite low. From what I gathered from non-Fox News talk shows and newspaper articles, the Tea Partiers or "tea baggers," as the immature and inconsiderate refer to them were a bunch of racist, homophobic, xenophobic, sexist and Sarah Palin-enamored old white men. They had a barbaric hate of President Barack Obama and a savage contempt for everything and anything government.
I had accepted such belittling and demonization of the movement prior to even meeting a single Tea Party member. But instead of questioning these assumptions, I used them as justification for my decision to go to the protest in the first place: I was less an observer of a political movement and more a spectator at a political circus.
Upon arriving at the protest, however, I was shocked to see little if any of the vitriolic protesting that many pundits in the media had targeted and ridiculed. In fact, the protest was quite peaceful. Down on the mall below the Washington Monument, thousands of Tea Partiers gathered. Sporting yellow Tea Party shirts and red, white and blue raiment, these men and women reclined in lawn chairs and relaxed on blankets. The sun set behind a stage where a band softly played a country music tune. This "protest," I thought, could easily be mistaken for a Fourth of July barbecue.
Recovering from my initial shock, I sought out some protestors so that I could see just how crazy these people were. I walked over to a husband and wife on the outskirts of the protest, both of whom had been conversing with some of their fellow protesters. I was, at first, hesitant to start up a conversation with this couple despite how innocent they looked. After all, the media had told me they were dangerously radical, hotheaded and prone to violence.
But this couple, and the others like them that I talked to later that night, did not at all fulfill such a dire typecast. They were articulate and inviting, pleasant and respectful.
I spent 20 minutes talking with them, and learned a great deal that profoundly changed my opinion of the Tea Party movement. This couple had traveled to Washington from Fort Worth, Texas, to protest what they considered to be government policies that were contributing to an unsustainable deficit. They were not here to worship God, guns or Sarah Palin (in fact, the husband I talked to greatly disliked her). Nor were they present to threaten congressmen and other government officials like I had heard about on the news. They were here to simply express their concerns about government in a nonviolent manner.
Finishing up my conversation with this couple and others that night, I went home feeling elated that I had finally seen and met a fair representation of the Tea Party. There were a few crazies, but the movement on the whole was not the sideshow that the many pundits, who probably have never been to a Tea Party protest or met a single member of the movement, portrayed.
Reflecting on my experience, I realized that this new impression of the Tea Party did not convert me into a Tea Partier or make me more radical. But what my experience did provide me was a rediscovery of an invaluable lesson: always see and decide for yourself.
We hear this lesson often, but I fear it is one we do not put it into practice as we blindly accept the wisdom of pundits and writers. Too often, we accept their arguments, right or wrong, as the truth without our own assessment.
From my time at the protest, I was able to realize that I was wrong to accept anyone's view of the Tea Party without seeing what the movement was about for myself. When I met the Tea Partiers firsthand, I still confirmed that the movement wasn't my cup of tea. But I'm damn glad I gave it a try.
