Sticks and Stones

My Mother once told me that if you can't say something nice about someone, you shouldn't say anything at all. In theory, that sounds very nice and proper. But in practical application, it's difficult not to respond to someone who continues to call you a warmongering, neanderthal, bible thumping, Gay bashing, racist. As a proud Reagan Conservative, I've been called them all. Perhaps not as an individual but certainly as a member of a group that advocates fiscal & personal responsibility, secure borders, limited government and a strong unapologetic national defense. Those who are quite adamant about those positions joined or supported the Tea Party. A grassroots supported organization which believes in all of the above. In 1776, people who believed these things were called Patriots. Today they are targeted by a national political party and thought to be enemies of the state by the current Administration. Hosts on MSNBC, a mostly liberal news outlet call the Tea Party members "Teabaggers". A derogatory name that has a sexual and mostly Gay connotation. Yet I've not heard of a single Gay Advocate organization complain. The result might have been different if a more Conservative news outlet used that term in describing a liberal minded group.
I have numerous politically like minded friends. I have never heard anyone of them utter an anti-Gay slur. I have been to three dinner parties in the last year. Two of them were held by two different Gay couples I have come to know in recent years. I had a great time and could not care less about their lifestyle. It's none of my damn business. I chose to see them as individuals, not members of any one group or subgroup. I would appreciate the same consideration as a middle aged, white, straight, Conservative. P.S. Two of the couples are Conservative minded. I have no idea about the third. Politics never came up in our very enjoyable conversations and I wouldn't have cared anyway. Like I said - I saw them as individuals.
My wife's step father is from Mexico. He is one of the hardest working and nicest people I have ever met. Antonio would give you the shirt of his back and consider it bad manners to ask for it back. He came to this country without knowing a word of English. He taught himself - made a life here and became an American citizen a couple years ago. It wasn't easy for him here. I wonder if I would have prospered as well if I had moved to another country with such a disadvantage. I'm very proud of him. He may love his Mexican heritage - as he should. But he flies the American flag outside his doorstep. And still, I want our southern border secured! It's not about racism. It's about national security and the rule of law. I'd feel the same way about securing our northern border if 20 million pasty white Canadians were secreting across it.
I shouldn't have to defend myself against racist remarks from an elected official much less a television host. But that's what it's come to. And I wont sit idly by and have them take shots against me of others who believe as I do without responding. Our founding fathers didn't believe in the "state". They believed in the individual. That's why the Constitution is filled with individual rights. And I choose to see people as individuals. Not straight or gay. Black or white. Christian, Jew or Atheist. Not even as Conservative or Liberal. America is a tapestry. Each strand is bound together to make one incredible strong piece of fabric greater than the sum of its individual strands. And yet, it is those individual strands that allows for the strength of that tapestry. E Pluribus Unum. "Out of many - ONE".