Letters: The Angry Tea Party

Dear Mr. Nickels,

Sorry if this is a bit long, but these people really piss me off!
I’ve been reading your columns in both the Weekly Press and Fishtown Star for a while now and I just had to respond to your May 6th column in the Star, “Tea Party needs a bit of a quick history lesson.”

Don’t worry: I’m not going to jump on your back. FAR from it! If you picked up this week’s City Paper you would have seen my rather lovely worded Letter about those losers, so I’ve proven I’m definitely no fan of theirs.

I’d like to address two main points from the aforementioned column: First, about the reaction from Fishtown locals if the Tea Party were to set up a stand on Aramingo Avenue and, second, about the organizer of the Center City Tea Party who was featured in the City Paper a few weeks back.

I think you put way too much stock in those people from Fishtown, Thom. No, they’re not all bad, but I was unfortunate to have grown up in the neighborhood right next to Fishtown (begins with a “K”), so I know how incredibly right-wing those folks can be – and they certainly are not the ones to benefit from such a mindset! If the Tea Party came to the neighborhood, they’d join – enthusiastically!

The locals are majority blue-collar families (translation: They work nothing jobs for little pay and no benefits) – and they’re happy to have nothing.

In fact, these are the same people who take to the streets (when they’re not busy with “American Idol,” Fox Noise, or other mindless crap oozing from the boob tube) and fight to continue to have nothing. As a matter of fact, I just had it out on Facebook recently with one of them over health care and she stated that true reform will never happen until health care companies regulate themselves. I immediately shock back with, “Don’t hold your breath, because no one is giving up THAT kind of money!” She pays over a grand a month for health insurance for her and her family (she must have a good enough job to be able to do that in the first place) and I asked whether or not that was right for people like her to do that, given that this is supposedly, allegedly, the greatest country on the planet (in Reagan-speak). No answer.
BTW: Many immigrant groups went through the same crap that the Irish did (the Italians suffered a lot, too, with the added bonus of being discriminated against by people of their own religion), blacks have always been treated like nothing in this country, and the Indians (natives!) got the worst deal of anyone, I think. (But Texas school children will never hear of all that with the change in history that’s going to happen in their classrooms shortly. Hey, even the people who do know about all that don’t care, asking such deep questions as, “Why do I need to know this?” “How does this affect me?” “Will it make me money?”)

One last thing: I don’t have health insurance, either, so I’m with you in that boat. As a matter of fact, I owe two hospitals over $3,000 and every time I bring this up to a Tea Party loser, they never have an answer as to why anyone’s life and credit have to be destroyed because this country just can’t get it together and take care of the basic needs of its citizens. The “I’ve got mine, f**k you” mentality really caught on during the Reagan years and too many Americans let that motto become part of who they are. It’s sad.

And thanks for pointing out the difference between socialism and communism. Problem is, it’s going to go right over those Tea Bag morons’ heads because they’re going to believe what they want – the facts be damned. Fox Noise’s will be done in their trailer parks!

To end on a positive note: I’m glad to see people are finally speaking up about these losers. The rest of the world is right to treat them as the jokes that they truly are. Too bad this country can’t follow that lead.

Sincerely,

Donna Di Giacomo
Germantown