Notes of
Concern…
…Jackson Blair
Breaking China Cups
I can honestly say I have not been to many tea parties in my
life.
The little girls in our neighborhood used to have them but
the boys were not invited. We didn’t care.
In the weeks leading up to the November elections all
Americans were invited to a Tea Party.
It would seem no one went.
------------------------------
As I traveled more internationally I came to learn that some
of the most interesting people got a lot accomplished over afternoon tea.
It is a tradition that never caught on in the United States.
In London, tea parties have always been important. They are
a part of the fabric of everyday life. Most “Brits” have afternoon tea every
day. Every major hotel offers afternoon tea and the really classy ones label it
“High Tea” and do it with great attention to detail and custom.
More recently the label “Tea Party” has been applied to a
group of Americans who are very conservative in their political beliefs.
Although conservative in my political beliefs I am not a member of this “Tea
Party” and I will not attempt to outline their beliefs other than to say they
have nothing to do with “High Tea.”
Many of my friends who consider themselves part of the Tea
Party are patriotic, loyal, hard working Americans with a deep love of our
Constitution and our country.
Simply put, one might call them a “back to basics” crowd.
They came by this unusual name for their political movement
because they see themselves rebelling against the idea, as Ron Paul has said,
that America wants to take responsibility for the entire world while managing a
totally irresponsible entitlement program at home.
So these conservative thinkers relate to our earliest “rebels,”
who enjoyed their own tea party in Boston when they threw British tea into the
sea to signal their outrage with the government of Great Britain’s treatment of
the American colonies.
Simply put, they hit the “Brits” where it hurt the most: by
ruining their tea; by showing a disregard for British custom.
They trashed a major symbol of British life.
I would argue that the contemporary Tea Party movement has
perhaps selected the wrong moniker.
Most Americans don’t “do” tea parties.
We are more a nation that likes coffee. A “coffee klatch”
just sounds more American than a “tea party.”
We just aren’t into all the beautifully decorated bone china
cups and saucers, the petit fours, or the crust-less cucumber sandwiches that
require a magnifying glass to find. And then there is that whole thing with the
“pinky finger” in the air while raising the bone china cup off the saucer.
I don’t think the patriots who made up the first Tea Party
at the time of the American Revolution would have related to the current form
of Tea Party in American politics.
So what was a very appropriate attack on a political symbol
in the 1700’s bears little relationship to an attack on the direction of
political life in America in 2012.
A good example of how many Americans have no affinity for
any “Tea Party” was offered up in the November election results.
The results of the recent election might be summed up as
follows:
“there
was the sound of china breaking everywhere.”
