Collectivists Against Tea Parties

I've been ignoring the left's despicable treatment of the patriots who turned out by the hundreds of thousands on Wednesday for the Nationwide Tax Day Tea Party rallies (see Maggie's Farm's roundup).

Mona Charen lays out the media's total irrelevance, in "CNN Versus the Tea Parties." But I had to share with readers this letter I found at yesterday's Seattle Times:

I am appalled by these manufactured tea-party protests ... That there are Americans who are so self-centered that they have no sense of responsibility to America is repulsive.

We live in a country that asks very little of us in the way of sacrifice. There is no draft for national military service to protect this country. There is no requirement that we offer a certain amount of volunteering to make this country a better place.

All that is asked of our citizens is that we provide a small amount of the money we earn to share the cost of basic necessities that would be exorbitantly expensive for each of us alone.

I cannot afford a private firefighting force, but by paying my taxes, I can share in the cost of a fire department that protects my family and me.

I cannot afford a single private acre of recreational land, but by paying my taxes, I can share in the cost of a national-park system that includes such glories as Mount Rainier, Crater Lake and Yellowstone.

I cannot afford private tutors for my children, but by paying my taxes, I can share in the cost of a public-education system that makes a promise to all, not just a few.

Perhaps these elite tea-bag protesters can afford all these things out of their dividend earnings and their offshore bank accounts. But for us ordinary working Americans, we'll do things the old-fashioned way - through hard work and shared sacrifice.

-- Andrew Hummel-Schluger, Briar

This comment leads the "Letters to the Editor." It's pretty revealing of how this "shared responsibility" mentality gets full play in our collectivist media, to say nothing of the dumb mindset among folks on the left, who call patriots "irresponsible" and who refuse to "sacrifice." Dave Endler, a Vietnam veteran who participated at a Yorba Linda rally, might take issue with that. I'd say Andrew Hummel-Schluger needs to get out more often.

See also, Pamela Gellar, "Corrupt Media 'Teabags' the Tea Parties," and Glenn Reynolds' roundup of yesterday's events at Instapundit, via Memeorandum.

Photo: That's me at the Orange County Tax Day Tea Party. It was just after 11:00am. Folks were just getting organized, and participants were beginning to arrive. By about noon you could barely walk around the plaza, it was so packed with demonstrators. The Bay City Rollers performed the Beatles' Revolution and other songs between speakers.

In case you missed it, be sure to read my essay at Pajamas Media, "Suburban Warriors Rally at Orange County Tea Party."

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UPDATE: Moe Lane e-mails with the link to Welcome to FundRace 2008, with a search for "Andrew Hummel-Schluger."

Adds Moe, "Not to go all class-conscious, here - but since when has being the Associate Director for Academic Data Management for the University of Washington been a job associated with 'ordinary working Americans?'"

Here's Hummel-Schluger's page at the Registrar's Office, and he's on Facebook.