Bagging on the Baggers 

Editor:

In response to Terence Roberts' complaint ("Mailbox," July 29), let me first offer this olive branch: It is nice to see a communication from a self-described Tea Party Patriot (or whatever splinter group) that is somewhat reasonable and rational. Democratic pundit Donna Brazile recently wrote that the Tea Party(s) are not racist, but she has the same complaint that I do: Too many of your folks offer too many ridiculous, absurd or even racist comments to be taken seriously (birthers, deathers, tenthers).

After 30 years of AM radio right-wing schlock and Fox News daily garbage, we now have a rapid response media team to answer all charges, and folks like David Shuster and Rachel Maddow answered you months ago. The Tea Bagger moniker was the result of ignorant early 'Baggers who went to public demonstrations with tea bags hanging off their hats and clothing. They failed to google the term and they failed to see the (R-rated) movie in which the act is playfully depicted. It is absolutely not the NCJ's fault, or anyone else's, that so many "Patriots" are so ignorant.

How old are you, Mr. Roberts? I am 60, and I wonder where you were when the Greatest Generation sent my generation on a fool's errand in Vietnam? That nine-year-plus nightmare has just recently been eclipsed by the badly botched Afghan War. Then we had grinning Ronald Reagan and his massive deficits. Where were you? Where were you when the Bush-Cheney team of shameless chickenhawk cowards invaded Iraq? Where are the roses we were supposed to be showered with? Hell, where are the oil revenues from their lake of sweet light crude?

Ten billion dollars minimum per month since March 2003. That's the burn rate just in Iraq; let alone the human costs. Bush ran it off-budget to make his massive deficits seem less massive. Where were you, Terrence Roberts, and your baggers?

Do the math. A trillion dollars buys a lot of health care, infrastructure repair, education. But no, you're angry about health care for everybody? If you baggers have such great health care, please tell us who the insurance company is. Don't tell me it's Medicare!

And then, the capper: A perfectly harmless, playful sex act for consenting adults becomes difficult because the participants break into laughter thinking about the fool on Fox News with tea bags hanging off her hat. Thank you Tea Party Patriots for absolutely nothing. And you wonder why you are ridiculed!

Timothy Crlenjak, Eureka