The San Antonio Tea Party has initiated a wonderful project…a petition to the Congress for a Balanced Budget Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The petition language is at the top of a 4’ x 30’ vinyl banner and the bottom is for signatures. Each banner holds approximately 2000 signatures. We are seeking one million signatures nationwide. To achieve that, one million signatures divided by 50 states requires that on average, each state must obtain 20,000 signatures, which translates into at least 10 banners in each state, or 500 banners. The plan is to take the banners to Washington D.C. on September 12, where they will be laid end to end for almost three miles and presented to Congress. Congressman Lamar Smith has agreed to propose the Balanced Budget Amendment. I am excited about the project.

In the course of finding venues to get before large numbers of potential signers, I called the Executive Director of the Texas Republican Party to ask him if I might take banners to the state convention where 10,000 delegates would be present. To my great satisfaction, he said yes. Since the San Antonio Tea Party is non-partisan, I decided to propose the same idea to the state Democratic Party. The Convention Director, When I told the Convention Director that I was a member of the San Antonio Tea Party, she said that she could not possibly allow a radical, even violent group like the Tea Party at the state convention. I felt that her response had less to do with the Balanced Budget petition than my Tea Party status. I assured her that we were rational people who would act in a civil manner. She would have no part of it. I told her that it was my perception that when stereotyping on either side of the political spectrum occurred, it cut off dialogue, eliminating the possibility of finding common ground. I thanked her and concluded the call.

A second experience in the same day was thought provoking. In recent months two yard signs appeared in the Alamo Heights area of San Antonio. The first to show up was a NO SOCIALISM sign with white lettering on a black background. The second, seemingly in response to the first, was a NO SELFISHNESS sign with the same color scheme. I was driving in the neighborhood recently and saw a NO SELFISHNESS sign in the front yard of a home. I decided to knock on the door and ask the owner what message the sign was meant to convey. She answered that it was a statement in favor of Obamacare. I told her that I was on the other side of the issue, but appreciated her sharing her view with me. She volunteered the name and phone number of the originator of the sign. I spoke with her. She said that I didn’t sound violent or radical.

I had a chance to reflect on these events and make the following observations:

1. Americans are very polarized, be they Republicans or Democrats or owners of NO SOCIALISM and NO SELFISHNESS signs.

2. Polarization leads to stereotyping, e.g., Capitalists are by definition selfish; Socialists are by definition unselfish, all members of a Tea Party are radicals and violent and therefore cannot have anything to offer that is worth considering, such as a Balanced Budget petition.

3. Once we polarize and stereotype, we cannot be objective enough with ourselves to ask relevant questions, e.g., how can one of the most successful capitalists, Bill Gates, give hundreds of millions of dollars to charity and be regarded as selfish, or how can a socialist government that forces one group to give its money to another group be regarded as unselfish? Perhaps more significantly, if government enforced charity causes the recipient to become weak and dependent, can it be regarded as unselfish? Wouldn’t it be more unselfish for generous people, of their own volition, to help other people become strong and self reliant? When in the face of natural disasters and war, capitalist America is always the first to give of its blood and treasure. Is that selfishness?

4. The Founding Fathers and Ronald Reagan understood that a government powerful enough to give you everything you want is also powerful enough to take everything you have…your money, your dignity, your privacy, and your liberty. Is that unselfish?

5. Martin Luther King had it right. He dreamed of a day when people would be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. I dream of a day when Republicans and Democrats (and Tea Party members) can be judged by the quality of their philosophies of government. I dream of a day when a NO SOCIALISM sign and a NO SELFISHNESS sign can sit side by side in the same yard. They both have truths to offer America.

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