We are not terrorists, Ms. Whisler ~ By Anita Marchesani

Anita Marchesani points out the sheer absurdity of labeling people involved in the Tea Party Movement as racists and terrorists in a response to another columnist's article.

I tried to find Ms. Whisler's column so that I could link to it here, but upon a google search, and finding the link and then clicking on it, I got the message, "We are sorry the article that you requested is no longer available..." Apparently, for a fee, I could have searched the archives. (Not going to happen!) However, I did find that several people wrote comments about Whisler's guest column (that no long exists). You may want to check some of them out. They didn't seem to be too pleased with being labeled as terrorists and racists!

Oh, and by the way, from what I found in a little research, M. B. Whisler is a true-blue lefty. Huh.... Go figure.

And also, just want to say, excellent column, Ms. Marchesani!

Racism is a true problem. Tea partyers are not an example of racism, and promoting this idea is slanderous and extremely dangerous. Exaggeration and hyperbole equating conservatives with terrorists brings the conversation to a bizarre point. Again, it not only denigrates legitimate terrorist acts, but it implies that wanting fewer taxes, heightened personal responsibility and less intrusion is the same deadly mentality of flying planes into buildings, or blowing up a jet over Scotland. If a media outlet promotes these ideas, you are being grossly manipulated. If an issue is not being evaluated on all sides in a dispassionate manner, you are accessing irresponsible yellow journalism.

It sounds provocative and attention-getting to throw around destructive labels. But what is really being destroyed is the true meaning of race-hating and terrorism. Prudence and caution suggest that we think very long, and very hard about name calling. Ms. Whisler wonders, "Can we all get along?" Inciting hateful attitudes towards peaceful, law-abiding citizens contradicts a spirit of cooperation.

By Anita Marchesani

Updated: 04/16/2010 02:35:56 PM EDT

Last week in this spot, a fellow community columnist published an article that was offensive to so many good people here in York County that I decided to disregard my previous topic in favor of responding to Ms. Whisler's heinous, hurtful and wrong accusations.

In her column, Ms. Whisler likened tea party organizers to the Ku Klux Klan and to terrorists. She asserted that those of us who wish to return to the lawful society dictated by the Constitution and its constraints on the government are "destructive haters" who seek out the racist practices of the '50s and '60s. Further, she views tea partyers as "terrorists (who) are destroying and dividing our country."

As a group, tea partyers and 912 groups believe in limited government, as clearly described and explained by James Madison, et al, in the Constitution and the Federalist Papers. Patrick Henry reminds us that, "The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people. It is an instrument for the people to restrain the government." The more power the government has taken means that the people have not been adequate in restraining them.

The Constitution does not give unlimited powers to the government to do anything it wants. The Bill of Rights is only one portion of the document -- you might consider reading the rest of it, as well as a history of the Second Continental Congress. I hope that as a teacher Ms. Whisler instructed students to evaluate primary sources and not rely solely on what you are told about something. Actually attending a tea party would help.

Following Ms. Whisler's logic, promoting lower taxes, appropriate and lawful governmental restrictions, and a free market enterprise are racist and hateful ideas.

If you truly believe that dissenters are racist, then I respectfully suggest you might want to reconsider your definition of racism.

Labeling tea partyers as "racist" dramatically undermines the entire concept of racism. Saying it so often and so vehemently makes the word become meaningless drivel. I caution anyone who levels this horrendous accusation against friends and neighbors. Do we really want advocates of less government to be equated with racist Democrats who created Jim Crow? Have we come so far from racism that we have to manufacture new examples of it in the form of anyone who wants accountability and law-abiding governmental officials?

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