I'm An Oddball... Like You?

I admit it, I'm different. I take some pride in that actually.
I don't need you or anyone else to tell me how I should think or feel. I'm pretty good at figuring that out on my own.
I have never been comfortable in large "activist" crowds... the "mob mentality" bothers me.

And for you and me that's a problem.
Because we're not alone. There are lots of folks like us.
We've been called "The Silent Majority". We're the ones that toddle along in life causing few problems, making no waves. We work efficiently and do "a day's work for a day's pay."
And in so doing we pay the taxes that are used to benefit all.

But since we seldom speak out, we are easily ignored. Sometimes others take advantage of us because they know we're uncomfortable with the idea of drawing attention to ourselves...
Unless things get really out of hand we shrug our shoulders and think to ourselves "This too will pass", and it does. But we generally end up paying for our silence in one way or another.

That's why last week's "Tea Parties" are exciting to me. Had I not been working (and therefore paying taxes), I'd have attended one close to me. In the middle of the week, in the middle of the day, (a WORKDAY by the way), over 200,000 (some estimates I have read suggest over 500,000) people assembled peacefully to protest the government's recent huge and wasteful outlays of our tax dollars. Most major media ignored these gatherings. CNN, who I have jokingly called "The Communist News Network" in the past, proved my joke might be true by trying to portray attendees as outliers...
Rednecks, Racists, and "Bible clinging gun crazos".

So we're being marginalized.
Maybe five hundred thousand people attended... how many would have attended if it hadn't been a workday? How many would they be trying to marginalize if these protests had been held on a Saturday?
I think our government and its fawning media are frightened and confused, and I think they're playing with gasoline and matches.

Here's my hope...
I hope you're watching this situation as closely as me.
I hope you are irritated that your complaints are being ignored because you are "stupid".
I hope you are motivated to act.

These Tea Parties are the first step. We now know that there are other "silent majority" types out there who are angry and frustrated with the unsustainable course our government is taking.
We know we can form in numbers that cannot be ignored. We know that "next time" we can increase those numbers.
Next time!

The Tea Parties are the first step. "Change" was such a buzzword in the last election, but we knew for us it wouldn't be change for the better. If we want change that will set this government on a sane, sustainable path, we have to take the next step...

How 'bout the 4th of July, "Independence Day"?
Wouldn't it be nice for those of us that truly are independent to make some noise on the 4th?

(Talk amongst yourselves and then express an independent opinion in comments here.
Then talk to others... We know there are MANY like us. We must be "silent" no more!)