Published Again - September 16, 2010

Express-Times Newspaper - Letters to the Editor- September 16, 2010

Cut through the pretext to uncover real message

A tyrant will always find a pretext for his (or her) tyranny.

A recent letter writer’s is that people find fault with the Taxed Enough Already party’s activities. The TEA critics’ very presence here “indicates that there are now Americans who prefer to become subjects rather than citizens” — so watch your back, people! She believes that people, such as me, audacious enough to criticize her party, are voluntarily making ourselves slaves to the federal government and this is all very “tragic.”

But Nancy Baumgartner is wrong. She does not think Tea Party critics are tragic. She thinks we are stupid: “It is not surprising that a significant number of vocal Tea Party critics know what the acronym even stands for,” she writes. That sentence is the real object of her letter.

What is unsurprising to me is that a militant Tea Party supporter does not know the definition of the word “tragic.” A real tragedy is a contradiction of principles.

ERIK B. ANDERSON
Independence Township

I know this is not my best letter. It has got a lot of abstract concepts in it, like "pretext" and "tragedy" and "contradiction" and "principles". But I am grateful for the opportunity to be heard. I made my point about Nancy Baumgarten's tragically twisted letter of September 6. I just wish the editor who chose the title of the Letters page online could understand that the one who is offbase is Nancy Baumgarten, the one who criticized the Tea Party critics, but I guess I fell into the same conundrum that the movie Inception (or the play Marat/Sade) did.

That's what living with Asperger's is like. you say something, and it makes sense. It objectively makes perfect sense. But expecting other people to understand what I have just said is a whole other thing.

It's like a game of telephone. Just look at my words, not the editors words. Think about it. You are free to think what you want. They will be the same words today, tomorrow and they will still be there, at the Warren County library 50 years from now, assuming another fire doesn't destroy those records too.

If I had to write it over again, I would say: Nancy Baumgartner wants to be Desdemona or Ophelia, but she doesn't understand that tragedy does not mean loss. The fact that tea parties are a bunch of losers who will never get anywhere is not tragic. The fact that Tea Party cricis like me will never go away. Tragedy means a contradiction of principles. She does not belong in one of Shakespeare's tragedies. She belongs in his comedies. Nancy Baumbartner is Katherine.

Warm Regards,

Erik B. Anderson
Independence Township, New Jersey


* * *

"A tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny." is from:

The Wolf and the Lamb
by Aesop

Read the Express-Times Tomorrow! 9/16/10

I wrote a letter to the editor. A response to Nancy Baumgartner's September 9th letter below. I got confirmation that they are going to print it. Check the news stand or http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/.

Tea Party: Limit feds to constitutional powers
Its not surprising that a significant number of vocal TEA Party critics do not even know what the acronym, “TEA” stands for and what the purpose of the movement is. TEA stands for “Taxed Enough Already.” With the average small business already paying more than 40 percent in earnings to state and federal taxes and fees, this is obviously true.

Moreover, TEA participants are here to remind our now-hostile federal government that expanding its power past those enumerated in the U.S. Constitution will not go unchallenged. Our government is to govern, and it has veered into ruling.

Finding a problem with TEA activities indicates that there are now Americans who prefer to become subjects rather than citizens. Tragic.

NANCY BAUMGARTNER
Oxford

UPDATE: Here's my letter:

Fight, don't join, the terrorists

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

The tea partiers are consciously trying to induce a public nervous breakdown.

Whether they are sending death threats to a congressman's 5-year-old son in Florida, violently throwing money at a man with Parkinson's disease on an Ohio sidewalk or maliciously shouting the "N" word at African-American representatives at an event in Washington, D.C., the effect is utterly terrifying.

The mass hysteria that is today's Tea Party shows that the majority of us have forgotten we are supposed to be fighting terrorists, not becoming them. Do they really think the end justify the means?

When are we the people going to realize that we are not crazy after all? When will we stand up to all of this bullying? We are not safe in public. We are not safe in our homes. What will the future of our country be like if no one risks stepping out and fighting back?

Erik B. Anderson

Independence Township

Matt Taibbi on Capital Punishment

As far as I see it, there are three positions on capital punishment. There’s being against it. There’s being for it. Then there’s putting six-packs of beer in a cooler and driving to a hideous prison complex in the middle of the night with four hundred strangers to cheer like fans at a baseball game for the execution of some fat old child killer.
-Matt Taibbi - The Tea Party is Perverted and Irrelevant

Someone Questioned What Planet I Live On in the Newspaper!

I’d feel safe walking with folks in a Tea Party rally

Express-Times Newspaper - April 03, 2010

In response to the letter from Erik B. Anderson, I would like to ask “What planet is Independence Township on?” I think I know. It’s the planet that only receives the alphabet networks on TV.

Anderson sounds like all the other sound-bite political gurus. I ask him to do some research on the Tea Party movement to find out what the protests are all about. They’re about big government, high taxes and out-of-control spending. How are these people terrorists?

He might also do a bit of research about how the “left” handles themselves during their protests. Go back and look at the hatred that was spewed from the “left” about the previous administration. I think you’ll see a marked difference in behavior between them and the Tea Party protests.

And if you really want to see what’s going on, research how the mainstream media covers both kinds of events. You may be surprised.

I guess The Express-Times hasn’t been covering the massive unrest and crime wave in Independence Township, but here in Nazareth, I am safe both on the streets and in my home. Although I haven’t attended a Tea Party rally yet, I would feel perfectly safe there also.

CRAIG RIFENDIFER
Bushkill Township

This is exactly the tactic that I described in my March 31, 2010 letter to the same newspaper. Craig Rifendife slandered my name. People like him depend on Ad Hominem attacks to win their arguments.

They also depend on Straw Man Fallacies. Who is "The Left" he is referring to? I'm right handed.

I am writing a response now.

Sincerely,

Erik B. Anderson
Independence Township, New Jersey
Established 1782

Published Again!

Fight, don't join, the terrorists
The Easton Express Times
Wednesday, March 31, 2010

The tea partiers are consciously trying to induce a public nervous breakdown.
Whether they are sending death threats to a congressman's 5-year-old son in Florida, violently throwing money at a man with Parkinson's disease on an Ohio sidewalk or maliciously shouting the "N" word at African-American representatives at an event in Washington, D.C., the effect is utterly terrifying.

The mass hysteria that is today's Tea Party shows that the majority of us have forgotten we are supposed to be fighting terrorists, not becoming them. Do they really think the end justify the means?

When are we the people going to realize that we are not crazy after all? When will we stand up to all of this bullying? We are not safe in public. We are not safe in our homes. What will the future of our country be like if no one risks stepping out and fighting back?

Erik B. Anderson
Independence Township