Today I received a message from a TEA Party friend named David. I know him only through Facebook, but our conversations have been deep. The first message I received from him was in October 2011. He noticed that I was going through a rough spell, and he wrote me this:

Eric, I have always admired your dignity and integrity. Haven’t always agreed with every direction you turned, but you have always been scrupulously true to the highest values. I think very highly of you and I admire you on your firm stand. From experience, (yes, these things happen in church too sadly), people will call you names to defend what they did. Hold firm. You’ll be fine. In the long run its those high principles that will win the day. For whatever it’s worth, you’ll have me behind you too. God bless you!

Now then, a solid reason why the tack you are taking against the commercialization of the Coffee Party is exactly the right thing to do. I looked in my spam box and nosed around a bit. This is one thing I found. No matter what “The Tea Party” says they stand for, they have been going to my spam box for some time now in large part because their “sponsors” spam me continually all day long and I do not have time for any of it. In other words, they have alienated me.

“TheTeaParty.net is forwarding this message to you from one of our sponsors. Sponsorship does not imply any endorsement of the products or services referenced herein by our organization or imply any exclusive arrangement with TheTeaParty.net. All personal information of subscribers is kept in strictest confidence and never shared with sponsors.”

Yeah yeah yeah, except the Tea Party sold or rented them my email address, which admittedly isn’t necessarily private anymore, but….

Stand firm Eric. You just might win a few disgruntled former tea sippers just by showing us your high ethics. You can quote me if it would be helpful.

I did quote you David. Thank you. Let’s work together, and let’s hope that our fellow Americans, when they band together for a cause, can learn how not to become what they set out to oppose.