It's clear that Tea Party enthusiasts have forgotten what the rest of us learned in high school about the Constitution and evolution, but last night's pummeling of MoveOn.org member Lauren Valle reveals they're also ignoring the most basic lesson of all, the nursery school mantra, "use your words." Valle, carrying a sign in a group of Rand Paul enthusiasts, was knocked down, her head repeatedly stepped on. This attack was later characterized by campaign coordinator Tim Profitt as "passion," as if "passion" is a synonym for "violence". Maybe Tea Partyists don't use their words because they don't understand words.
I, too, am angry, and have been since George W. Bush was said to have been elected. I have a condition which, if diagnosed, would be called "Keith Olbermann Syndrome," the symptoms being an obsessive, unbridled fury at right wing politicians and pundits that includes a handful of relatives. There's no effective medical treatment for this fury so I turned to a homeopathic remedy, mosaic art.
For years I've been breaking plates, using the shards to design vases, picture frames, lamps, planters and candlestick holders. When Sarah Palin appeared on the scene, I needed to find an acceptable outlet for my anger and channeled it into mosaic political satire, which led to my Breaking News series. This includes vases that pay homage to Stephen Colbert and the environment and edgier cremation urns done with red, white and blue American flag plates and small pictures that comment on our current crises -- financial fraud, job losses, political sex scandals and right wingers. These were recently featured in The New York Times (nytimes.com/2010/10/14/garden/14qna.html) so I will stay a safe distance from any and all Tea Party rallies. These and the more benign items can be seen by going to www.sybilsage.com.
