Could it be that easy?

Some friends of mine went to a county Teaparty organizing event this week. I was really surprised they would go but they are politicians at heart. Whenever there is a group of people gathered, they want to be there. It's always good to meet new faces and greet old faces.

So I asked them why they went. "You're awful conservative, but your not that conservative."

"We were invited."

Oh. Hmmm.

So, I make the mistake of charging into a lecture about "wingnuts", no ideology, lunatic fringe, etc. That was bad on my part, but at times it is hard to contain myself.

My good friend says, "They are against all incumbents."

That can't be bad. After all, we live in Texas. So I say. "I am too! But, teabaggers?"

"Maybe we can change our name" he says.

"Let me see if I got this right. The guy invites you to his "Teabagger" organizing party and your first suggestion is that you don't identify yourselves with the Tea Party movement? That's like you going to a bachelor party and deciding to call it a wake."

Well, my friend is on a policy research committee for the county Tea Party organization that may become a wake. I don't know what policy he is researching. Really didn't want to know. My other friend said he didn't know if he was going to join. He will. Especially if one important Republican steps into their ranks.

I puzzled over it all night. You might say I worried. What's this world coming to? Then I remembered something that happened to me a long time ago.

I worked with a county public health district one time. In this particular county we had a small rural settlement of maybe a hundred and fifty folks. In a short period of time a number of folks had died of pancreatic cancer. Of course in that small village, everybody knew each other. So quickly, fear rose up in the settlement that something was wrong in their environment and they were going to have more cases of pancreatic cancer. They came to the Health District for answers.

We researched the question and found no particular anomaly in the incidence of pancreatic cancer. They were having no more or no fewer people dying of pancreatic cancer over the past fifty years than anywhere else in the state.

"Do you know we have high power lines running through the town?"

"What?"

"We have high power lines running through the town and you know what they do."

"No. What do they do?"

"They give off radiation and that causes cancer."

"I don't think so. There is no documented study that finds a correlation between magnetic radiation emitted by high power lines and pancreatic cancer."

I wish I could have taken those words back. I could have said any number of things but that was probably the worst. Now the citizens believed there was a government cover up and that they were going to be the next to die so we could rid ourselves of witnesses. They went on to the State.

I figured good. Let the State resolve this issue. But they didn't. I get a call that the State Health Officer is setting a public hearing on the issue to be held in our meeting room. The whole town was invited to give testimony.

So, the hearing day comes around and the meeting room fills. The State Health Officer himself decides to attend. I figure this is going to be a long day and nobody is going to win.

As fate, and human nature, would have it, the town had a spokesperson. Normal people are shy and unfamiliar with the ways of government. They know when something is wrong, but they are afraid to articulate it for themselves in front of a crowd. So let the one that wants to talk do it for you.

The spokesperson gets up and starts to tell the State Health Officer about the number of people who have died in their small town, what percentage of them that died of pancreatic cancer. The spokesperson now begins to strengthen her arguments with embellishments that she thinks is helping her cause but probably isn't. She starts telling the Health Officer about tin foil on her TV, her TV turning itself on and off, and how her husband turns the TV off and on by leaving the room to go to the refrigerator or bathroom. No switching. Just on and off.

"That must prove to you the powers of the radiation that comes off these lines. Its clear as the time the aliens took me. But that's another story from another time."

"What?"

"What What?"

"What did you just say?" says the Health Officer.

"You mean about the aliens? I was abducted one time but I'm not here to discuss that."

Hearing closed. Issue over. Citizens scratching their heads, looking at their spokesperson like she just came down with pancreatic cancer. Elvis has left the building.

Why do I go into that story? I believe there are more normal people than there are wingnuts. I believe that all of us have a little wingnut in us and it scares us. I want to "vote the bastards out." I want lower taxes. I want less rules telling me what I want to do. I want all the things teabaggers want, but I also have a rational mind that says we have some responsibility for each other so we can all be better off.

What I think will happen is that teabaggers are going to draw a lot of people into it like my friends. But they are going to get in and look around and begin to feel a little creepy and then slowly disappear back into the world of normalcy. I'll keep you posted. So goes my friends, so goes the world of teabaggery.