Had enough of tea party after one visit

On Thursday evening in Arlington Heights, I attended my first tea party meeting — and my last. I have never attended a more bigoted, disturbing and fear-mongering presentation. “Pastor --” started the meeting with a racist joke about President Obama. He later told us he does not endorse Mitt Romney because he is a Mormon.

He informed us that the Illinois tea party severed relations with him because of accusations against him of being a pedophile. After more discussion, a woman in the audience told him to stop talking about these things because he already detailed all this at last month’s meeting.

Retired Col. Golash gave a 20-minute lecture on Sharia law in the United States. The colonel’s main fixation was on Muslims’ hatred of non-Muslims. He quoted Bin Laden, Ahmadinejad and other radical extremists and told us far-fetched stories of how the United States and other countries have applied Sharia law in their courts. He asserted that (four major national companies) contribute to terrorist groups.

Finally, before I walked out, I reminded him that we have a Constitution and that Sharia law does not override the Constitution.  

The origin of the tea party was, in part, a revulsion against the Bush Administration’s bank bailout without adequate protection of taxpayer funds. It seems to have deteriorated into fear-mongering and sloganeering, which I witnessed on Thursday evening.

The evening reminded me of the anti-communist Red Scare of the 1950s. These men were engaging in one of the oldest political traditions — xenophobic demagoguery. But what bothered me most was that no one else spoke up or questioned these two.

Joan Brody

Schaumburg