Change the National 9 - 11 Memorial and Museum

Immediately after 9 -11 New York Mayor Giuliani rejected Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s money because it came with an insult to America.  Bin Talal is currently funding the Ground Zero Victory Mosque.[i]  And now a worse insult!  Bin Talal is helping to write the National 9 – 11 Memorial and Museum at Ground Zero!  

Less then a month after 9 – 11, at an early 9 – 11 memorial event, bin Talal attempted to give Giuliani $10 million for disaster relief.  But bin Talal simultaneously suggested that we look at our American policies that justified the attack including our support for Israel. 

Giuliani rejected the assertion that good justifications existed for the 9 – 11 attacks and refused the money.  America’s mayor said, "To suggest that there's a justification for [the terrorist attacks] only invites this happening in the future.  It is highly irresponsible and very, very dangerous.”[ii]

Though rebuked by Giuliani, bin Talal did not give up promoting his dangerous ideas.  Six years later the prince started funding Georgetown’s Middle Eastern studies program.[iii]  And now, members of Georgetown’s Middle Eastern studies department are serving as advisors in writing the history section of our National 9 -11 Memorial and Museum.[iv]  

Involvement of Georgetown’s department that the offensive bin Talal funds, does not necessarily prove malfeasance.  But the confirmed involvement of Princeton’s Near Eastern Studies department, with their pro-Islamic colleague Amaney Jamal, brings additional discomfort.[v]  And, what Alice Greenwald, Executive Vice-President for Programs of the National 9 – 11 Museum and Memorial, told us at a Manhattan Community Board meeting merits grave concern. 

While the National 9-11 Memorial properly eulogizes the tragic loss of life on September 11^th, it will only dedicate a small part of one of three history rooms to the question of “Who did this and why.”[vi]  Ms. Greenwald told the Community Board that her Middle Eastern advisors had told her not to use the word “Islam.”  Instead, she explained, they will use the word “Islamist” specifically to distance the connection of the 9 – 11 attacks with Islam.[vii] 

Besides the dearth of time dedicated to why we were attacked, the exhibit’s timeline greatly concerns this western culturist historian.  The one solitary documentary film in the exhibit will explore the roots of Al Qaeda.  Ultimately, we must worry that the film being prepared will only tie the 9 - 11 attack to the American funding of Afghani fighters.  Thus, as Bin Falal would have it, the exhibit will lay the root causes for 9 – 11 at the feet of America.

A wider timeline would note that Islam has been attacking the West for nearly 1400 years.  Islam took Spain for seven hundred years.  And after Islam destroyed the Christian Byzantine Empire, it gave Constantinople its current name, Istanbul.   Islam might even have taken the rest of Europe had it not been repelled in the Battle of Vienna on September 11^th, 1683.[viii]  Despite what Bin Talal might say, our struggle with Islam did not start with the 1948 founding of Israel and it did not start with America's support of Al Qaeda in the late 1970s. 

According to Ms. Greenwald, the National 9 – 11 Memorial will also chronicle “previous terrorist attacks, on U.S. targets on the U.S.S. Cole and the African Embassy bombings.”  But instead of just focusing on the U.S., a map showing the global scope of the over 15,000 Islamic terrorist acts since 9 – 11 would create a different impression.  A focus on Islamic jihad in Europe, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand or India would undercut Bin Talal’s idea that Islam only targets America for its crimes.

The National 9 – 11 Memorial and Museum needs to openly tell us which scholars in these Middle Eastern departments will be advising them.  Furthermore, we western culturists request that pro-western scholars, such as Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch, Ms. Brigitte Gabriel of ACT! For America, Mrs. Wafa Sultan, or Congressman Allen West to help write the Memorial's history section.  It would be a dangerous shame if our national memory of 9 – 11 was given to employees of the man who insulted us on 9 – 11 and is building the Mosque at Ground Zero.

Please watch the video preview of the National 9 - 11 Memorial and Museum given by Alice Greenwald at the top of the video section of www.culturism.us.  Join our facebook site, "Western Historians Must Write the 9 - 11 Memorial at GZ," and help spread the word.  

John Press, Ph.D.
President - Brooklyn Tea Party
pressjohn@hotmail.com
www.brooklynteaparty.org
www.culturism.us

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[i] John Cook, “News Corp’s number-two shareholder funded ‘terror mosque’ planner,” August 30, 2010, http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100820/bs_yblog_upshot/news-corps-number-two-shareholder-funded-terror-mosque-planner

[ii] CNN, “Giuliani rejects $10 million from Saudi prince,” October 11, 2001, http://articles.cnn.com/2001-10-11/us/rec.giuliani.prince_1_saudi-prince-alwaleed-bin-israeli-withdrawal-criminal-attack?_s=PM:US

[iii] Korade, Matt, “Saudi Giving at the Heart of a Great Debate over Middle East Studies,” Congressional Quarterly, April 11, 2008,  http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/5046

[iv] Alice Greenwald told the author of this article this after a Community Board One meeting, 12/13/2010, 6 pm, in New York City. 

[v] Larcom, Geoff, Princeton Professor Breaks Down Perceptions of Muslim-Americans in U.S. [on Amaney Jamal]
 Focus EMU Online (Eastern Michigan University News)
February 2, 2010, http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/9085

[vi] See the footage of the 9 – 11 Memorial and Museum presented to the Community Board One at www.youtube.com

[vii] Alice Greenwald told the author this during the question and answer session following the 12/13/10 Community Board One meeting in which the national 9 – 11 Memorial and Museum plans were presented. 

[viii] The Battle Of Vienna, wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vienna

Video of the Culturist Brooklyn Tea Party Platform

Hey Brooklyn Tea Party Activists and Friends,

        I hope you're having a good Christmas and holiday season.  

                    PLEASE WATCH AND SPREAD OUR GROUP VIDEO

                                                 of the 

                              BROOKLYN TEA PARTY PLATFORM

       SIGN THE PLEDGE at www.brooklynteaparty.org

       It only takes a second.

       Let's start a coalition.

      Thanks for all,

        John Press

Brooklyn Tea Party

www.brooklynteaparty.org

www.culturism.us

Brooklyn Tea Party Challenges Libraries Over Flags

From : John K. Press, Ph.D.

President of the Brooklyn Tea Party

To: Linda E. Johnson, Interim Executive Director

       1 Grand Army Plaza #1

        Brooklyn, NY 11238

Re: American Flag-Flying Requirement

Dear Ms. Johnson,

                  State law (NYS Executive Law art. 19, § 403) requires that all public buildings, including the public library, fly the American flag prominently outside of their doors.  As you may be aware, however, some of our library branches have empty flag poles.  The Brooklyn Tea Party respectfully requests that you immediately remedy this oversight and comply with this State law at all branches.

                  The statute eloquently asserts, “The American flag is the symbol of our country, of the ideals embodied in our constitution [sic], and is the symbol of the spirit which should animate our institutions. It is the emblem of freedom in its truest and best sense, signifying government resting on the consent of the governed; liberty regulated by law; . . . “[i]   Following the law would honor these sentiments.

                  Analysts have noted that our national discourse has become increasingly polarized.[ii]  During such a time, it becomes more important than ever for public buildings to convey that which unites us. And the law of the land commands the flying of the American flag to “produce a patriotic effect.” [iii]  The Brooklyn Tea Party asks you to do just that.

                  No matter what the books inside the library teach, following the law and displaying the American flag prominently at all of our branches will educate the public through a positive social message of unity and demonstrate conviction concerning America’s lofty ideals.   We look forward to hearing from you in a timely manner.   

                  For the Brooklyn Tea Party

John K. Press, Ph.D.

President - The Brooklyn Tea Party

www.brooklynteaparty.org

pressjohn@hotmail.com

cc: Bay News, Sheepshead Bites, Brooklyn Eagle, NY Daily News, Fox Business News, Brooklyn Ink, Indypendence Paper,  Canarsie Courier, Bay Ridge Press,

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[i] Section 400 of the NYS Executive Law, art. 19

[ii] Six Questions for John Avlon, The Economist, May 16th, 2010, http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2010/05/john_avlon_interview

[iii] Section 403 of the NYS Executive Law, art. 19

Culturist Brooklyn Tea Party Press Release

THE BROOKLYN TEA PARTY DENOUNCES ASSEMBLYMAN STEVEN CYMBROWITZ , AND HIS ILK

Steven Cymbrowitz Epitomizes the Rotten Cowardice of American Politicians

Contact: John K. Press, Ph.D.                 

President of the Brooklyn Tea Party

Email: pressjohn@hotmail.com

To: Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz, Helene Weinstein, et al.

For months the Brooklyn Tea Party and members of the Sheepshead Bay community have worked diligently to get local politicians to address their concerns about the building of a mosque at 2812 Voorhies Avenue - the Voorhies mosque.  We have written letters to Steven Cymbrowitz, Helene Weinstein, Chuck Schumer, Kirsten Gillibrand, Anthony Weiner, Marty Golden, Alan Maisel, Marty Markowitz, and Carl Kruger.  Each representative received a certified letter with over thirteen hundred signatures of local residents affixed. 

                  Within these letters we told them that the Anti-Defamation League claimed that the developer of the Mosque, the Muslim American Society (MAS), “has a troubling history of associations with radical organizations and individuals that promote terrorism, anti-Semitism and reject Israel's right to exist.”  The ADL called MAS “the leading American Muslim organization organizing anti-Israel activity in the U.S.”[i] We provided over eighty pages of evidence documenting these claims.[ii] Recently the Staten Island Roman Catholic Church’s board, which includes Archbishop Timothy Dolan, decided not to sell property the MAS wanted to turn into a mosque over this very same documentation.[iii]

                   The Brooklyn TEA Party knows why none of the above mentioned politicians responded to our concerns about the MAS’ Voorhies mosque.  They are cowards.  They are politicians rather than leaders.  They do not want to offend a single person, let alone a group.  Afraid of being called racist, they will not say anything culturist.[iv]  They refuse to utter more than the BS PC clichés that are rotting our nation. They are angry about nothing.  They much prefer photo opportunities when launching nice sounding yet costly programs to taking stances.  They are the very reason that the TEA Party is necessary.

Brooklyn Tea Party Fights the Voorhies Mosque !!

The Brooklyn Tea Party Rallies !!

         The Brooklyn TEA Party rallied this last Sunday.  Here is some coverage.  

         Two corrections!  Though at Kosher Hut, we meet in Gravesend, not Midwood at 2 pm each Sunday.  Also, I count more than 40 assembled and we kept the numbers fluctuating like this for over three hours!  

           Regardless, it is a very prettypicture.

          The whole, article with expandable photos, can be found by clicking HERE ! - 

JOIN THE BROOKLYN TEA PARTY RALLY !!

JOIN THE BROOKLYN TEA PARTY RALLY !!

THIS SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 19^TH, 3PM – 6 PM

69^th STREET PIER

TAKE THE R TRAIN TO the BAY RIDGE AVE - 68^th St Stop

Walk down Bay Ridge Ave to get there

Hear Candidates Who Pledge To:

1.           Fight for a Balanced Budget Amendment, Freeze Spending and Hiring, and Overturn ObamaCare.

2.           Fight the Ground Zero Mosque

3.           Support Arizona’s Immigration Law.

                                      - Speakers Include –

- Dan Halloran - member of the New York City Council, 19th District

- Betsy McCaughey – Lieutenant Governor of New York (1995 – 1998)

- Roger Blank – Candidate for the House of Representative in the 14^th District against Carolyn Maloney

- Andrew Sullivan - Fox and Friends Guest, Ground Zero Rally Speaker and Blue Collar Corner Blogger

- Susan Kone- Candidate for the House of Representatives in the 8th District against Jerry Nadler

- Frank Santarpia - President of the Staten Island Tea Party

- Satya Dosapai -  Human Rights Watch

- Bob Turner -Candidate for the House of Representatives in the 9th District against Anthony Weiner

- John Press – President of the Brooklyn Tea Party, author of the book Culturism: A Word, A Value, Our Future

AND JOIN THE BROOKLYN TEA PARTY

We meet at 2 pm every Sunday at Kosher Hut at 709 King’s Hwy

Join our Brooklyn Tea Party Group Facebook Community with the above logo

Proposed Brooklyn Tea Party Candidate Pledges

On September 12^th, the Brooklyn Tea Party will be holding a rally at the 69^th Street Pier.  We are actively seeking speakers and would greatly appreciate any recommendations and leads you provide.  I am currently pursuing representatives of The Club for Growth and Citizens Against Government Waste.

            Many candidates we have had speak to our group previously, as well as others, would like to speak at our rally.  However, to separate those we would like to give publicity to from those who would just use our credibility, I propose their acceptance of pledges be a prerequisite. 

            Below are six suggested pledges I would like to require of candidates who wish to speak at our rally.  Please feel free to criticize these and suggest others.

           Personally, I would like to add a commitment to use the words "culturism" and "culturist" to counterbalance multiculturalism and disarm the constant abuse of the word ‘racist’ by those who do not wish to discuss the negative aspects of diversity.

            Your feedback on the culturism suggestion, the pledges, and possible speakers is greatly needed and appreciated.  Thank you.

Pledges for Brooklyn Tea Party Candidates:

                1)         - Whereas the reduction of our deficit will require sacrifice;

1)             Pledge to propose legislation to cut all government salaries by 20%. 

                2)         -Whereas stimulus plans and the associated borrowing undermine our national solvency and character;

2)             Pledge to fight to have the unspent stimulus monies applied directly to the reduction of our debt and vote against any further exceptions to the Pay-As-You-Go Budget Rule.

    3)         - Whereas civic participation is weakened by national initiatives and strengthened by local community participation;

3)             Pledge to triple the tax deduction for local charitable giving.

   4)          - Whereas we have national sovereignty, are at war with Islam, and no international right exists for foreign nations to build mosques in our nation;

4)             Pledge to fight the building of the 9 – 11 mosque.

   5)          - Whereas the stability of our nation rests on the reduction of the debt and we must also ask for sacrifice from the off-spring of the greatest generation;

5)             Pledge to propose legislation to take social security and medicare away from those making over 225,000 dollars a year upon their retirement.

   6)             - Whereas unemployment is well above 10% and our nation cannot assimilate unlimited numbers of peoples from foreign cultures;

6)              Pledge to build a fence along our southern border and denounce attacks on Arizona’s laws.

Strange John Press Interview

Here is a not so great interview of me for a web channel.  If you're really bored, watch it by clicking here:

http://filmat11.tv/2010/07/tea-party-comes-to-brooklyn/

DIVISION WITHIN THE TEA PARTY ??!!

Acrimony within the Tea Party and important issues came from an article profiling me in the NYC Daily News. While the Daily News reporter originally contacted me due to my being the President of the Brooklyn Tea Party, the conversation quickly swung to my political passion: culturism. In this context we also discussed the Brooklyn Tea Party’s rally to stop the mosque at Ground Zero of the 9 – 11 attacks.


When I went to another Tea Party Chapter meeting to network and see how they run their meetings, the flack began. “That F’in idiot John Press” one member was exclaiming loudly in conversation when I entered the meeting. Shocked because I thought I had brought some good publicity to the Tea Party! When I finally calmed the movement leader down, I found he had some valid and interesting reasons to criticize me.

Many members have worked very hard to make the “Tea Party brand.” Being smeared as racists (the leaders who chastised me was black), fringe truthers concerned with Obama’s birth certificate, and dangerous militia folk, made people skittish about joining the Tea Party. Party strategists have, therefore, worked to make Tea Party membership only indicate a devotion to fiscal conservativism and upset over our nation's out-of-control borrowing. Eventually, we may be able to diversify into other areas of concern, the Chapter President explained, but to continue in a growth mode, making people think the Tea Party denounces Mosques scrambles the message and makes folks skittish about joining. Many national leaders believe we should never deviate from our main point.

Though he has valid points several responses come to mind. First of all, while it may not play strongly nationally, in Brooklyn people are hot under the collar over this mosque. And a large coalition already exists to stop another one being built in Brooklyn. Our ultimate local aim is to elect legitimately conservative candidates. Certain parts of Brooklyn have large pools of underrepresented and abused conservative citizens who would get active for legit candidates. And, if we wish to find legit candidates, an even stronger litmus test than whether or not they will go on record as favoring not overspending, is whether or not they will go on record opposing a mosque at ground zero and in Brooklyn. We will accrue passionate activists as well as politicians with integrity if we make stopping the mosque one of our areas of focus.

I wrote a policy paper about immigration being a Tea Party issue. Illegal immigration costs our states billions per year. Among other things, immigration is a fiscal issue. Can't immigration be a Tea Party issue?  And what about foreign policy?  I wrote another policy paper about the Tea Party using culturism to mediate the isolationism of Ron Paul and the expansionist view of Sarah Palin. Both claim Tea Party credibility despite their divergent stances. Culturism argues that we take cultural diversity seriously. Culturists agree with Ron Paul about avoiding nation building. But we culturists do so because cultural diversity dooms such efforts. So we agree with Palin that we must recognize our cultural enemies. Culturism argues that we strike our enemies hard, if we must, but then return home. The immigration issue and the culturist stance of avoiding nation building both seem intimately connected with the Tea Party message of smaller government and saving money. Are we not allowed to discuss such issues?

I asked the hostile Tea Party leader if he’d back an open-borders, pro-mosque, fiscal conservative. Having ample experience in politics, he gave me a great answer. He told me of a time where he had worked alongside an avowed socialist on the issue of driver’s licenses for illegal aliens. Politics make strange bedfellows. In the case of backing a candidate with whom many of us would disagree, he said we should never endorse candidates as such, we should endorse their economic policy. I told my disagreeing comrade that I thought that we would get more growth by taking a stance with Arizona than ignoring it. He disagreed. When I told him I thought we would soon need to choose to either side with Palin and her expansionist policies or Paul’s isolationist stance, he agreed. But, he added, the time for that decision had not yet come. To grow the movement to where it will have an impact we need numbers and that means we must stay on message.

I will bring this debate to the next Brooklyn Tea Party meeting. We will need to decide whether we entirely drop the mosque and immigration issues and just stick with the core theme of fiscal conservatism or not. I will add an argument my erstwhile compatriot did not add. As a new chapter, taking a brand others have crafted and bending it to your will is rude. If you, the reader, have any additional pertinent insights for me to bring to my chapter, please leave a comment and I will do so.

http://www.culturism.us/

The Tea Party is a Culturist Movement

   In what way is the Tea Party a Culturist movment?  What are the culturist implications of the Tea Party?  The answers circle around the concept of self-governance.

   Culturism holds that the traditional majority culture has the right to define, promote, and protect themselves.   This is self-governance as the Founding Fathers meant it, as a community.

   On the largest scale, culturism advocates self-governance for the West.  Islamic nations realize they have a majority culture and have culturist policy.  So do Asian cultures.  In fact, that is the norm throughout the world and time.  The world is not getting more diverse, the West is.  Only the West has given up the culturist right to self-definition in the name of multiculturalism, globalism, and individualism. 

   The West has a core culture.  And, more than any other culture, it is based on the concept of self-governance.  If you ask Americans to describe their nation, what makes it special, they will reply, “It is a democracy.”  The Greeks invented democracy, the Roman republic is a golden age.  The Middle Ages, in part, get called the Dark Ages because people were not encouraged to lend their minds to rationally guiding their individual and collective fates. 

   Islamic cultures pride themselves on fidelity to their theocratic strictures.  Democracy, free speech, the separation of church and state, feminism, are not their values.  China has neither free speech, freedom of religion, or democracy.  That is not their value.  Just as they have a right to keep people out that do not have their values, we have a right to do the same.  The multiculturalists say we have no core culture.  The values they identify as “human” values are really just western values. 

   Within the American Federalist system, States and localities have the right to self-governance.  This right has been attacked by the Federal government.  Whether you favor or oppose abortion, for example, you should recognize that when the Supreme Court decides nationally, it takes away a reason for you to participate locally.  By definition, whatever is decided in Washington DC is not decided in your State or locality.  Smaller government means more participatory democracy, more self-governance.

   Culturism also gets undermined by a radical rights-based individualist framework.  In modern America, no traditional majority culture can protect, define and promote itself without the ACLU saying it makes an individual uncomfortable.   This undermines communities’ ability to exist and guide themselves.  Individuals exist within the context of cultures.  To smash individual rights would go against the tenure of western civilization.  But, communities and traditions cannot be kept from existing because one individual might have his feelings hurt.

   Finally, self-governance means that individuals govern themselves.  To do so sustainably, they must think about responsibility.  Negatively, when the government takes care of you it removes your motivation to be responsible.  Positively, we should behave with an eye to vindicating the western culture that believes in our ability to decide what we wish to do for ourselves.   Thus the Tea Party’s call for smaller government supports the western value of liberty through responsibility.

   The Tea Party ideal of self-governance is not only theoretical.  If the West falls, self-governance will cease to exist.  Militarism can take over.  Neither Islam nor China will fight for our rights to self-governance.  The Federal government has shown itself incapable of self-governance.  It has nearly bankrupted all of us.  Local communities without the right to set standards end up riddled with anti-social behavior.  And individuals that are not self-governing, are not truly free.  The Tea Party needs to stand for self-governance at the local level or the West will fall.

www.culturism.us

Culturism, the Tea Party, and Foreign Policy

The Tea Party is in danger of being torn between the Ron Paul’s constrictive and Sarah Palin’s expansive foreign policy wings. Culturism can help us move past both of these hurdles.

Culturism is the opposite of multiculturalism. Culturism is defined as “the philosophy which holds that majority cultures have a right to define, protect, and promote themselves domestically.” This philosophy supports sovereignty.

On foreign policy culturism provides a third path between Palin and Paul. From a culturist point of view, both sides are misled by avoiding the subject of culture.

Paul’s view that Jihad is a backlash against an expansive foreign policy ignores culture. Islam is an expansive theocratic thought-system that has been at war with the West for 1400 years. Withdrawing our troops from the Middle East and apologizing for America’s behavior will not win us friends and allies in that region.

Palin’s Neo-Con friends take the view hat we can turn Muslim nations into believers in western values. This also ignores culture. Islam is fundamentally hostile to the solely western values of freedom of speech, any separation of church and state, women’s rights, and democracy. From a culturist perspective, nation building in that region is doomed to failure.

Two foreign examples will outline culturist foreign policy towards Islam.

Using Iran as an example, culturists believe that we need to militarily destroy their nuclear weapons making ability. Culturism believes in cultural sovereignty, but nuclear weapons are not a part of Iran’s traditional majority culture and they are developing these weapons to attack western nations. We cannot allow them to have nuclear weapons. Yet, after destroying their weapons building infrastructure, we should not try to rebuild their civic and political infrastructure with the hopes of turning them into an America-loving democracy.

Afghanistan hit us by harboring the terrorists that did such tremendous damage on 9 – 11 that we have a right and duty to inflict pain upon them in self-defense; thus teaching them -and the world - a lesson. The perpetrators’ being killed cannot be so pretty, but the al Qaeda forces attacked us and we must be done, that is war. But after we inflict pain in Afghanistan and kill those who attacked us, culturists insist that we let Afghanistan be the nation it wants to be, even though we realize they will not uphold western values or be strong western ally.

From a Tea Party consistent vantage, wanting smaller government and expanding American dominion to an entire other hemisphere lacks consistency. “Smaller” and “world” government are near opposites. And every penny put into the Afghani and Iraqi economy, does not go into ours.

Thus the culturist point of view combines the hawk message of protecting the US with the anti-expansionist view of the doves by including cultural information. If a nation harbors terrorist that hurt us, we must inflict serious pain on them and then leave. This policy is fiscally conservative. This policy protects us from terrorism. This policy is compatible with smaller government. This culturist foreign policy should be the Tea Party position.

www.culturism.us

The Brooklyn Tea Party

I have great hopes for the Brooklyn Tea Party. On April 15^th, New York City had a very large Tea Party protest in Manhattan. I got there early to participate as a Marshall. The police had provided us two large block-long rectangular cages in which we were allowed to protest. And, the front cage was only about 1/3^rd full when the Staten Island Tea Party showed up.

Before teaching at Staten Island University I never realized how difficult transportation to Staten Island is. And so the Staten Island group had rented their own buses. And, they came, and they came, and they came in droves. Overcoming the great distance from Staten Island to Manhattan, they filled the rest of the cage I was stationed in and a third of the other. For the longest time my organizing plea fell short, “Are you from Brooklyn? Take a flier, help form the Brooklyn Tea Party.” “No.” they’d say proudly, ‘Staten Island!”

My reaction to my rejection was elation. Staten Island had organized legions. In trying to organize the Brooklyn Tea Party, I had spoken to their President. Frank Stantarpia, on the phone. He told me that organizing the party was not so hard. A website that could capture email addresses did most of the work. They have 1200 members, they send out email announcements, and many subsequently come to meetings. Give people a place, time and date, Frank Told me, and they will come.

Furthermore, Frank confirmed that he had had success doing what I was hoping the Brooklyn Tea Party would do. They had held politicians accountable. In local New York politics machines take voters for granted. And, perhaps as a result, not that many people vote. Being able to mobilize forty patriots on the weekend during the election cycle gets you a lot of play. Politicians came to his group for endorsements and help and did not get either without good records and promises of better ones. They had made great strides in taking the party back from the machine.

And, by sheer numbers, pounding keys, pounding pavement, and attending meetings, the Brooklyn Tea Party can and will influence politicians in Brooklyn. We can give the Democratic majority a run for their money. We can make them compromise with us for a change. We can hold Republican’s feet to the fire. And we, the people, can steal seats. Frank told me his group had greatly changed the voting records and tone in Staten Island and that this had reverberated in State politics and above. As I saw the relentless flow of Staten Island Tea Party members roll off the bus it confirmed that we can get our borough and nation back on track. And so, dear reader, can you.

Dr. John Kenneth Press is the President of the Brooklyn Tea Party and the author of Culturism: A Word, A Value, Our Future. www.culturism.us has more information about culturism. Search for the Brooklyn Tea Party on facebook. Join today!