Coffee or Tea, my friend?

Neat find of the day...  scrolling through Facebook and found something called the "Coffee Party Movement."

It seems that it is a counter to the Tea Party Patriots.  The Coffee Party asks Americans to wake up and stand up.  They say that the government is "not the enemy of the people, but the expression of our collective will, and that we must participate in the democratic process in order to address the challenges we face as Americans."

This is exactly what we need.  We don't need the hate and anger fomented by groups like the Tea Party (many of these Tea Party groups do meet the definition of a hate group).

To prove many other people think we need this, the Coffee Party Facebook page already has nearly 180,000 fans in its short existence.  The Tea Party page, more than a year older, has only 131,000.  Yet all we hear about on places like Fox News is Tea Party this and that.

Right now the polarization in the Congress is preventing anything from being done.  Instead, everyone is fighting and undermining each other.

Wouldn't it be much better if they could work together, free from corporate interest, and do what's right for the people?

I especially like the quote above that says government should be an "expression of our collective will."  That is what democracy is all about, electing representatives who do what we want and not what special interest groups want.  How did we ever go so far astray as to let lobbyists run the country?

What we need instead is open discourse, sharing of ideas, etc.

Which reminds me...  an interesting thing happened the other day.  I am a bit of a rabble-rouser.  I like to disagree and stir up debate.  It is the very thing that this country was built on.

I am also pretty open-minded.  I can be hard-headed, but I can change my opinion when presented with a good case.

I was in such a debate with a "friend" on Facebook.  This friend, however, does not appear to be as open-minded as I.  He was so upset by my opinions that he de-friended me.

Is that what this world is coming to?  We can no longer have civilized discussions and debate?  This friend would frequently call me a "moron" because I didn't agree with his argument.  I refrained from stooping to this level until this last debate where I called him an idiot.  The right thing to do?  Maybe not.  Long overdue?  You bet.

This friend, by the way, is a neo-conservative, Tea Party Patriot with the mentality "shut up moron, I'm right and everyone else is wrong."

It is a shame.