Educasion.....No, EDUCATION

I always amazed at the lack of civility from some Tea Party members. I know I shouldn't be, but I guess it was the way I was brought up. Yes, I use profanity all the time. I learned it from my mother....well, sort of. She very seldom swore at all. Occasionally I would here a "damn it" and as I got a little older I would hear the word "shit" muttered under her breath. It was not until one of her last years, as she was losing her mind to Alzheimer's Disease, did I hear all the words my mother never taught me. She even managed to sound classy when she yelled "Get this fucking thing off me!"  In spite of the fact that I learned how to swear like a lady from her, I think  she would always want me to be civil about it. If someone beside me called President Obama a Muslim, in my head I would hear my mother say, Suzanne, watch your language.....because chances are I would blurt out "you are a fucking asshole". My mother would say "Sir, you are an asshole, and a fucking one, too."

So, now that that's out of the way, being civil has a lot to do with education. The more educated you are, the more manners you have. I don't have a quote any study to prove this is true. It just is. And another fact that is simply true, is the more education you have, the better you can spell. Tea Party members who like to make signs, please reread the last sentence, if you are able. I'm going to make an assumption here, and I think I might be right.....the smart members of the Tea Party don't make signs. They don't have to. They are bright, articulate, and can state their position without having to write it down. The one exception to this rule is Michelle Bachmann. She is scariest elected official in this country. Batshit crazy scary.

If I was in a march, any march, and I had a sign I made with me, I would triple check it for spelling and vocabulary. When I read a book, if I don't know what a word means, and I can't figure it out by the end of the paragraph, I look it up. It's much easier now than it has ever been since Daniel Webster wrote his first dictionary. Just look it up on your smart phone. If you are going to march around with hand made sign at Tea Party rally, understand this: not everyone there is as illiterate as you are. If you cannot spell, have someone help you, because by showing up with misspelled signs, you are making everyone else around you look stupid.

Another fact, which I don't have to back up, is public education is the best most of us will get. If you are smart and on the ball, you might have the opportunity to go to a private school or university. And if you really have connections, maybe your books, which cost about the amount to heat your home for a year, will be paid for too. But most of us have no choice about where we go to school, but we have a choice to take advantage of what ours schools teach us. From a very young age we are taught to take turns, listen when spoken to, and not to lie. In first and second grade it's time to learn reading and spelling. Understandably, some kids learn faster than others. Some kids find out they have learning disabilities. But most kids learn to read and spell, and are taught what a dictionary is. They also learn you do not make fun of kids that can't read as fast or don't know what a word is. The lesson in front of the lessons in reading and spelling is how to be civil. Kids don't know they are learning that, and we all understand that often civility gets absorbed by hate, but the last I knew, good manners are expected and hate is not a subject taught in school.

Whenever I see these Tea Party signs, misspelled, misinformed, and hateful, I want to bang my head on the table. I want to take a permanent marker to the TV screen and fix the mistakes. And then I want to cry. I am already past the halfway point of my life, but I fear for the future, not because of who is or might be the leader of our nation, but because education and good manners don't seem to matter much anymore. Everyone does not grow up to be a rocket scientist, but you can't fill out a job application and expect to be taken seriously if you can't spell. You can't show up on national TV with a misspelled sign and wonder why people are laughing at you. And, if show up with a sign stating that the President of the United States is a "Niggar" , well, you deserve whatever you get, but I can guarantee this, it won't be for the best speller - best citizen of the century award.