SECOND UPDATE: Bill shares his thoughts at the StLouisTeaParty site on the event and the danger of crowding out private charity with government support. Dana does her own sleuthing on Jesse Irwin, and shares her thoughts on the meeting with Circle of Concern. Both are furious that the Tea Party name was slandered and used as political fodder by members of the media and liberal blogs. Dana also uncovers this post at Craigslist where a (the?) Jesse Irwin apologizes for the staged photo.
Now if we could only get Charles Jaco to personally apologize for his slander, we could get somewhere.
Begin Original Post:
I received an email about the Circle of Concern matter - Bill and Dana were heading down there to meet with some members of the board and they wanted me to tag along and record it.
The question, was why would the board of directors turn down Tea Party donations? Well, we were able to clarify and clear up what was being done, which leaves us with some tough questions, and also some very dirty tracks leading back to FiredUp and a staged photograph.
Let me first start by saying that Circle of Concern is a wonderful organization, and they do good work. The need for food banks has been rapidly expanding in the last year, a degree of expansion that calls for more volunteers, more donations, and yes, even temporary government help. That's one of the reasons it made so much sense to partner with CoC for our food drive. The people at Circle of Concern are also genuinely concerned about those they help, and in no way do I, or any of the Tea Party organizers want to tear down the organization. Their work is important, which is what made the original discovery that the Tea Party wasn't wanted so disturbing.
On April 15th of this year, we collected 3000 lbs of food and $600 dollars (enough for another 3000 lbs) at Kiener Plaza. Volunteers, led by Rich and Mimi, collected the food onsite, and used the CoC van to transport the food back to the Food Bank. It was a smashing success, and CoC thanked them in the June newsletter. After the Tea Party, reports from the Southern Law Poverty Center, Charles Jaco, the Post-Dispatch, and FiredUpMissouri convinced members of the board that the Tea Parties were too political. Two photographs were referenced, one stating that Russ Carnahan should be hanged, and the other with a picture of a Swastika. Both pictures were found at FiredUp, in one of their attempts to smear any and all Tea Party activists.
The concern over those two photos, combined with a voiced concern about 501c(3) status of non-profits, convinced the board to vote to not have the food bank officially come to Tea Party events to collect food. They would take donations, and we could deliver food, but volunteers could not wear clothing suggesting they were part of Circle of Concern, and the van couldn't be used.
Here's the problem. The first photo was staged by a leftwing comedian, and the other was a takeoff on a best-selling book called Liberal Fascism, which addresses the similarity between the progressivism of Woodrow Wilson and FDR, and the socialist/fascist movements of Europe. We explained to CofC that staged photos and the photos most likely to offend were reprinted in an effort to discredit the Tea Parties. Throw in Charles Jaco's innaccurate and corrected report on hate groups at the Tea Parties (as defined by the SLPC), and it was clear the Tea Parties were maligned by far left wing groups. Here's some proof.
Meet Jesse Irwin. He's a funny guy. He's a musician and a comedian who plays funny songs. He's also played at a fundraiser for Barack Obama. Dana was warned that certain leftwing types planned on infiltrating the Tea Parties with mock signs, that would be posted and reposted at sites like Huffington Post and FiredUp, who would dutifully report what horrible people the Tea Party folks were.
Well, it worked. This photo was specifically cited as a reason CoC was uncomfortable having their logo and name associated with the Tea Party events. They were horrified at the suggestion of hanging a sitting member of Congress. In a very concrete way, you can say that FiredUp's attempts to smear us worked to prevent charitable food donations to the needy.
Our responses about the tax code, staged photos, and let wing smears couldn't change the essential facts. Circle of Concern is a food pantry, and their mission is to help people, not get embroiled in politics. While we could hope they handled the situation with more backbone, we couldn't fault them for trying to protect the organization. At least the original editorial from the St Louis Post Dispatch Editorial Board suggesting we were selfish was proven wrong. The Tea Party is a political movement, but it is made up of people who firmly believe in volunteer service as the first step in charity.
We're natural allies with private charities, whether they accept us or not. Tea Partiers support local charities because federal giving crowds out private giving. Federal money comes with federal strings, and in addition to being less efficient, comes with a pricetag of serfdom. A government that feeds you, has the power to tell you what to do. Bill says this more eloquently than I, but it seems that in this case, the hate sites of the left have effectively severed a relationship between the Tea Parties and Circle of Concern. We were left with the reality that if we want to run a food collection, we'll need to do so on our own, and deliver the food. Considering we truly are a grassroots organization with no structure and no subcommittees, chances are we'll just move on to another charity.
And that's a crying shame. 6000 lbs of food feed almost a hundred families for one month. Left wing activists worked to libel the Tea Parties and who cares if some people go hungry? There's nothing more important than political power, even if it means charities and those they serve are impacted.
I would encourage each of you to think about food banks in the coming months. It would be terrible if CoC or other charities lost even one dollar of donations or food because of this event. They didn't seek to be in the spotlight, but were thrust into it by the Post Dispatch, Charles Jaco, and FiredUp. Keep that in mind the next time they lecture you on the evil of conservatives. For the brainwashing of the public to work, those of us who believe in individual liberty have to be selfish, rich, and evil. If it turns out we care about people, then what else is the media lying about?
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