The Journal

Media Credit: Kholood Eid [Click to enlarge]

This summer has been the health care debate. But for me, the most memorable event of the summer was a Tea Party protest I attended. For those with limited exposure to politics, the Tea Party movement is made up of people who disagree with everything President Barack Obama does. That may be simplifying the issue, but it's not far from the truth. The Tea Partier's ethos can be summarized with a phrase often seen on their signs.

"We want our country back."

The teabaggers' modus operandi are public protests. They like to protest tax hikes which haven't happened, socialist health-care which isn't being considered and government spending which probably saved their jobs. The Tea Parties got their kick-start when CNBC commentator Rick Santelli went on a rant on live TV criticizing the Obama administration's plan to refinance home mortgages. He claimed the plan would promote bad behavior.

And CNBC commentators know a lot about bad behavior.

This is the same cable network whose reporting on the financial markets before the crash was about as valuable as investment advice from Bernie Madoff. Ron Paul supporters staged Tea Parties as early as 2007, but Santelli's rant on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade was the call to action some had been waiting for. The Tea Party movement was born.

So, when the St. Louis Tea Party coalition decided to protest in front of the Service Employees International Union office in the Central West End on Aug. 8, I had to be there to witness it for myself. The St. Louis Tea Party Coalition was protesting the SEIU because a black conservative, Kenneth Gladney, was allegedly assaulted by SEIU members at a health-care town-hall meeting by Rep. Russ Carnahan, D-Mo. Gladney was selling Gadsden flags, yellow flags depicting a snake and the phrase "Don't Tread on Me." Gadsden flags are a historic symbol from the American Revolution popular with the Tea Party folks. Charges of racism and hate crime were being hurled at the SEIU. The man who allegedly assaulted Gladney is also black, but racism knows no colors for the Tea Party faithful.

At the protest Bill Hennessy, one of the leaders of the St. Louis Tea Party, got the crowd hyped up when he claimed that the White House was directly responsible for the assault on Gladney, who was in attendance in a wheelchair. Supposedly too weak from medications to address the crowd, Gladney had his lawyer read a statement.

But what happened after that amazed me.

Gladney's lawyer asked the protesters for donations to help pay his client's medical expenses. It turns out that Gladney was recently laid off from his job and lost his health insurance. My hypocrisy sensor was going crazy, but the crowd of anti-ObamaCare protesters didn't miss a beat. Money was exchanged for Gadsden flags, and the lawyer thanked them for the donations.

So to recap the story …

An unemployed man loses health insurance, goes to protest against health reform, gets injured and has to go to the emergency room. He can't afford the bill, asks for donations from people actively involved in trying to defeat Obama's plan to make health insurance cheaper and available to everybody, and they happily give money to the man in need.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with donating money, or asking for donations, to pay medical bills. This summer Webster University staff were collecting money to help pay for the operation of a little girl. I didn't know who she was or what was wrong with her, but donated all the cash I had on me simply because I would want people to do the same for me if ever I was in need. My little donation probably can't pay for more than 15 minutes in the hospital, but with enough people giving a little money, maybe she would have a better chance. And that, unfortunately, is lost on these Tea Party people.

They are decent people, as was demonstrated by the donations to help with Gladney's medical bills. It probably felt good knowing they helped a like-minded patriot. I remember donating money for that little girl because it made me feel good, selfish as that may sound. But the idea of their tax money paying for medical coverage of all Americans gets them angry enough to protest.

I have never witnessed people so excited about working against their own self-interest.

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