This past Saturday night, I had the privilege of being an invited guest at the Clark County Republican Party’s Lincoln Day Dinner. The keynote speaker was former Sheriff Richard Mack, from Arizona. Sheriff Mack gained notoriety after suing the Clinton Administration in response to the Brady Bill. Other speakers included a former candidate for Governor in Washington State, a local business woman who had also run for local office, Sheriff Tim Mueller from Linn County and local Congresswoman Jayme Herrera-Butler. It was a great slate of very accomplished speakers who all lauded the principles of the Constitution and the exceptional-ism of our great nation. Sounds like a great night out for a supporter of the Republican party to spend time with like minded individuals and hear some rousing speeches from well qualified speakers-right? Imagine my surprise when someone called my attention to an article by a Southwest Washington newspaper who wrote a story about the event and titled it “Tea Party reigns at GOP dinner”.

Now please don’t think I am naive and that I don’t understand full well what this newspaper was trying to do with this inflammatory headline. It was obviously an attempt to lump all the attendees at the event into the same mold that the mainstream media (MSM) just loves to stuff Republicans into-the crazy, gun nut Tea Party lunatic, Ala Tim McVeigh. The irony of this is multi-faceted-especially since Tim McVeigh was LONG DEAD by the time the Tea Party started in 2009, but you see my meaning.

I would love to be able to discount this as the usual hijinks of the MSM media, but the reason I cannot is also multi-faceted. First I would like to address the “elephant in the room” that the author of the article decided to leave out of the piece. The business woman I spoke of earlier was Ms. Dixie Colditz. Ms. Colditz is a naturalized American citizen who hails from South Africa and is imminently qualified to discuss why movement in this country to the left side of the political continuum with nationalized healthcare and nationalized industry is a very bad idea and a threat to the freedom of the citizens of the U.S. but also to the Constitutional principles the country was founded on. She loves this country like so many others who came here because this nation has always been the “shining city on the hill”. She wanted her children to have opportunities that were not available to her in South Africa growing up. She chose the GOP because we stand for “people being free”, for “principle”, for “people being accountable”-after all we are the “party of Lincoln”. Her core message was “freedom is important” and that GOPers should not be afraid to tell people what we are about as Republicans, and that we support women (hello, first Latina Governor??!!). Is that a uniquely Tea Party message? And if it is-why would it be a bad thing to stand for principle, accountability and freedom for the Tea Party or anyone else?

The next speaker was Sharam Hadian, an Iranian born naturalized U.S. Citizen who is also a Muslim apostate and current Christian pastor.

He is the aforementioned former gubernatorial candidate in Washington state, having run in the last election cycle. His speech centered on the importance of speaking the “truth in love” and how horrific it was to watch the people of his former homeland Iran, from the safety of the USA, lose their freedoms to a “tyrannical government”. He encouraged people in the U.S. To stand for the restoration of our Constitutional Republic. He asked people to remember the high price that has been paid for our freedoms in this nation, and he did offer to purchase anyone who complains about this country a one-way ticket to any Socialist, Communist or otherwise tyrannical country. This was by far the most “controversial” thing that was uttered all night.

The closing speakers were Sheriff’s Mueller and Mack who reiterated the importance of standing for our founding principles-freedom, defense of that freedom, and a return to the Constitution and the principles espoused within. They also asked citizens to stand in defense of our Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms.

I encourage everyone who sees smear pieces like this in their local media to do what I have done-counter the message with the truth. I owe a debt of gratitude to my very talented friend Dan Sandini, who fights for liberty and the Constitutional principles that made this nation great at his blog Daylight Disinfectant for the fabulous videos of the speakers at the event that night, please visit his blog as I am sure you will find something enlightening there among his many videos and postings.