“With a Little Help From My Friends”

Something happened today, and I couldn’t help but think of the chorus to a familiar pop tune, “I get by with a little help from my friends.”

I received a remarkable email from a fellow Tea Party director who happens to live in another state. What makes this email so remarkable is that it contains an offer of assistance to our group, located hundreds of miles away. Please note! We have never personally met. Our supporters have never seen each other. Yet, the description within this email of the help already given to us is certain proof of an obvious selfless devotion to the cause of liberty, an eagerness to fully cooperate with another Tea Party group, and a willingness to “walk the walk” through the opening of the pocketbooks of their supporters.

A few weeks ago, I was asked by these fellow patriots what they could do to help. After a quick response from me, they took the ball and scored a touchdown. Articles popped up on the web, people got busy, and they even put a link to the “donate” page of our web site on the bottom on one of their own web pages. Stop. Think about that. One Tea Party giving money to another. That’s when you know it’s real. It’s that kind of cooperation which will allow the Tea Party to survive, grow, and prosper.

Part of the success story of the Tea Party as an enduring organization (as opposed to other movements, such as ‘Occupy’) is that various individual groups are willing to work together for the benefit of the whole. We come together for rallies to show our strength in numbers. We pool resources to canvass. Tea Party groups cooperate together to set up conferences, or to host a well-known speaker and become better informed. All of this is proof positive that the Tea Party is maturing into a “real” organization, which it must do in order to survive.

When you think about it, any unity of the Tea Party is quite remarkable, especially given that it is made up of patriotic citizens who hold individual liberty in such reverence. It makes me believe we have a great future. True, we could do better. We need ever more unity to achieve our goals. But, for now, “I get by with a little help from my friends.”