After Alice is through getting advice from the Caterpillar, who told her that if she eats one side of the mushroom she will grow taller, and if she eats the other side it will make her grow shorter, she decides to try it out. Once she takes a bite, however, her neck suddenly she grows far taller than she expected and shoots up right through a tree, where she meets the Pigeon who has a nest in the tree. The Pigeon is paranoid, scared and very loud.
`And just as I'd taken the highest tree in the wood,' continued the Pigeon, raising its voice to a shriek, `and just as I was thinking I should be free of them at last, they must needs come wriggling down from the sky! Ugh, Serpent!'
`But I'm NOT a serpent, I tell you!' said Alice. `I'm a--I'm a--'
`Well! WHAT are you?' said the Pigeon. `I can see you're trying to invent something!'
`I--I'm a little girl,' said Alice, rather doubtfully, as she remembered the number of changes she had gone through that day.
`A likely story indeed!' said the Pigeon in a tone of the deepest contempt. `I've seen a good many little girls in my time, but never ONE with such a neck as that! No, no! You're a serpent; and there's no use denying it. I suppose you'll be telling me next that you never tasted an egg!'
`I HAVE tasted eggs, certainly,' said Alice, who was a very truthful child; `but little girls eat eggs quite as much as serpents do, you know.'
`I don't believe it,' said the Pigeon; `but if they do, why then they're a kind of serpent, that's all I can say.'
It's a frustrating situation for Alice, as she tries desperately to convince the paranoid Pigeon who is screaming at her, that she really isn't a horrible monster as the Pigeon thinks she is. Sound familiar? It should.
There is a fairly large group of people in this country who are paranoid, scared and very loud; they are called the Tea Party. Instead of screaming "SERPENT!" these people scream "SOCIALIST!" or "COMMUNIST!" or "FOREIGNER!" and no matter how hard the rest of try to convince them that our President IS indeed an American citizen and that he NOT a socialist, fascist or a communist, they can't hear us over their own noise. It is incredibly frustrating that these people are so paranoid and gullible.
Enter the Tea Party movement. From what I've observed, these are undereducated, ignorant people who are being told that their way of life and their country is being threatened by a communist president who wasn't even born in the U.S.A. He's going to take your freedom of speech and freedom of religion away. He's going to take your guns away. He's going to kill your parents and grandparents when they are too old to be of any use. This is SERIOUS! Panic ensues. Paranoia becomes out right fear, fear becomes hysteria. Thanks to people like Michelle Bachman, Sarah Palin, Dick Army and all of the talking heads on Fox News Channel pouring fuel on the fire, these people get defensive and then they become dangerous. (And no, I am not blaming them for the AZ shootings.)
With the Tea Party, as with the Pigeon, all of this hysteria stems directly from their own ignorance, yet they claim to be the victim in all of it. There is no convincing them that all of these things they fear are lies and propaganda..."No! I saw it on the NEWS!" As we nod our heads and try to explain that Fox News isn't actually news, and that we are not communists, they get defensive...`Well! WHAT are you?' said the Pigeon. `I can see you're trying to invent something!' Now WE are the socialists. It's all a trick! WE are trying to take away their freedom! WE are trying to take away their guns. There is no other logical explanation as to why we don't agree with them...why we aren't afraid, like they are...why we are supporting a socialist! Suddenly, the hysteria returns, as does the noise! There is no rhyme. No reason. No point in attempting to enlighten anyone. It's too late now. They have been told over and over and over again to believe these things. Rallies, Internet, Fox News, (headline, ticker, interviews...notice how all the statements are EXACTLY the same?) fellow Tea Party patriots. If you tell a group of undereducated and paranoid people,, the same thing over and over and over again, verbatim, they will eventually believe it to be true.
Yes, we are serpents. President Obama is a serpent. Anyone who doesn't agree with you MUST be a serpent!
`I HAVE tasted eggs, certainly,' said Alice, who was a very truthful child; `but little girls eat eggs quite as much as serpents do, you know.'
`I don't believe it,' said the Pigeon; `but if they do, why then they're a kind of serpent, that's all I can say.'
Yes. We know.
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