According to news reports, people living in the Springboro, Ohio School District are upset after a local tea party member unfurled a Confederate flag at a school board meeting and made racist comments, while – of all things – attending the meeting to “speak about summer Constitution classes”.

Sonny Thomas, who according to a Springboro Tea Party group’s website, is its president and founder, went to the meeting because Springboro’s School Board had cancelled the classes because of allegations the curriculum had “religious undertones” and were “tea party leaning.” Both of course would be justifiable reasons for the board to act as it had – something called “separation of church and state,” especially since many in the Tea Party seem incapable of separating itself from wanting to establish a Christian theocracy, or a Christian version of Shariah law in the United States.

One of the groups “sponsoring” the classes is the Institute of the Constitution, which declares in its Mission statement, “There is an Almighty, Everlasting, Omniscient God – the God of the Bible – Who is active in the affairs of men.

“Our rights, including our right to life, liberty and property come from Him.

“It is the duty of civil government to secure, protect and defend these God given rights, to acknowledge out Creator, glorify Him and make Him known; and when civil government becomes destructive of these God given purposes, it is our duty to alter or abolish such Godless government.”

Yeah, the School Board was more than a little justified in cancelling the so-called “classes” from a group which openly declares the “duty of civil government to secure, protect and defend these God given rights, to acknowledge out Creator, glorify Him and make Him known” and advocates the overthrow of the Federal government if it fails to meet the groups expectations. The group is right-wing uber-Christian at best, and a nest of traitors at worse. yes, anyone who calls for the overthrow of the government is a traitor, not a patriot.

Sonny, whose feelings are well known in the community through his racist tweets, claimed he was there to defend the Constitution classes, but then, according to sources, let his mask down and began making racist comments and endorsing the League of the South, an organization advocating secession, state’s rights, and which calls the federal government an “enemy of the people”. At the end of his speech he unfurled a Confederate flag and asked the audience if they were offended.

It’s always interesting when these “good ol’ boys” proclaim a love for the Constitution while advocating the overthrow of the country and the legitimacy of nullification and secession.

One witness, William Cunningham, wrote about the incident on the Facebook page Springboro United for Responsible Education saying, “If the discussion in the community has come down to some man waving the ‘stars and bars’ during a public forum on education while shouting, ‘This is your heritage!’ at the audience is not only appalling, it is downright awful.’”

How is the Confederate battle flag the “heritage” of Ohio? Mr. Thomas needs to read some history. Ohio remained part of the Union during the Civil War raising more than 250,000 troops, and supplying millions of tons of supplies and materials to preserve the Union, as well as being the home state of Union Generals Ulysses S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman and Philip H. Sheridan.

By-the-way, Sonny, Ohio also played a key role in the Underground Railroad – having more safe houses than any other community in the state – ferrying escaped slaves north into Canada; and incidentally, in case you haven’t noticed, Springboro isn’t exactly in the southern end of the state.

Tea Party members are always claiming the group isn’t racist, that it appeals to people of all races, colors, creeds and religions, and yet we keep seeing basically all-white audiences, racist signs, Confederate flags and calls for secession and the preservation of “states rights”. The preponderance of evidence suggests the majority of the group is racist, and it is anything but patriotic. Calling for secession, or the overthrow of the democratically elected government is not patriotic. Personally, I’m tired of the tantrums and the threats; please rise up and start your “rebellion”. The sooner you do, the sooner those of us who have sworn an oath to defend the Constitution can do so, and the sooner the rest of us can move on with real issues and problems our county is facing. In other words, “Put up, or shut up”.