Tea, anyone?

"For the Tea Party momentum to continue in a constructive way, it will need to take at least two further steps: First, repudiate the unhinged Obama-haters and then focus its anger at fiscal irresponsibility into policy proposals instead of bumper-sticker platitudes." Read more from John Avlon here. 

OK, I'm ready to try tea again.

That is, I'm ready to try tea again after reading the article by political centrist and CNN contributor John Avlon, who not only attended the Tea Party's first convention Friday and Saturday in Nashville, Tennessee but is also author of "Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America."

Tea sounds so civil, but don't let that confuse you. Civil may be the ideal, but conflict seems to be the norm. The old adage that life would be boring if we were all the same comes to mind, but even that fairly common assumption isn't everyone's cup of tea (please pardon the pun).

If nothing else, it could be a breath of fresh air to live in a  Barry Manilow-like world where everything sounds the same and is centered around love and peace and joy. But where would that leave the Adam Lambert's of the world? The Tea Party members?

I admit that every now and then I just want to scream the now-overused phrase "Can't we all just get along?", because life seems to be a constant battle between toe tapping and head banging. There is undoubtedly room for both in this world of ours, but not necessarily at the same concert.

I like the early tea party folks. They were calmer. They talked about issues that made economic common sense. They spoke with a controlled force based in reality and truth.

Some of the more recently joined tea party folks have me shaking my head, if not banging it. Where's the common sense in anything they are saying or doing? If there is any common sense in their message, it's lost in the drama of their presentation and buried in the rhetoric of their anger.

Sure, I am back to wanting to share a cup of tea - it's back on my calendar, thanks to Avlon, but it's going to be a restricted party, only open to those who are more concerned about making change to help the American people, than about name-calling and ranting and raving.

After all, tea parties have a history of elegance, grace and charm. They are dignified, respectable, calming, an opportunity for fellowship and sharing. Tea party implies etiquette and manners. Henry James wrote, "There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as an afternoon tea."

Somewhere that basic premise of respectful civility has been lost with some of the tea party contingent, and that's unfortunate. But as my boss pointed out after reading Avlon's article, "The key phrase here is: "This is still very much a leaderless movement with divergent tributaries." He's so right.

Leadership is everything, and we shouldn't be surprised that things aren't going as smoothly as we might want; after all it only takes one bad lemon to spoil a freshly brewed cup of tea.

So, until a strong leader pulls us all together, maybe those of us who are not 100% there should agree to disagree - over a cup of tea, of course.

At least that would be a civil and gracious beginning.