Posted by
dave in north park on Thursday, April 16, 2009 3:34:11 PM
The first tea party I attended was yesterday at noon in Seattle, on the sidewalk along Lake City Way NE at NE 88th St. There was one person there that I already knew. Like me, she is a Republican precinct committee officer in Washington's 46th legislative district. Her name is Judy Fenton, and she ran for Seattle City Council in 2007, which is a challenging task for any conservative. Other people there came from various other backgrounds. There was a member of the Disabled American Veterans. There was a small group representing the Lyndon LaRouche PAC. There was a person passing out copies of the U.S. Constitution along with a Christian evangelistic tract -- good documentation to have in both cases. There was also a reporter from the Seattle Times. In all, about twenty to twenty-five of us were there.
Holding signs and other visual devices we waved to the passing motorists. The signs said such things as, "We are taxed enough!"; "No more bailouts"; and "Read my lipstick, no more taxes!" One person brought a "Don't Tread On Me" flag, complete with the picture of a snake. Another brought a rather ornate teacup. Many motorists honked back to us in approval.
I am a school bus driver, so I needed to leave at 12:30 to get to my afternoon routes. I finally pulled myself away at 12:37 and went on to drive the routes. Afterward I made it downtown to a larger rally at Seattle's Westlake Plaza. I made it there at just after six, and was able to take in most of the program. The speakers were good, but the cleverness of the signs people carried was what really captured my attention -- and inspired my imagination! Here are examples:
- "Government doesn't solve problems, it subsidizes them."
- "Party like it's 1773!"
- "Separation of Business and State"
- "Vote the pirates out in 2010. It's the spending Stupid!"
- "Stop buying votes with public money."
- "The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money."
One speaker was Steve Beren, one-time '60's radical who subsequently became the Republican challenger to Congressman Jim McDermott in both the 2006 and 2008 elections. He proclaimed, "We will hold Congress accountable, both Democrats and Republicans. He asked, "If we can't trust lawmakers and the president to uphold the words of the Constitution, how can we trust the words they said yesterday, reading off their teleprompters?" According to the Seattle Times, there were 1,000 to 1,200 people at the Westlake Plaza gathering. My brother, Rich, and I even found each other there.
These gatherings were a great encouragement, even as we see events seeming to take us inexorably on an accelerating "Road to Serfdom", as Friedrich von Hayek called it. We need to recognize that there are still many people who would like to see this process stopped. We need to energize ourselves and encourage each other for the action that is needed.