Thoughts of A Tax Day Tea Party Attender

As I mentioned the other day, DBQ was to be the site of 1 of the Tax Day Tea Parties. The local gathering was sponsered by the DBQ Tea Party & was held @ Washington Square Park accross the street from the Federal Building (now owned by the city).

There were between 500-600 in attendance from what I saw (& had confirmed by others). In it's article* today, the TH merely described those attending as "The hundreds of people gathered". The ages of the people ranged from those in high school to those who are in their retirement years with the huge number being those in their 20s to 50s.

The best way to describe the gathering is that it was a rally. There were 5 short speeches that were partially to inform, partially to challenge us to action.

The gathering started out with an announcement that I wish didn't have to have been made, but was needed. It was to remind us that some people had been threatening to disrupt the gatherings to make us look bad & fit into the false image that some in the media have portrayed us as. Jeff Luecke said that while those who oppose us have the right to free speech as well, we paid for the permit & if you want to protest us, please go accross the street.

Then the Tea Party officially kicked off. It opened with the Pledge of Allegiance & the National Anthem. (Not sure who the young lady was who lead us, but she did an excellent job.) Then Pastor John Hulsizer lead the opening prayer.

The 1st talk was by Will Johnson, who is running for the Republican nomination for the 1st District House. He spoke on "Free Markets". The talk was a short summary of the Austrian School of economics ideas esp as promoted by the Mises Institute. He gave a very excellent visual aide example of how bad infaltion is in this country. He held up a 1 oz. silver coin that he bought a few years ago @ $5. It is now worth $18. He said it isn't because the coin is worth more, but because of how much less the dollar is worth now. Sad, but true. Our currency has no standard, despite what the Constitution says about Gold & Silver.

Kreg Kinney spoke on the theme of "A Return to Constitutionally Limited Government". This talk included a challenge to all of us to learn what the Constitution really allows & doesn't allow.

Tom VanGelder spoke on "Fiscal Responsibility" & especially on the lack of it in our federal government. I am assuming it was time constraints that kept him from going on the the mess we have here in Iowa.

Joe "The Student" Schueller who is a senior in high school spoke on "Government Spending and Generation Y". He talked about what he saw ahead for his generation if things don't change. A part of his talk shared the experinces of how he was attacked in the comments section of the TH after a letter of his appeared the other day. (I talked to him after the rally. We shared about our common experiences with certain regulars.) Joe also brought up the slant that you find in most schools that doesn't tell us what really happenned at the founding of our country.

Finally Jeff Luecke got up & spoke on "The Road Ahead (What can I do?)" His talk was the rallying cry for action. It was also a challenge for those of us attending to learn more about what our Founding Fathers believed & wanted. He challenged people to read the Federalist Papers as well as the Anti-Federalist Papers so we could better understand. (Something I have been pushing for years.) Jeff also made mention about the school situation & why we need to educate ourselves. I did have to go up & kid Jeff a bit afterwords. I told him "Not bad for a kid from Oelwein." I should explain, Jeff is the younger half brother of a classmate of mine & we graduated from the same high school in Oelwein. As I told him, his comments show how much things have changed between the time Mike & I got out & he graduated.

The Tea Party ran about 15 minutes over time. The whole gathering was peaceful with no disruptions. As people were leaving I noticed a very interesting thing, the lack of litter. For a group that is so anti-environmental as we are accused of being we left the park in a lot better condition than I have seen after many a liberal gathering.

Many years ago, I began having serious concerns about the way things were being run in the USA. I was especially concerned about the drift from what the Constitution said as well as seeing the way we create new money as actually a "FED" run pyramid sceme. It is heartening to see more people realize that this country has left it's roots of 1 Nation under God & that we need to get back to that. As I have said before, I am a fan of John Adams & interested in the Revolutionary War era. As events have unfolded, my experiences have lead me to a deeper understanding of why the Founding Fathers took the path they did. In a lot of ways we are on a similar path. The USA is ripe for a revolution. This time I pray it can be peaceful & done via pray & the ballot box so that we can return to being the Nation God wants of us. While the Tea Party focuses on the tax aspect, it is only part, abortion is another part. & what is heartening is to see how many of the same people are also Pro-life. The Founding Fathers regularly called for the people to pray & turn to God in repentance for their sins. If we are to return the USA to its roots, then we must do the same. The Tea Party will suceed only if it, like the actions of our Founding Fathers is based in prayer & seeking the guidance of God.

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* Nor was I surprized that the article didn't focus as much on the Tea Party & what it said. It only had a couple quotes, & a few inaccuarcies. No surprize. Much of the article gave a forum to Congressman Bruce Brailey (D-1st IA). It did quote Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) but only gave him half the space it did Braley.