The Tyler, Texas Courthouse Square tea party is history and it was enjoyable being a small part of it. I arrived about an hour early and there were already several hundred people on the square. By the time noon rolled around, there were perhaps 2,000 in attendance, with more rolling in as others had to go back to work. That was pretty impressive for a small town in East Texas on a week day, especially when Chicago could only muster 300.
I never did hear what the guest speakers had to say, as the sound system was totally inadequate for that big a crowd, but that wasn’t a problem for me as I had no interest in hearing politicians anyway. It was far more interesting talking to people and reading the wonderfully creative signs they were carrying. One little girl, about three-years-old, wore a sandwich sign that said “I’m too little to owe $36,000.”
The fiscal irresponsibility of Congress was the main theme of the signs, though the mad dash toward Socialism was another favorite subject.
The crowd held a lot of conservatives, but I was amazed at how many were just as mad at the Republicans as they were at the Democrats. They were simply fed up with the whole bunch in Washington. If there was any recognizable political sympathy, I believe it leaned toward the Libertarians, at least fiscally. That should strike fear in the hearts of the Republican Party leaders…or is Republican leader an oxymoron?
When I got home, I watched reports of the tea parties from around the country. I sampled ABC, CNN, NBC and Fox News. Some had almost nothing to report and none of them accurately captured the mood of the people I saw today. Fox came closest, but even they were too hung up on the tax aspect of the protest. It would be nice if the media came to these events with the desire to learn and report the facts instead of taking yet another opportunity to spin their own agenda.
I guess the next thing to watch is when the Oathkeepers renew their vows on Lexington Green next Sunday. That crowd might not be as gentle and well behaved as the ones today.
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I didn't get to go to the tea party here!! Dave didn't want to go, Monica canceled on me and Emily had to stay after school. I simply wasn't up to going into downtown Seattle by myself...it just didn't feel right. Local news coverage of the tea parties was so-so. They mentioned it but it got about the same amount of time as the alarming increase in the number of bed bugs surfacing in places like movie theaters and such. Thank god the EPA had a summit about them today. *Rita pounds her head gently against the desk*
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