Last night thousands of people in 700 cities across the nation joined in the largest spontaneous protest occurring in my lifetime. This event was historic in scope and nature. It was the most under-reported, misreported gathering EVER. The major theme for these grass-roots-led TEA Parties seemed to be three-fold: people are angry about punitive taxes, which are needed to fuel the; wanton waste and over spending in Washington, which comes about because of; the intrusive power grab by the government into private sector.
I attended one of half a dozen events that took place in San Diego County last night. The significance of protesting taxes on April 15 is obvious. Post offices were the chosen location to make a statement while people filed their tax returns last minute. I got to my local Post Office in Carmel Mountain Ranch a few minutes before the event was scheduled to start. My son and I did a drive by to scope things out. I was shocked to discover only a handful of people huddled against the wall of the Post Office, hidden from the street.
“Why aren’t they down at the street where people can see them?” I asked my son.
“I’m not staying. Everyone’s your age,” he replied.
We got out of the car and walked toward the group. I took a couple of pictures then headed back to the car to ‘observe.’ We saw a friend on his bike taking pictures. It helped to recognize someone I knew. Plus, there were several women by themselves heading down to the street with posters.
“See, you can stay and make friends,” my son remarked.
I hate making friends. In fact I don’t like people much period when I’m alone. (I’m kidding!) I took a deep breath, decided which of my posters to take, then marched myself down to the street to stand with a couple of gals ‘my age’ and about 20 other people. My son drove home in shame. The friend on his bike came by and I asked him to take a picture of me to prove I was there. After about 10 minutes a woman on a bullhorn announced there were more people at the main intersection about a quarter of a block away. That’s where we needed to be for maximum exposure!
The sheer number of participants was incredible! People of all ages lined the street the entire way down. There were large crowds at all four corners of the intersection. (Unfortunately, I got so caught up in the protest I did not take pictures of main crowd.) I was stopped twice by people who wanted to take a picture of my poster which said: ‘Obama’s Plan: Apologize Demonize Socialize - I hope it fails!’ I got a spot right on the corner where people stopped for the light would have to read the sign. Only three people said or did anything negative the whole time. One guy flipped us off, one gave us the thumbs down, and another guy yelled out his window “I’m a Socialist” which cracked us up.
I was there for two and a half hours. Everyone was very quiet, peaceful and smiling. There were a few families with small children, a high school group (which got applause from the crowd as it crossed the street), even a guy from the UK standing next to me who said he was there for the tea. Most of the mail trucks honked at us which got the crowd cheering wildly. A couple of times people were honking so long at the intersection I just laughed.
My gut instinct put the crowd at a thousand. Imagine, a thousand people lining the street peacefully exercising their constitutional right to assembly and free speech. It was a beautiful thing to behold. I’m glad I took part in this historic event while I still have the right to do so.
