About 2,000 people crowded the lawn near Ross’s Landing late this evening for the Chattanooga Tax Day Tea Party. The event was meant to protest increasing spending and high taxes, organizers said. They hoped their message, combined with the uproar coming from hundreds of other tea parties across the country, would come through.
“You just heard the collective feet of the people coming down all at once,” said Martin Johnson, a Hixson resident who attended the protest. “We aren’t going to take it anymore, and we want our leaders to listen to us for a change.”
The tea parties were promoted by FreedomWorks, a conservative nonprofit advocacy group based in Washington and led by former Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey of Texas, who is now a lobbyist. The protests were not meant to be partisan in nature, organizers said.
“Our government has been out of control for a long time, way before now, during Republican and Democratic administrations,” said Jeremy Wilkie, of Soddy-Daisy, who waved a “Don’t tread on me” flag during the protest.
“We have changed parties on both the Congress and the presidency, and we haven’t gotten good results out of either ... We’re looking for change, and the change is smaller government,” he said.
For complete details, see tomorrow’s Chattanooga Times Free Press.
Adam Crisp covers education issues for the Times Free Press. He joined the paper's staff in 2007 and initially covered crime, public safety, courts and general assignment topics. Prior to Chattanooga, Crisp was a crime reporter at the Savannah Morning News and has been a reporter and editor at community newspapers in southeast Georgia. In college, he led his student paper to a first-place general excellence award from the Georgia College Press Association. He earned ...
"led by former Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey of Texas, who is now a lobbyist"
-a lobbyist leading a rally against government wasteful spending. Give me a break.
I am struck by the curious disjunction between the historical Tea Party incident and the contemporary tea party events.
In the original incident, the chosen article was both emblematic and a staple, something used everywhere.
Today's tea parties ring less successfully because the symbolism is borrowed and badly understood.
Tea???
Would not Oil Parties or Credit Card parties connect with greater power?
Walking around with tea bags dangling from your baseball cap and your grand-baby's stroller leads to laughter and parody.
If you are serious and committed to your cause, it is imperative that you choose serious language and symbols.
Anthropologically interesting as a story, but otherwise really simplistic and naive.
The right wing lunatics showing off. Complete idiots when a vast majority of them just received a tax break.
Nationally, the "tea parties" were led by the "empty suit" millionaire entertainers and bimbos of Fox TV. Hypocrisy rules!!
So who are you shilling for, InspectorBucket?
You ridicule all aspects of the anti-tax increase and waste protest rallies known nationwide and gaining strength daily...which prompted the question.
The Tea Bag is a most appropriate symbol of the protest. It is a modern version of the Boston incident, of course. With differences and similarities. Both protest[ed] unfair taxes imposed without the consent of those taxed. The rallies normally exclude those who pay no taxes for obvious reasons. If you cannot make that connection it is just as well we know that now. BTW, the Boston Tea Party did not include tea bags...they hadn't been in use here yet.
You further ridicule the hanging of tea bags to indicate support of the protest, suggesting instead the dangling of oil cans or credit cards in their place...which is really silly since they have no historical content in either taxes or waste.
If YOU are serious and committed to YOUR cause, whatever it may be, you should select YOUR symbols more carefully.
All things of import and impact appear simple to some...
Make no mistake; these protests will grow and ultimately overturn this government unless it listens to the people and changes its ways. The people have finally reached the breaking point in accepting abuse from all three branches of our government -- our duty in such a case has already been established and made clear in at least one founding document, the one that begins, "When, in the course of human events..."
Perhaps this is one reason the gun industry is doing so well. People are looking ahead and appearing dangerous to our government. Even Homeland Security is running scared. Do you realize just how many guns and how much ammo has been sold since Nov 4th? Most of it untraceable. Even Bo's private army of brown-shirts will be of no avail.
And no, I am NOT advocating such a rising up, revolt, or armed attack. I am merely pointing out the obvious.
crtsports -- You mean the tax cut Bush gave us and Bo swore to reverse? The oath he unswore when he saw the handwriting on the wall...uh...teleprompter and realized he needed our votes to get in? Yeah, THAT tax cut.
una61 -- As to FoxNews, it rankles that it is and has been the number one cable news station for a number of years, doesn't it? Bet you hate talk radio for the same reason...and support the so-called "Fairness Doctrine" because no one listened to AirAmerica garbage.
Rather interesting how a few who were too spineless to show up at the event, instead resort to name-calling behind the safety of an anonymous user name.
Allegations that Millionaire entertainers (from Fox news, no less) or Dick Armey leading these events are beyond silly - No sign of either in Chattanooga. Just a couple of thousand folks that have grown weary of paying for an overgrown government and are tired of carrying the deadwood that have been dragging this country down for 45+ years.
Did the hard left really think that this sudden move towards socialism wasn't going to be answered by the 50% of the population that's expected to pay for it?
The only protests that liberals will tolerate are those that promote stupidity. Anything else elicits their scorn as they sneer from their lofty perch of stupidity.
Why is it that libs are so offended if "millionaire lobbyists" like Dick Armey backed the Tea Parties? After all, their golden boy, the Obamessiah, was financially backed and put into office by multi-billionare, George Soros. A massively rich Russian who is making untold billions more on our current financial crisis is okay with them, but protesting the federal government's wasteful porkulus spending, even if it was backed by Newt and Dick Armey, isn't? Time to run these idiots out of town--and the country--on a rail!
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