Manchester New Hampshire Tea Party wrap-up

  Well, the Manchester Tea Party is over and what a great event it was. As you know, I was invited to participate in “bloggers row” by Skip from Granite Grok; I wasn’t sure what was expected of me so I planed on trying to “live blog” the event as it unfolded.

  I consider it an honor to have been asked to participate in this event and I am thankful to Skip for inviting me. It turned out that live blogging the event was extremely difficult, and quiet honestly it was beyond my capabilities. I learned pretty quickly that I could not take dictation. After managing to throw together four short posts I decided that the best course for me to take was to write down some notes and write about it after the event was over.

  It was a beautiful, sunny but chilly day in Manchester today and the people came out in full force. My initial reaction is that the crowd was comparable to last year’s event, probably bigger. I had hoped that this event would be huge and I was slightly disappointed that it was not even bigger than it was. But it was a great turnout none the less.

  All of the major Republican candidates for office were there and Skip took the time to bring some of them over to bloggers row to meet us. I talked briefly with Ovide Lamontagne, Jeanie Forrester, Karen Testerman, and Jim Bender. All of whom are running for various offices. I was struck by how down to earth all of these candidates seemed. They seemed like normal, everyday Americans who just want to bring change to the country.

  We exchanged information and there is a possibility that I will be in contact with the various candidates as the election heats up and any contact that I do have will be written about here.

  Skip is also talking about setting up more bloggers meetings so that we can get together and spread the word throughout New Hampshire. It seems as if there are going to be some interesting times coming up in the near future, and I am looking forward to having more contact with the other New Hampshire bloggers that I met today.

    As we waited for the festivities to start there was music playing through the sound system and the songs were of a patriotic and pro-military nature. At one point my son mentioned to me that they should play the song “The Uprising” by Muse before he went off to see what was happening on the grounds. Shortly after he left it seemed as if someone must have been listening to our conversation because “The Uprising” by Muse started playing. Up until just last weekend I had some of this songs lyrics posted in my sidebar:

Come let the revolution take its toll if you could

Flick the switch and open your third eye, you’d see that

We should never be afraid to die

Rise up and take the power back, it’s time that

The fat cats had a heart attack, you know that

Their time is coming to an end

We have to unify and watch our flag ascend

They will not force us

They will stop degrading us

They will not control us

We will be victorious

The festivities started off with a prayer, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance, and then a moment of silence for all of our troops past and present. Then came the national anthem sung by Lisa Itse. What a great voice she has and it was made all the better by the people singing right along with her.

  The speeches that were given were probably equally split between topics about the state government and the federal government as spending is out of control in not only the nation’s capital, but also in New Hampshire.

  Some memorable quotes from the speeches:

Speaking about Nancy Pelosi’s claim that “we have to pass healthcare so that we can see what is in the bill” Skip said, “I consider this to be legislative malfeasance.” And then he started the crowd chanting, “THE BIGGER THE GOVERNMENT, THE SMALLER THE CITIZEN”

  “do you want tyranny by the government or constitutional freedoms delivered from God”

“there is no difference between tyranny at the point of a sword and tyranny at the point of a pen”

  Tom Thompson, who is the son of the late governor Mel Thompson, quoted two of his father’s most famous sayings; “low taxes are the result of low spending”, and “axe the tax.” In order to emphasize the latter quote he took the stage with an axe that was quite a bit bigger than the axe he brought on stage last year, symbolizing the 39 tax and fee increases that governor Lynch has signed in recent years.

  Healthcare reform, taxes, and the economy were the issues most spoken about today. While all of the people there disagree with most of the president’s agenda, and while all of the people there disagree with the direction that New Hampshire is headed, and while the speakers were railing against the government’s policies, there was a positive message that all of the speakers tried to get across. There was no hate-speech.

  The atmosphere in the crowd was festive and friendly, hardly the angry mob that the media likes to claim the Tea Partiers are. There were young people and old people, there were white people and yes there were black people there as well. I know what you are thinking, how could there be minorities there when the media is claiming that the Tea Parties are racists organizations and that the Tea Party movement is motivated by race? The answer is simple and it was summed up nicely by a sign that I saw. It’s the policies, stupid.

  There was no trouble that I saw or that my sons saw. Former Democrat State Party Chairman Kathy Sullivan tried to rally Democrats around the idea that they should pose as Tea Partiers and hold up racist signs in an attempt to paint us as racists. I am happy to report that this idea was a failure. I did not see one person there who was trying to pose as one of us with nefarious intent. I saw plenty of signs that called Barack Obama a socialist, but I did not see one racially motivated sign in the crowd. People have legitimate concerns and they are voicing them. It’s the policies, stupid.

  This was a great event and I am glad that I was a part of it. I look forward to moving forward, now is the time to put on the full court press. I am looking forward to the possibility that New Hampshire bloggers might be ready to take this battle to the next level. Today I met quite a few good people and fellow bloggers and I look forward to working with them in the future. Today may have been the first united bloggers row, but there promises to be more events in the future. I am just thankful that I was asked to be a part of it.

  My boys took allot of pictures today, I didn’t have the time to upload them tonight but I will tomorrow and I will share them all with you.

Update: here is the list of bloggers that participated in “bloggers row:

Angry Seafood

Citizens for Reasonable and Fair Taxes

ConChrist

GilfordGrok

Libertarian Leanings

News from the Northwoods

NH Insider

NH Watchdog

No Looking Backwards

One Voice In Gilford

Pun Salad

Radioactive Liberty

RedHampshire

TBONH

The Blogging Councilor

Weekend Pundit

  I will be adding all of these blogs to my “New England sites” blogroll in the near future.