New Hampshire Tea Party Wrap Up

                                                                                                                         Depending on the news source you listen to there were as many as six to ten Tea Parties scheduled in New Hampshire on April 15th, a large amount of events coming from a small state. This just goes to show you that there is a growing discontent with this administration in Washington and in New Hampshire. I am not sure about the other states but in New Hampshire the frustration is two-fold, and I think it is safe to say the same is also true of Massachusetts, because not only are people growing frustrated with the spending on the federal level, New Hampshire residents are growing frustrated with the spending at the state level.

 I sit here day after day and complain about what is going on in the country and yesterday I had a chance to make a stand, even if it was only symbolic stand (for now).  My family and I attended the Manchester Tea Party. My wife and I attended to show our displeasure in the direction the country and the state is headed. We took the boys to give them a perspective on being active in the political process. My oldest son, Andy, loves US history, and we all loved the HBO mini series John Adams, so I think that he got a special kick out of the event.

  It was an absolutely beautiful day in Manchester yesterday and the crowd was large and loud. The crowd was estimated between 1,000-1,500 people and the people were of all ages and political leanings. There were Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, and Independents. There were liberals, moderates and conservatives. The rally did take on a Republican theme on a few occasions, which was to be expected because the current state and federal administrations are both heavily Democratic.

  All in all there were sixteen speakers, including  Manchester mayor Frank Guinta, former and possibly future, congressional candidate Jennifer Horn, and   Tom Thomson (son of Mel Thompson who coined the ax the tax slogan while governor.)   

 As I wrote earlier New Hampshire is facing a state spending crisis also and it seemed to me that while the president and congress came under scrutiny, especially with the signage, that more attention might have been paid to the state legislature by the speakers.

  There were many chants of USA!, Ax the Tax! (a reference to the former New Hampshire governor,Mel Thompson, who first came up with the pledge to oppose any broad-based tax that all gubernatorial candidates in New Hampshire are asked to take), Live free or die!, as well as many others.

  One of the highlights of the rally for those of us who were right in front of the podium was a WWII veteran who attended. He was not candid with his feelings and the speakers really inspired him. You could see how much he loved the country that he fought for in France and how upset he was in the direction of the country. He was continually moved to voice his opinions during the speeches.

   In the two plus years that I have been blogging I have met many people on-line that I consider friends even though we have never met in person. There is a bond that forms between people who are dedicating their free time before and after work to blogging for what they believe in. Friendships are born between people who are fighting for the same cause. Dominique from An Unlikely Perspective is one of those who I have considered my friend although we had never met. Dominique is a fellow New Hampshire blogger and during the Tea Party I had the chance to finally meet a fellow blogger and friend with whom I have talked to on-line so many times.

  This may have just been a small step but it was only the first step, the movement is growing and it will continue to do so. That was one of the general themes with the speakers. They continually urged people to stay involved in the process. There are going to be more events such as this in the future, we are not going to go away, in fact there are going to be more of us every time an event is held.

  One of the things that strikes me is that this is a true grassroots effort. This was ordinary Americans, working and middle class families, who have been so moved to action that they took time out of work because they felt so strongly about this. This was not organized by moveon.org or ACORN or any other large national activist group. This was small, but growing grassroots groups who organized various rallies across the country and they are going to continue to do so. Sure Fox News and talk radio covered the rallies extensively but they did not organize them, this was all done on-line by ordinary people who do not want to mortgage the future, our children’s future. There were as many as 500 all across the country and it was average hard working Americans who pulled this off.

  In the end this one event did not change anything, but it has spurred the American people into action. It started on April 15th but it will not stop on April 15th, this was the springboard.  April 15th 2009 is the day that we will look back upon as the day that we began to take back our country.

  It is time to tell the politicians, “you work for us.”