Taxpayer Tea Party Draws 1,200. April 16, 2009

Tea time was 6 p.m. but people began arriving much earlier and the crowd (we hadn't been labeled an "Angry Mob" yet), the size of the gathering exceeded all expectations. I was sick (what's new?) and couldn't go; Jason and Bill had a blast.



Bill and June had come over earlier in the week and we had our own small tea party, brainstormed what we wanted on our signs, then made posters the rest of the night. It was the first time Jason, Bill, and June had protested. I've been a lifelong political junkie, but never to this degree. Of course, our Nation has never been in as much peril -- from our own government! -- as now.



Jason said the line of marchers began at the county building and took at least 15 minutes for everyone to move to the Union Point Park. Our own small preview of the 912 March on the Capitol when it took us almost three hours to move the 1.1 miles down Pennsylvania Avenue!

The event took its name partly from the 1773 Boston Tea Party to protest the English crown's tax on tea and partly based on what signs near the group's booth spelled out: "Taxed Enough Already."

There were at least 35 similar tax protests across the state, there were 1,000 protestors in Morehead City, 2,000 in Charlotte, 1,000 in Rutherfordton, 1,000 in Winston Salem and 1,200 in Greensboro.

According to a show of hands, it was the first protest for about a third of those attending.