Steve GannKnoxville Tea Party
April 24th 2009 00:59
I spent the majority of my time at the tea party alternating between playing information giver, bouncer, and official donation taker. I was happy to do my small part on behalf of PajamasMedia as a citizen reporter, but it meant that I did miss most of the music and some of the speeches. I did get to meet some incredible people and hopefully made some new friends. It was the Christian apologist C.S. Lewis who remarked that "Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: What! You too? I thought I was the only one." This quote seems to be proven true with the 2,000 or so attendees at the protest. It was a good feeling seeing that I am not the only one who is concerned with the direction of our country and the threats to our liberties. My partner and I both able to raise quite a bit in the way of donations without begging or strong arming the attendees . The donations were to help pay for the cost of using the World's Fair Park and the clean up afterward. Many were already asking when the next party would be scheduled and seemed excited to be a part of something special. I'm reminded of a scene from one of my favorite films, Field Of Dreams. The character played by James Earl Jones is explaining why people will fork over money to come see a ballpark in the middle of Iowa." People will come Ray They'll pass over the money without even thinking about it: for it is money they have and peace they lack." I think here you could replace peace with having a lack of voice lately. After all we have been known for the silent majority for some time. Many of us read blogs, listen to talk radio, and watch the cable news shows but beyond are spouses or closest friends we have outlets for our gripes. In the respect the tea party seemed a great success. Many got to show off some great signs and had their voices heard, As far as the speeches went, I thought Dr. Harold Black did an amazing job. He seemed passionate about his beliefs and really got the crowd fired up. I was also impressed by Knox County Commissioner and Citidel general manager Mike Hammond. I had only heard his monotone voice on the radio at WNOX, and was amazed at how excited he became during his speech.
We had heard of the possibility of a counter protest, but other than a couple of young guys having some fun with the crowd, it all went rather smoothly. My only concern was that there were so few students there. We were steps from the UT campus but there seemed to be a hefty tilt toward the over thirty side. My hope is that these protests will awaken our leaders to the fact that we are watching them and expect them to be good stewards of our hard earned money. If not the the second tea party may be a call to join the 2nd American Revolution.
We had heard of the possibility of a counter protest, but other than a couple of young guys having some fun with the crowd, it all went rather smoothly. My only concern was that there were so few students there. We were steps from the UT campus but there seemed to be a hefty tilt toward the over thirty side. My hope is that these protests will awaken our leaders to the fact that we are watching them and expect them to be good stewards of our hard earned money. If not the the second tea party may be a call to join the 2nd American Revolution.
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