When I woke up on Wednesday, April 15th my one and only intention was to go to work (so that others don't have to) and possibly make it home in time to attend my local city's (Hendersonville, TN) Tea Party gathering... a Tea Party that had just been put together in the last couple of weeks. We had no idea how many people would show up, but I knew I had to be one of them.
Never did I imagine that by the end of the day, my actions and points of view would possibly land me in the list of DHS terrorist watch along with the thousands upon thousands of others that dared exercise their right to express their feelings. When the news started filtering through the air waves I was amazed, to say the least, appalled to say it best.
I am against illegal immigration, I am against abortion, big government, out of control spending. Although I do not own a gun, I believe in our right to bear arms. I have religion in my life and have always felt free to speak my mind. I guess this makes me a target for DHS.
It was around noon time when I found myself in Nashville with a little time to kill so I decided to gander over to the Legislative Plaza to partake, as best I could in Nashville's Tea Party. Well, that was not to be. The traffic leading to downtown was hellatious, the crowds had turned into multitudes and it was impossible to get close to where the action was. I parked several blocks away and made my way to the Plaza. Not much time I had, for an appointment at 1pm was in my future. When I arrived at the site I was overwhelmed with pride. Pride to see so many proud Americans voicing their constitutional right of expression. I began to wonder how many DHS agents were in the crowd taking note, I began to wonder how many of us would end up in their "list". By my conservative estimates I put the crowd upwards of 5,000 at that moment.
I did make it to the 6pm rally in Hendersonville (TN) but it was closer to 6:30pm. Another traffic jam due to the crowds, or at least that's what I was hoping for. When my wife and I finally arrived at City Hall, we looked at each other with a silent "Oh My God" look in each other's face. We could not believe what we were seeing. The crowd was later estimated at 2,000.
I had had the opportunity to listen to some local news on the radio and they reported that in Nashville the estimated size of the crowd was 2,000 to 2,500 people. This did not surprise, it just didn't. I had seen it. I knew better.
One of the speakers told us that she had spoken to a TN State Trooper and that they had officially estimated Nashville's crowd to be upwards of 10,000. I will give all the benefit of the doubt and split the difference. I will settle for 6,250. Still pretty amazing.
What to make of all this? I may not be the only one asking this question, the media has to be asking this same thing. They're not sure what to make of this. With the support of only FOX News promoting this event, crowds were gathering across this land of ours. How could this be? Only option left to them is to tear it down and dismiss it, as we saw it throughout the day on CNN and friends.
What happened to the left's battle cry of "dissent is patriotic"? Did we not hear this over and over again during the Bush years? What is the difference today? I do not recall ever calling or hearing the media or the government label any of them "terrorists", "racists", "ignorant", etc.
I am hopeful that this movement is just getting started. I am hopeful that by election time 2010 people will remember to vote all the bums out. I am hopeful that we've truly had enough. I'm just hopeful.
