Salisbury's July 4th TEA Party in pictures and text

I'll put up a long post warning before I begin...I started out with over 20 pictures and distilled it down to 16 photos. If you have the capability (I notice this doesn't work with Firefox, more's the pity) the captions help tell the story. Hold your mouse over the picture.

There weren't as many people at the July 4th rendition of the TEA Party as there were on April 15th despite the fact that the weather was nicer. Obviously that was countered by the fact that many had made holiday plans; however the anger and frustration was just as evident based on what many of the speakers noted in their remarks.

This gentleman was one of the first speakers and most noteworthy among his remarks was a call to "get the statists out of office and put in those who love liberty." He exhorted us to "get in the faces of our elected officials" and concluded that "when the people fear the government, that is tyranny (but) when the government fears the people it is liberty." He was circulating a petition to sign and deliver personally to the front door of elected officials. (That covered the "get in their face" part.)

Mike Brewington was among a number other speakers who came up for a particular cause, his being the National Rifle Association.

Others let their signs do the talking.

Our protest even spilled over as some went down to the corner of Division Street and Business Route 50 to express their viewpoint.

Now here's something I don't understand, and perhaps it's the reputation garnered by the protests on the left. You had 200 or so law-abiding citizens, so was there any need for this guy to keep an eye on us?

Events like this don't come together from thin air. Chris Lewis, who helped put together the original April 15th TEA Party, is now mulling a run for Congress. Looks like he has a ready-made volunteer force if he uses it wisely. Here he speaks to close the proceedings.

Also adopting the event as their own was the local Americans for Prosperity chapter. Their co-chair Julie Brewington was there early getting things underway, and had her own message for our Congressman.

The gathering lasted three hours, and there were probably 20 to 30 speakers all told. Some were brief, and some seemed to go on for 15 or 20 minutes. None of them were professional politicians, and I was the only elected official to speak - part of my pitch was to hold our legislators accountable and the other part to let those there know that the GOP has a school board opening (as do the Democrats.)

As a group, it's a pretty safe bet that we hold certain truths to be self-evident. The final picture is what it's all about, and I'm pleased to see AFP making these available at the event.

Probably the next big TEA Party-style gathering is a national one slated for the weekend of September 11th in Washington, D.C. While I don't know this for a fact, it wouldn't surprise me if there weren't a bus chartered from Salisbury to ferry interested participants to the event - at least the September 12th gathering.

If I go I'll be sure to have pictures!