Thursday, July 16, 2009

Roanoke Tea Party, July 4


Democrats, Republicans, Independents and Libertarians all have one thing in common. They all attended that Roanoke Tea Party in Elmwood Park on July 4th and most of them brought signs stating their opinions on various matters important to them.

This is the 2nd Tea Party held in Roanoke, the 1st being on tax day, April 15th of this year. The purpose of the Tea Parties is to give everyone a voice, to let all opinions be heard, to make sure that everybody matters.

Over 1,000 people came to enjoy the sunshine, the company and the music as well as to hear speakers from all walks of life. House of Representatives Morgan Griffith said, “Today is not called dependence day. It is not about the money, it is about the right to tax with representation. Government spending is out of control and that brings about dependence, not independence for its citizens. How we spend our money is as valid today as it was on December 16, 1773.”

Jeff Bowles from the Libertarian party talked about Thomas Jefferson and how “the founder’s realized that government was necessary but dangerous so they contained it within the constitution.” Jackie Bledsoe of fairtax.org explained exactly what the Fair Tax is and how it would work in today’s environment of excessive spending and taxes. “It is a revenue neutral plan with a retail sales tax on new goods and services only”, and the country would be able to abolish the Internal Revenue Service altogether.

Bill Cleaveland, running for the 17th House of Delegates seat stated, “Your voices are the pulse of this country. If your voice is quiet, this country will die. I am angry like you and I hope you are angry about the tax situation as it is. Make your voice heard in November.”

Ken Cuccinelli, the Republican nominee for Attorney General, got the crowd fired up when he said; “Conservatives in Northern Virginia should be under the Endangered Species Act since there are so few of us left. We need to take back our constitution and make sure this Cap & Trade bill is not passed. Even Greenpeace is against Cap & Trade and you know how liberal they are.”

After the invited speakers, the microphone was opened up to the public. Any one who chose to speak could have 5 minutes and many in attendance took advantage of the opportunity to be heard. Topics ranged from abortion, freedom, limited government, Cap & Trade, free speech, liberalism, thanking veterans and prayer.

Organizers say they plan to have another Tea Party in Roanoke this fall.

By Carla M. Bream

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think the TEA parties are a great idea; however, most media the President and Congress are just ignoring the message, so I think it's time to send a NEW Message and that message is"We are sick of politics as usual in Washington and we are going to hand out pink slips to everyone in the House of Representitives and get some real change."
Replacing every one of the 435 Reps in the house may seem impossible; however, it mat not be as difficult as it seems.

GOOOH.com has a plan to do just that in 2010, Fire every Rep in the House and replace them with everyday people that WILL be directly accountable to those that nominated and elected them. These candidates will not be influenced by special interests, will not owe any favors to anyone other than the people that sent them to Washington. They will vote strictly acording to a detailed platform that was created by the candidate, accepted by the people that nominated and elected the Rep, and made public for accountability purposes. Imagine a House of Representitives with neither a Democrat or Republican majority. A congress that will once again be for the people and by the people and of the people. This plan will disable the special interests, render both parties powerless to pass legislation that is not approved by the people first. The career politicians could keep the Senate and the Presidentcy; however; they will have to get the peoples approval befor passing ANY legislation. This plan WILL restore the system of checks and balances that the Constitution outlined.

This is the Time to act check out WWW.GOOOH.COM

Anonymous said...

If you’re interested in Virginia politics check out ProjectVirginia at

www.projectvirginia.com

Going local to turn Virginia red

Art Heberer said...

Here are my thoughts about the tea parties.

http://roanoketeaparty.org/