Thursday, April 16, 2009

One word for Atlanta Tea Party: Wow!

One word to describe it in the title, but a lot more in this short post! I'm one tired puppy right now but I had to share as I guzzle my morning caffeine. We had a blast yesterday at the Atlanta Tea Party. I didn't get home until close to midnight, then I had to watch the midnight Hannity repeat to see what I'd missed! Yawn and double yawn

Our small group of three left Fayette County for the Capitol yesterday around 4 p.m. When we arrived the place was already jamming up with fellow tea party-ers.

On our trip downtown and our walk from the Five Points Marta station to the Capitol we ran into a lot of people who, as a testament to the lack of interest by the mainstream media, didn't have a clue what was going on across the nation.

We understand there were over 800 Tax Day Tea Parties across United States. Here in Peachtree City, GA a small one was organized for noon that attracted between 400 to 500 people. Not bad for a tiny county during a work day when most commute outside the county! Ann Eldredge put together a slide show of the event on the front page of http://www.fayettefrontpage.com/ if you'd like to see it.

In Atlanta as the crowds increased the energy level increased. So many great signs, so many great people! It was a well-behaved crowd.

Speaker after speaker rose to share their thoughts. We were directly in front of the podium, right behind the press stand. Unfortunately, a television screen set rather low cut off some of our view of the stage. By the time Sean Hannity arrived we'd moved down enough so that we were almost directly behind him (he faced away from the crowd for his show so we'd all be in the background). If I'd been just a bit taller you might have been able to make me out in the crowd... ah well, no crowd fame for our group.

I won't bore you with all the details. It's one of those "had to be there" type events. Next best is the visual of television. Way down the totem pole of communication is a blog written by a very sleepy gal with a hoarse throat from yelling and chanting. There was a lot of spontaneous eruptions of 'USA, USA', 'fairtax' and other words and phrases.

The mainstream media did a great job of making our local Tea Party appear minuscule yesterday. When we were sitting in crowds two blocks deep, packed like sardines with people still streaming off Marta, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported there were around a thousand people at the event. We had just heard it announced that we had over 10,000 in the area. Quite a discrepancy, hmmm... On the way home I flipped on the news to see what was being reported. I perked up when the announcer said "tens of thousands" but then she ruined it by saying "across the country". Ha. That kind of reporting is what's killing mainstream media.

According to most reports we came close to hitting somewhere between 15 - 20 thousand last night. Normal, everyday, average Americans showed up at the events. Sure there were a few fringe elements. I watched and noted that some of the media zoomed in on the 2 or 3 "kooks" in the crowd. I was told by friends who called that the msm was focusing on interviewing that element in many cases. I'm as fed up with the msm as I am the tax and spend government.

Ah well, I can't fix much of anything alone. But with all the groups forming across the country, with all those who are frustrated and fed up across the country, we might have an impact. The excitement and crowd last night energized me and gave me hope.

I hope the enthusiasm and momentum from last night continues. I expect it will.

I hope that those who didn't find a tea party yesterday will get involved and help the movement spread to the front steps of the White House. I think that's going to happen, too.

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