The American Freedom Network

A Spring Party in the Springs – Tea for 2000 (or more)

It was a beautiful day with a lot of beautiful people.  Some enjoyable amateur music, speeches by activists and a local talk show host and many excellent conversations in the crowd.  We interviewed folks until our tape ran out.  If any of the decidedly unprofessional footage is viewable I’ll be posting that as soon as I can.

• The Colorado Springs Police Department stated “There was a noise permit issued for 200 people.  There are sure a lot more than that”.
• The local Fox affiliate reporter guessed 2-3 thousand people.
• We handed out about 400 hand cut URL slips inviting people to participate here.
• We got a lot of great pictures of the signs people held, shirts worn and original activities.
• One man was giving Milton Bradley money in exchange for products containing pork (non-perishable) which he intended to donate to private charity supporting our communities non-producers.
• The event was covered by at least one local radio station and 2 out of 4 Network TV affiliates.  I spoke to the reporters who seemed to be having fun.

Colorado Springs has about a half a million people in its metro area so the turnout could certainly be described as small.  The protest was orderly but enthusiastic.  Being held in a very narrow, paid parking area of our old downtown right in the middle of a working day in the middle of the week makes me pleased with the turnout.  There was a ton of cycling in and out with the crowd size remaining consistent during the 2 hours I was there.

Walking to the protest early I was shouted to by some local high schoolers yelling; “We love Obama” and variations of that.  When asked, “what do you love about Obama?” and “Do you love the spending he is supporting” the young people were strangely reluctant to answer.  Later some other young folks came by to display their *all looked alike* non-conformist wardrobes and body art and some boxes with “Obama + Pot” and “Marijuana and Obama”.  When asked a couple of questions about taxes, spending and the constitution the most common reply was “I don’t know what you’re talking about”.

Many other young people were present expressing their own dissatisfaction with the unconstitutional scope of government and its spending.  We had a truly multi-generational party as I spoke with and saw people from pre-teens to senior citizens and all ages between.  Families, couples, singles and groups of friends and co-workers.  One self-proclaimed “socialist” marched through and around the protest but declined to be interviewed.

When I got home I was amused to see what I had predicted to friends.  The media misrepresented the purposes of the Tea Party, underestimated the attendance and generally mis-identified how they were organized.  They refuse to believe that the Tea Party movement is non-partisan and grassroots in nature.

We will update our participate page so others can join more easily, contribute media (audio, video, pictures) and contact individual contributors to the American Freedom Network.

The most important message is that this can’t be limited to a “Tax Day” activity.  Each activist should commit to get 10 people each, educated as to Constitutional government and committed to voting out every big spending politicrat currently mis-ruling the American people.  The Revolution is amongst the law abiding, doesn’t require the violence that the left loves to use and is just beginning.  Fight for American Freedom!