V oices of the Tea Party is a real-time collaborative forum for Tea Partiers around the country that delivers in-depth information on tactics, strategy, and policy from on-the-ground activists through the use of inexpensive and easy to download e-books. The series will serve the vibrant online community of everyday Americans who launched and continue to drive the Tea Party movement, by taking their collaborative discussions to a much higher level. Tea Party supporters around the country will now be able to instantly access best practices that have succeeded elsewhere, hear the stories of others in the movement, and learn from Tea Partiers with specific policy ideas and expertise. Perhaps more important, they will be able to engage with other thought leaders by submitting their own e-book proposals for possible inclusion in the series. (Please see our website for details: broadsidebooks.net.) Readers and writers alike can thereby join the important national discussion within this ever-expanding community of citizen-activists who have dedicated themselves to securing the movements core values of constitutionally limited government, fiscal responsibility, and free markets.
Series editor Michael Patrick Leahy has been one of the driving forces of the Tea Party movement from its inception. Hes a co-founder of the Nationwide Tea Party Coalition, which sponsored the very first national Tea Party demonstrations; the February 27, 2009, Nationwide Chicago Tea Party; and the April 15, 2009, Tax Day Tea Party. He is also the author of The Ideological Origins of the Tea Party Movement , to be published by Broadside Books in January 2012. His website is http://www.michaelpatrickleahy.com.
I was laid off in late 2008. For the fourth time in my career, the company I worked for was closing down its California facility and moving operations and jobs back East. I was a controller of the accounting operations for manufacturing facilities so when I got laid off it usually meant hundreds of other workers also lost their jobs. Coworkers in marketing, customer service, shipping, purchasing, engineering, IT, HR, and the manufacturing floor all suffered from a regulatory environment that was rapidly chasing employers away.
Every day when I arrived home, I would hear the media filled with rhetoric from those who wanted to tell us how to think. Politicians were more concerned with the temperature of the planet hundreds of years from now than they were with hard-working Americans struggling to make ends meet. Our way of life was being turned upside down, and all I could do was scream at the television set. There had to be a better way.
Then my 13-year-old son, Joe, asked me a very simple question:
Dad, are we going to have a revolution?
Immediately I stopped ranting and became silent. I had to pause. Children are very perceptive. They watch adults, they copy us, they sometimes rebel against us, but most importantly they give us meaning and purpose. It is their future that we are working for. Our children give us focus as we struggle to make the world a better place for future generations.
Now my son was asking if we were on the verge of a revolution. Was he wondering if he would be thrust into a war in our own neighborhood, against our own government, to once again restore our freedom? I knew revolutions are bloody and the good guys dont always win. I also knew that the American Revolution was different and unique. Men like Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, and the other Founding Fathers werent just once in a lifetime leaders; they were men for the ages. I knew that I had to pass my knowledge of history on to my son, just as my mother had done with me.
Growing up in central Massachusetts I was exposed to the historical monuments of the American Revolution. I stood on the steps of the Old North Church and the piers of the original Tea Party wharf in Boston Harbor. My mother taught me about the history of our country by taking me to the heart of its foundation, Bunker Hill, Fort Ticonderoga, the USS Constitution , Plymouth Rock. We stood on the same ground as the colonial troops who faced off against King Georges tyranny. The history of our revolution was firmly implanted in my brain; the spirit of our independence instilled in my heart.
No Joe, I told him, we dont need a revolution. Our Constitution gives us the ability to change political leaders every few years without the necessities of war.
He looked me straight in the eye and said, Well what are you going to do about it, Dad? No one can hear you yelling at the TV. You need to speak with real people.
Ah, the wisdom of our children. He wasnt going to let me off easy; he wanted me to show him how our Constitution worked, why it gives us liberty. I knew I had to teach him how to stand up to the whims of big government bureaucrats. I wasnt alone in this sentiment. This same feeling was racing across our country. In every state, town, and neighborhood, the Tea Party was starting to boil.
Joe went online and looked for an event where we could meet up with like-minded patriots; he found a Tea Party protest in San Diego. I didnt know what to expect. I remembered the protest marches of the 1960s. Sometimes they got out of hand. There are also opportunists who try to take advantage of any crisis. Leftist radicals would demean our veterans and our flag. I didnt want that. It was important for me to make sure my son knew the difference between a peaceful protest that embodied the values of our Founding Fathers and an extremist radical attempt to subvert our freedoms with anarchy and dissent. I wanted to show Joe how in America we can express our opposition to government policy by exercising our rights to freedom of speech and peaceful assembly.
So I went to my closet and grabbed the flag that was usually reserved for Memorial Day or the Fourth of July. The red, white, and blue of Old Glory is very important to me. It is not a symbol to burn or trample or curse. It is the flag of freedom, the banner of hope, the colors of a country founded by men of faith, the embodiment of the rights endowed to us by our Creator.
We jumped into the car and headed to our first Tea Party rally. As we approached, I could see people carrying signs and flags. These werent radicals or violent protestors. They were men and women with families just like me.
Walking through the crowd, I held the flag high. There were thousands of people around us from all walks of life. An attractive young girl approached us and handed me a flyer from the UCSD College Republicans.
Thanks for coming out today, she said. I like your flag.
God bless America, I responded.
She looked me straight in the eye and smiled. God bless America! she exclaimed, then quickly turned to hand a flyer to another family.
All around me were doctors, nurses, truck drivers, farmers, mechanics, grandmothers, housewives, school children, and veterans. They were friendly, exuberant, and excited to be there. A few old timers from World War II were there in full dress uniform. They had brought their wives, children, and grandchildren to this gathering in San Diego, a city with a rich history of service to our country. Across the bay, we could see an aircraft carrier in port. Someone shouted, Thats the USS Ronald Reagan ! The Gipper was looking down on us; we needed to win another one for him.
My son ran through the crowd, in awe at the number of people who had come out to celebrate our countrys freedoms. Everyone was gracious and cordial and polite. They were very patriotic and openly expressing a true love for our country. Some people were dressed in old time colonial garb with three-pointed hats and Revolutionary uniforms. There was even one woman dressed as the Statue of Liberty. Everyone showed respect for each other. An ethos flowed through this Tea Party crowdit was the spirit of liberty.
