Well that was interesting

I just finished editing and uploading my video, all 2 minutes of it. And uploading some pictures and the video link to PJTV of the Tax Day Tea Party. I had no idea what to expect, but it was fun. I learned a lot, mostly how not to use a camcorder. I'm going to have to work on that.

So here is my experience...
I had originally intended to go to Olympia. That would have been about 2 to 2 1/2 hours each way, and dealing with a sizeable crowd and having to hunt for parking in a city I don't know at all. Ok, I'm pissed off to the point that I am taking time off from work to attend a rally, so I guess a little sacrifice is to be expected.


Then I find a Tea Party scheduled for Monroe, which is a little town 10 miles up the road that I drive through on my way to work. Hey, that sounds great. It may not be in front of my state government, but it is much more local and we want to show just exactly how grass roots this is. It doesn't get any more "grass roots" than a farm town / bedroom community. So I arrive at 11:30 with my lunch and find nobody. The park is a virtual ghost town. I quickly logon and discover it was moved from the 15th to the 25th. Ok, plan C. Plan A was Olympia, B was Monroe, and I couldn't get to Olympia.


A quick check and I find Everett is still on. Everett is my county seat so that works for me. Problem again with not knowing the city, but they had a map that was very simple to follow. I arrived without incident. So what was that like? Well it was mostly uneventful. The peak number of people I saw was 200-300 people. That's pretty darned good for 35 miles north of Seattle. Consider the fact that prior to February of this year, the people attending this rally were pointing and laughing at "the loonies" attending political protests. The speakers were very good, and saying the things we were all thinking. One of the speakers called Both our senators and a couple of "representatives" so that we could BOO at them. That was fun :) All 3 police officers were friendly and certainly were not expecting any trouble, threats from the leftists and a slanderous report from DHS not withstanding.



So what is my conclusion? Interesting. The amateurish nature of the speakers, the signage and the layout really shows that these are just regular people that never thought they would be protesting anything. Hell, if you had told me in April of last year that I would be attending a protest of any type in a year, I would have said you were out of your mind and really needed to seek some help. Where am I today? I expect to be attending the next Tea Party I can get to. I hope the one on the 25th doesn't get cancelled. And I need to get some practice with the camcorder...