A few months ago, I attended my first political rally. Just two days ago (April 11), I attended my first political protest: Pittsburgh’s Tea Party. (Actually, Pittsburgh’s first Tea Party. Another is scheduled on April 15 at noon in Market Square downtown.)
If you haven’t heard, the Tea Party movement is spreading across the country (see how many places here) in tribute to the Boston Tea Party and its protest against excessive taxation. Tea Party-goers are against the profligate, wasteful spending of our hard-earned tax dollars by an overblown government out of touch with the people who hired it. Supporting the Tea Party Movement is not about being a Democrat or a Republican — it’s about being a citizen who:
- Is tired of billions upon billions of dollars being spent in legislation our elected officials can’t even be bothered to read
- Believes in the individual freedoms and responsibilities upon which our Founding Fathers built this nation
- Wants less government not more
- Is fed up seeing the fruits of his or her labor “redistributed” and our children’s future ransomed with debt
So, Mike and I were happy to join two or three thousand other folks near Pittsburgh’s Allegheny River under a glorious blue sky to practice our civil liberties. (Tellingly, the only TV report we saw said “hundreds” of people in typically biased fashion; other newspaper reports more accurately placed the attendance anywhere from 2,000 to 4,000.)
Dr. Alan Keyes, constitutional scholar and former ambassador to the United Nations under President Reagan, was the very articulate and inspiring keynote speaker. My favorite quote from his speech, which you can watch here:
If the thing is right, then you stand for it. And you don’t wait until someone else comes along beside, because the heart that maintains liberty is not the heart of the herd, but the heart of the individual. This country was built by those who understood that the wilderness could not be opened except by those who are willing to venture forth alone if need be. That the new idea could not be explored, the new invention could not be created except by those who are willing to break new paths of understanding. And we must understand that no herd will save this country if we are not willing to stand alone if we must for the sake of its liberty.
By the way, he spoke extemporaneously — no teleprompters or even notes.
Here are some views of the day. Loved the signs. Loved the enthusiasm. Loved seeing as many people younger than ourselves as older. Loved knowing that we are not alone in our beliefs.
Pittsburghers love our Steelers and our homes.
We believe in the free workings of capitalism.
We are who we are — it’s a ‘Burgh thing.
Dr. Alan Keyes
It certainly is time.
It’s time to stand for what our forefathers stood for.
Thanks to organizer (and ordinary citizen) Robert Baehr and his Web site www.pennsylvaniateaparty.com. If you agree, scatter some tea — actually or proverbially — in your own life.
At the end of the day, there is only one sure bulwark of liberty:
that is the self-discipline, self-government, faith, piety, and
responsibility of every single individual who wishes to be free.
~ Dr. Alan Keyes
speaking at the Pittsburgh Tea Party
April 11, 2009
Writing by Ear 