Tea Parties and Taking Back our Nation

It’s nearly tea party time again and lately I’ve been thinking about all the changes that the tea party movement has seen in the past year of its existence.  There’s one moment that particularly stands out in my mind.

My hometown of Salina, KS held a tea party on a grassy hill on April 15th where I saw my friend Heidi.  When I finished talking and stepped down, she was waiting for me with a question: “Can this really make a difference?”  Heidi identified at the beginning of the movement something that many individuals have yet to realize one year in- that while protesting is meaningful and rallies are important, that real change begins only when the sign-waving turns into implementing.

In the past year since the April 15th tea parties, I’ve personally met more than one thousand people who are asking the same question that Heidi asked- how do we make a difference?  People like Jeff in Pennsylvania who drove through a wall of traffic after work one Thursday night to attend an activist training that barely had him home before midnight; or like Julles in Nebraska who drove four hours on a Saturday morning to attend a grassroots organizing training, because that was the nearest one.  Both organized the tea parties in their communities; both realized they needed to do something more than protest.

So nearly one year after the tea parties first swept through the nation, I finally know the answer to Heidi’s question.  This past year has seen legislative victories through tenth amendment sovereignty resolutions that many tea party groups have championed; it’s seen national strides in the pushback, delay and moderation of health control legislation that tampers with our basic freedoms; it stunned pundits and political scholars when a candidate backed by tea party groups across the nation dared to take back the people’s seat in Massachusetts.

All that didn’t happen just because of protests and rallies, though they played a key role.  It happened because average people with jobs, families and mortgages chose to engage in the unglamorous task of taking back our nation: organizing in their community, carpooling to the state legislature, testifying in committees, writing their elected officials, and talking to their friends and neighbors about the importance of standing up for liberty.  So here’s your answer Heidi: yes, we really can make a difference.  If we choose to do the hard work, to implement the freedom we rally for, then we’ll keep looking back as we near the one-year point and know that we made a difference.  And then we’ll look ahead to 2010 and we’ll know: the best is yet to come.

Below is a list of tea parties planned in Kansas.  If you know of one that isn’t on the list, or if you would like to volunteer to distribute American Majority literature, please contact me at Rebekah@AmericanMajority.org or 913-940-7369.

Date	Time	Location	City
10-Apr	3-5pm	Free Residence, 314 N 4th	Burlington
	For more information, contact: Wes Weller, 620-256-6775
14-Apr	6-7:30pm	Linn Co Courthouse	Mound City
	For more information, contact: slinkard@embarqmail.com
15-Apr	9:00am	Wamego City Park	Wamego
	For more information, contact: Jud Jones, 785-776-2221, bjjones@kansas.net
15-Apr	12:00pm	City/County Building	Salina
	For more information, contact: Joe Winship, joe@salinateaparty.com
15-Apr	12-1pm	Memorial Hall	Fort Scott
	For more information, contact: Gayle Sackett, 620-223-4211
15-Apr	3-9pm	Community America Ballpark	Kansas City
	For more information, contact: Political Chips at 913-708-0292
15-Apr	5:00pm	Courthouse steps	Manhattan
	For more information, contact: Chuck Henderson, cehenderson@cox.net
15-Apr	5-6:30pm	City/County Building	Wichita
	For more information, contact: Lynda Tyler, 316-722-8031
15-Apr	5-8pm	Hwy 25 and 50	Lakin
	For more information, contact: Debbie Jordan, 620-275-4023
15-Apr	6:00pm	Hutchinson Sports Arena	Hutchinson
	For more information, contact: Wendy Schaffer, info@patriotfreedomalliance.org
17-Apr	2-4pm	Memorial Park, 6th & Merchant	Emporia
	For more information, contact: Barb Nichols, 620-343-3289
17-Apr	4-7pm	City Park Gazebo, 6th & Main	Ottawa
	For more information, contact: Brad Heathman, 785-242-8564

Ready to move past tea parties and rallies?  It’s time to register for the Post Party Summits!  Happening in seven different cities across the nation in April and May, these summits will provide the tools, political training and encouragement you need to take back our country, one community at a time.  Find out more and get registered today at summit.americanmajority.org.