From Protest to Action-

  (this is a post I made on Sept 16th,2009 after a successful campaign to stop a local tax increase)

The day had been filled with congratulations and thank you’s, which are awesome and greatly appreciated. However I truly don’t deserve all the credit or accolades. The scores of TEA Party people that worked diligently to hand out fliers, make phone calls, write letters to the editor, rally, attend meetings, formulate and pay for ads and You Guys, the 6000 people that took time out of their days to go be a part of the solution by voting deserve the credit and recognition for all your efforts.

The people of Fayetteville from all sides united to say ENOUGH! Even though the district was able to solicit endorsements from the City Council, the Mayor’s office, the AFSCME Union, the Chamber of Commerce and the local paper which carried story after story, after editorial, after endorsement. They sent a blizzard of studies, fact sheets, robo calls, mass mailings, letters home with students and even personalized home meetings all around our city to convince people that we needed to spend $116 million plus that much in interest to build a high school for the children. Even after all of that, the PEOPLE were able to examine the facts they presented, which were surprisingly few, and say No, we have not been given nearly enough information to hand over any more of our hard earned money in such tough financial times for everyone.

Yesterday’s election was the largest school election ever held <a href=”https://bit.ly/251IK5″>https://bit.ly/251IK5</a> in Washington Co. That in itself is a huge achievement! I hope what is accomplished by this historic milestone is that people all across our state realize the power for common good that is generated when a community unites, when concerned people become informed and engaged in the process afforded us to insure our freedoms and liberties.

For the TEA Party movement to continue to be effective we must move from the Protest to Action phase. Use the momentum and credibility we have gained thwarting EFCA (card check) and health care, facilitating the resignation of Van Jones, the gathering of millions of Americans from April 15th, July 4th and 9/12 to our first local victory by defeating an outrageous millage increase to now move to sustained action implementing change in our communities. We all need to send a clear and continuous message to our elected officials at every level : We will no longer sit idly by and watch as you leverage our futures and the futures of our children with unresponsive, arrogant, over-reaching and over-spending tactics.

Get together now and begin tomorrow joining forces with others in your neighborhoods, churches and offices. Please start attending public meetings i.e. school boards, city councils, quorum courts etc. Let them see you are there and interested. Begin to listen and even investigate what is happening in your own back yard, where your voice is the loudest. Also let your legislators know in a civil manner that that they are on notice, that we the people are here to watch and speak – and we aren’t sittin’ down anymore.