Well, I have survived the San Antonio Tea Party, and I survived it without getting arrested! Of course Vicky did send a friend down with me to keep me from grabbing a rifle, a flag, and screaming charge!
I'd been planning on going to the Tea Party in Dallas but when the San Antonio group first announced that they were holding their party at the Alamo I knew that was were I HAD to be. There was no hesitation, no question, no wonder how I am going to do it, there was just, I WILL DO THIS.
We didn't quite make it there in time to see the whole Glenn Beck program, something about a prolonged stop in Elgin Tx at the South Side Meat Market for some utterly fantastic barbecue. We did get there in time though for the last of Glenn's show after parking over a mile away and walking in.
The current report on the crowd from the fine and very professional San Antonio Police Department was that there were approximately 20, 000 people in attendance. Wow, 20,000 people! That number still takes a while to sink in, even though I was there. Personally I really don't like crowds, I hate being shoulder to shoulder with people. At the Alamo, I loved it! There was no discomfort at all, we were packed in there like sardines but everyone was friendly.
Surprisingly enough, even with 20,000 people in attendance there were no riots, no looting, no cars being burned, no tear gas being hurled, no rocks thrown, no public intoxication, no public urination, no public indecency, and even hardly any trash, (the trash that I did see, very quickly got picked up by the folks at the rally and thrown away). What a difference we presented when compared to the Acorn, Moveon.org, CodePink, and other leftist organizations.
I saw two counter protesters at the event, one guy was waving a white supremacist sign. When I spoke to him and suggested that his sign wasn't right for this event he started ranting about public places and his right to free speech. I agreed with him, left, pointed him out to a nice officer from the SAPD and asked that he be watched so he didn't start any trouble. The other protester I saw was some grunge/goth skate board punk who couldn't even spell, (his sign would have received an F from most junior high English classes). He got a little upset when a few people chose to "grade" his sign.
There was a pretty decent mix of people there at the rally, contrary to the "lame stream" media it wasn't all just angry middle aged white folks, (I resemble that however). What it was, was all ages, from babies in strollers to retired folks, black, white, hispanic, asian, and more that I didn't recognize.
My buddy, Bill, had a very telling comment as we were driving back home. 99.9% of the signs were home made. People took the time, passion and energy to make their own signs. This wasn't some rent a mob like Acorn or Moveon.org financed by George Soros, this was your everyday person standing up and saying with one loud voice, ENOUGH! STOP THE SPENDING! When Bill was serving with Uncle Sam's Misguided Children, (USMC for those who can't figure it out), he did some training in evacuating embassy's in hostile countries. One of the lessons he learned was if all the signs were home made, watch out, that meant that the population was really mad.
Of course I had to listen to the radio and news the next day. I thought the most telling comment came from President Obama, "What Tea Party, I didn't hear anything about any Tea Parties", that statement told me just how scared he and the establishment is over the whole idea. It also once again pointed out just what a stuck up elitist bastard he is.
posted by Vic303 @ 6:36 PM
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