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Follow us on TwitterDanville residents come out in protest of higher taxes, increased government spending
Traci White/Register & Bee
Bradley Rees, a Republican congressional candidate hopeful, speaks to the crowd Saturday at the Danville Tea Party Tax Day at Ballou Park. Former Congressman Virgil Goode and current Delegate Danny Marshall, R-14th District, also delivered speeches to the crowd of about 200 at noon, and everyone enjoyed being cooled off with iced tea provided by Matt Royster of Main Street Coffee Emporium.
A red, white and blue clad crowd packed around a cinderblock stage behind the Danville Senior Citizens’ Center in Ballou Park on Saturday for the city’s first Tea Party.
They came as citizens upset with state and federal government and wanting change. They came to protest higher taxes and increased government spending. They came to drink tea.
About 400 people were in attendance, and some of them held yellow signs that said “NO OBAMA-CARE.” Others held homemade, poster board signs with slogans, including “America stands for freedom, not socialism.”
Some wore American flag T-shirts. They made use of the shade given by trees.
Mike Dillon, 55, said this was his first Tea Party.
“I don’t agree with what the government is trying to do,” he said. “They’ve forgotten all about the Constitution. The founding fathers must be turning over in their graves.”
Dillon stood next to his young son, Reagan, named for former president Ronald Reagan, he said. They held handwritten signs on white poster board. Reagan’s sign read: “Stop spending my money, I haven’t even earned it yet.”
Nigel Coleman, the chairman of the Danville Tea Party Commission, first took the microphone as the crowd cheered.
“We don’t want to pass on this legacy of debt and socialism to future generations,” Coleman said. “United for freedom, your voices will be heard.”
He told the supporters this was their Tea Party and encouraged them to talk with organizers about their concerns. He said they would do things a little differently, too.
“This is the South, so we’re not going to throw tea away,” he said. “We’re going to drink it.”
Former Rep. Virgil Goode and Delegate Danny Marshall spoke during the event. Bradley Rees, a candidate running against Democrat Tom Perriello for the 5th District, also addressed the crowd.
Goode talked about cap-and-trade legislation. He said energy alternatives like switch grass and biofuel are good. But the bill will drive up costs for gas and utilities for some people, he said, and it would send jobs overseas.
Goode said the government should allow drilling off the coast of Virginia. The drilling would create local jobs and ease some of the nation’s energy dependence.
“We have got to use what we have and not surrender to the sheiks in the Middle East,” Goode said.
He also spoke against abortion, increasing foreign aid and Congressional travel expenses.
Marshall spoke soon after Goode. He said the national government should take note of the Virginia General Assembly, which has to balance its budget every year. He agreed with Goode on offshore drilling and the cap-and-trade legislation.
“We’ve got to kill cap and trade,” he said.
Rees said the problems facing the country are old ones, but like in the past, Americans will overcome them. He criticized Perriello for signing bills that increased taxes.
He also asked the crowd to do three things: vote, talk to people and run for office. They should hang on to their anger but temper it with rationality, he said.
“Action is the key,” Rees said. “The facts are our foundation. And love for this great nation is our motivation.”
The passionate crowd cheered and applauded loudly during the event. One organizer let anyone interested address the group in between speeches. Many in the crowd took advantage.
Coleman, the chairman of the Danville Tea Party Commission, said that they hope to make people aware of the movement in Danville. He and Bobbie Conner, the vice chairman of the commission, organized the event.
“I feel like it’s always been here,” Coleman said. “Somebody just needed to tap into it. The Tea Party movement isn’t just somewhere else, it’s right here.”
The grassroots movement is about three basic ideas: limited government, lower taxes and free-market principles.
Coleman said he wants more people to get involved.
Conner said they hosted the Tea Party to “get the citizens to work together and get back the government that is being taken from us.”
He added that the Independence Day Tea Party is not a one-time thing and that they want to throw another one in October.
“We’re going to keep working at this,” he said.
The Danville Tea Party Tax Day was one of 16 Tea Parties in Virginia on Saturday. The national organization, the Tea Party Patriots, set the July 4 date and encouraged local groups to have events. According to its Web site, more than 500 Tea Parties were held nationwide on Independence Day.
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Reader Reactions
“ragsquir” Congratulations on capturing most of the ssigned “talking points”. All of those refreshing new ideas give me reason for renewed interest in the ousted republican party:) I tell you what, use that $30K intellect and provide real solutions, solid, specific options. Not a bunch of “don’t do”, “can’t do”, “shouldn’t do”, but real answers to really difficult problems.
JaPo,
You sound like one of those liberal elites who thinks anyone who doesn’t share your warped view of the world is nothing but an ignorant, uneducated, racist provincial redneck. I think you all protest so much because you are secretly scared to death because you know the MAJORITY of Americans don’t share your viewpoint and, furthermore, we are tired of being beaten up with it and we aren’t going to take it anymore. The 2010 elections will just be the beginning.
George W. Bush and the Republicans in congress have made their share of mistakes. HOWEVER, Pres Bush kept our country safe from terror attacks for 7 years after 9-11. Also, he wasn’t afraid to stand up for our country to the world, rather than apologizing and kowtowing to our enemies around the world. (I personally am pretty sick of hearing Obama tell everyone how terrible the United States is.) The economy was pretty darn good in spite of 9-11 and the war on terror (yes, I said it, war on terror) until the liberal democratic congress came to power and forced the mortgage industry (under pressure from ACORN) to give bad loans to people who couldn’t afford them, then turned a blind eye while Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and others packaged these bad loans, sold them to hedge funds and helped bring down the financial markets as a result.
By the way, I am a very educated professional and make a bit more than $30K. I’ve also lived all over the world and I have seen first hand the socialized medicine and economies that you so esteem. I suppose they are okay if you like paying 50-60% in taxes and having the government dictate to you the type of education you can have, the type of job you can do, the city where you can work in your career field, whether you can have the medical treatment you want and how long you may have to wait for it.
Oh,by the way, one of the organizers of the tea party happened to be a very articulate, young BLACK man. Surprise, surprise!
jimmystick. It seems that your knowledge of “the old book named Common Sense” is right up there with your knowledge of ol’ Thomas Paine - nil.
Ol’ Virge talked about everything BUT taxes, which shows that he came to the “meetin’” with the right speech, it was their fault that they just picked the wrong subject - taxes. That is the foolishness of the so-called “TEA” parties - they have no real focus; they are just a bunch of whining loser white Republicans (noticed not a non-white face in the whole crowd in Danville with a minority - black, hispanic, Asian - population of over 50% - interesting - just an observation) coming together to comfort themselves as the rest of the nation moves forward behind the strong Democratic leadership.
And speaking of “common sense.“ Obviously the GOP leadership doesn’t seem to be using any - let’s see, uh, in the past 2-3 weeks Senator Ensign and Governor Sanford (both from the party of “Family Values”) and Governor “never say quit” Palin who - uh - quit. What a bunch of clowns they have become - sad. Peace.
As long as politicians continue to give our tax dollars to banks, failing car makers, and other polititians our country will stay in this downward spiral. Had they told business’ too bad so sad and allowed them to go bankrupt and forced state gov’t to plug their swiss cheese budgets with their own coffers we might have stood a chance. What’s wrong with giving me my tax dollars back? They have no idea how the economy works since they keep cutting the backbone out and expecting the limbs to work like normal. Give the honest tax paying American their money to spend and by some miracle fledling businesses will make money, Banks will get payed for mortgages, and the Sun will dry up all the rain! Tea is for drinking…common sense is the only thing that will fix the our problems.
If that last a is for abortion in TEA maybe the world would have been better if a certain persons parents would have had an abortion instead of polluting the gene pool of southside VA. Some people on here really show a lack of common sense. Maybe some folks should read the old book named Common Sense.
As long as the Politicians can keep people fighting over things like abortion and health care, they can ALL continue to rob the American Citizens blind. They ALL approved NAFTA< CAFTA give the People the SHAFTA. They did it because they or their family members own those businesses. What we really need is a Party FOR the PEOPLE. There are many things that Dems and Repubs actually agree on. Why can’t we start with that, as opposed to just fighting about the differences all of the time? An Eagle cannot fly with just a Right Wing nor just a Left Wing. He needs BOTH. We need the P.O.P. The Poor and Ordinary Party.
Throwing Tea parties for political veiws will only cough up bad blood in ones mind and create monsters/crooks to throw in their hats for political clout.
These are the ones that will cause descent citizens not to vote or vote the other way. Virgil Goode did it and it caused him defeat. Hail to Perriello for not walking that route. Tea tastes better with a meal or just relaxing rather than political rallys. You said one will be hosted in October, isn,t Halloween in that month?
CBL said: “Where, oh where, are all the jobs Obama is creating? Where, oh where, can they be?“
Geez CBL, give the man a break. He’s been in office six months, and like they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day. Heck, George Bush wrecked this country in eight short years…so why not give the new President one term to do what he said he would do. George W had two full terms of nothing—oh I’m sorry, he got us into wars on two fronts, drove the economy into the ground, made us the most hated country in the world, lied, cheated and spied on his own people…he did stuff that makes Richard Nixon look like a Boy Scout…and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Ol’ Foghorn Leghorn . . . er . . . Virge came out to this July 4th gathering of those opposed to higher taxes to talk about higher taxes? No . . . he talked about cap and trade, drilling off the coast of Virginia (as long as they leave the Dan River alone, I assume), abortion (let’s see, these folk want govt. to stay out of their bidnez yet want government to interfere with a woman’s right to choose - hmmm…seems a bit Orwellian to me), increasing foreign aid and, finally, a tax issue, “Congressional Travel expenses” (an issue that he can talk about with confidence since it cost him minimal to travel home to his district from DC while others don’t have the luxury of having districts near the capital - kinda like those who have federal funded health insurance but don’t want others to have it).
So, based upon what Ol’ Virge has talked about, I assume the TEA in TEA Party stands for “Travel,“ “Energy = Drilling,“ and “Abortion.“ Is that what Saturday was all about - I had no idea. I thought it was a tax-payers’ revolt, but that kinda got clouded in the other talking points of Ol’ Virge. God save us from having him in Washington again; though, I’m sure Jon Stewart is praying for his return - Ol’ Virge made our district the butt of many of Stewart’s jokes, but thank God for Mark Sanford - SC has now become the Southern laughing stock of the nation. Those Republicans sure know what they’re doing, don’t they? Guess that’s why the mandate of the last election kinda turned them into geldings. Peace.
Let’s get something strait. Perriello said he read all the bills he voted for. This is what his staff says when asked. Therefore his double shift in Congress means that he knowingly voted for these bills which makes him an even bigger moron than his supporters. Unless they are Socialists and like that type of stuff.
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