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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
It would have been great if these folks, protesting big government, had stepped up to the plate during the Bush administration. I guess it would have been considered unpatriotic to complain about 2 expensive (in blood and money) foreign occupations and “5 Trillion Dollars” added to the federal debt. Mr. Bush signed off on every cent of it.
I don’t think Mr. Obama has come close to spending that much yet, but give him time. I sure he wouldn’t want to be out done by a republican.
You folks sound like children arguing in a school yard about whose “idol” is better than the other. Keep arguing with each other though, the Washington elites love it. Meanwhile they, and their cronies, continue to get filthy rich at our expense. The rich get richer and the poor and middle class get poorer.
I have a great love for this nation and want to see us return to the principles
of our “Constitution”. I would suggest that everyone get a copy of “The Constitution” and read it. It’s written in plain English and surprisingly easy to understand. Then compare what goes on in Washington to the document. I think you will be surprised at how they have all failed to uphold their oath of office.
The “Obama Recession”, CLB?
Oh yeah, ‘cause things were going just swimingly until January 2009, right?
You need to find another angle - that dog won’t hunt (as Virgil Goode would probably say, if we could understand what he was saying).
Obama (with Perriello’s support) has spent more than all the 43 Presidents before him combined, with nothing to show for it. Where are all those jobs he said would be created? The Obama recession is getting worse day by day.
The usual suspects, throwing another tiresome and oh-so-predictable temper tantrum: a very few rich Republicans who are trying to dodge their responsibility to society by moving tax liablity down to the middle class, a gaggle of God, Gays, & Guns Republicans who will mindlessly show up and support any Republican cause no matter how shallow, and a bunch of $30k/year talk radio listening sheep who are too stupid to realize that they’ll actually benefit under the Obama tax plan.
Did you know that butler schools, all but nonexistent since the 70’s, are once again fluorishing? Yes, the uber-rich, flush with cash from historically low top marginal tax rates, find that there aren’t enough butlers out there to cater to their every whim. Yes, while Danvillians are losing their modest homes and humble jobs to the Bush Recession, the ultra rich, bless their hearts, can’t find a butler. Pain and agony abound! Let’s get back to Eisenhower-era top marginal rates so we can prevent the huge concentrations of wealth among the very few that we’re seeing today. If our problems are indeed caused by tax policy, it’s due to top tax rates that are too low, not too high.
And tell me how you’re not scraping rock bottom when you have to invite defeated racist ex-Congressman Goode to leave his Franklin County KKK buddies and come to Danville to drawl into a microphone about Obama, political correctness, and New York lawyers? If you don’t understand Hick, you might have sat through the entire speech and not understood a word.
These 400 or so mind-numbed robots can stomp their feet, clinch their fists, and hold their breath until they turn blue, and it’s of no concern. We just overwhelmingly elected a president who promised to “spread the wealth around”. These tea baggers are on the losing side of an issue that simply does not concern the vast majority on Americans. The adults are in charge now, and they’re doing a fine job of cleaning up the mess their guy Shrub Jr made in his 8-year reign of error. They need to sit down and shut up. Please!
Goode & Marshall have both been in office for years and did NOTHING but spend, spend taxpayer money. Both are losers. Both adhere to the Greed Doctrine and have their hands and pockets full of lobbyists and dirty dollars. Where were their allies, Hurt, Merricks and Davenport ??? Rumour has it that they all had a secret meeting at Davenport’s resort shooting range last week with much money flowing.
Personal attacks are a cure?
Wants some answers.
Cut out all pork spending.
Quit giving illegals free health care.
Take all able body people on welfare and put them to work.
Cleaning up roads and such
Drill for our on oil.
Pay congress for performace.
The idiots you refer to are the same class of people that started this country.
You are right on one thing, I say no to any tax increases.
There were several localities that were absent their Village Idiots yesterday, because they had all congregated in Ballou Park. The Republican Party of “NO” has no ideas. They continue to preach to each other their religion of greed and about doing away with taxes, but no one with two eyes and half sense is paying any attention to them - just look at the last dozen elections across this great country. We need solutions to problems, not more “no” nothing slogans.
I think the term (word) should be changed from fiat to “farse” as no one in society in the three degrees of absolute democracy has control… That’s why we have a Republican form of government with checks and balances… (1) Executive (2) Judicial (3)(Legislative)... We’re headed from Democracy, to Socialism, and on to Theocracy… Two of the three haven’t worked so far; maybe the third will…
This was my second Tea Party, hope their ranks continue to grow.
I undersatnd that the left wing extremist Perriello was invited to speak.
Turn it down.
Bet if it was ACRON,he would have been there!
Good job Danville Tea Partiers!
Did you ever wonder where the money for things like the subversion of the world’s immigration laws may come from? Also, recently I’m seeing an ad campaign, using money we don’t have, to sell us on a new health plan.
It seems to me as long as we allow people to print up fiat money there will be no place in the world where freedom can flourish.
If the Globalist oppose your efforts, paid for with real hard earned money, all they have to do is fire up the presses and shovel the money to any group that will oppose you.
Not only that but it seems they do it in such a way that the money to achieve THEIR goals is borrowed from them. Then we pay interest to a group outside of our country, like the Federal Reserve, on the creation and borrowing of OUR OWN money.
IN ESSENCE THEY BEAT US WITH OUR OWN STICK!
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