“Don’t Tread on Me”

UPDATE: I got the organizers of these events wrong. Here’s the official word:

“The Jefferson Area Tea Party JATP are the organizers not the Libertarians, although both organizations support personal freedom and the Constitution.”



NOTE: This post was written by Dymphna. She gave it to me to add the photos, and I inadvertently published it under my own account. I’m too lazy to delete it and re-post it under hers.

Tea Party 5


We went to Tea Party No. 2 on July 4th. In trying to figure out how it differed from the first one, I drew several conclusions:

1. Summertime is a much better venue. The weather is good (well, actually it rained heavily all the next day and the thermometer never got much past 65. So we lucked out).

Tea Party 0   Tea Party 1



2. Because of the school schedule there were lots more children. That made it more festive. The sponsors of the event had set up kid-sized “stations”, each with some history on one of the Founding Fathers. The children had sheets and as they visited each station they marked off what they’d read. A painless, kinetic history lesson.

Tea Party 3


3. The speeches were shorter and more varied. One fellow, a blue collar worker, announced his decision to run for the Congressional seat currently held by Representative Perriello. Is this man likely to win? Probably not. But he is determined that he’s not going to sit back and wait for change.

Tea Party 8


4. There was ice cream, always a nice feature. But this was even better: Chap’s ice cream is famous in the area for making the best. And it was free.

Tea Party 6


5. The venue was more user-friendly: green grass, shade trees, no large stretches of concrete. The statue of Stonewall Jackson (the Tea Party took place at Stonewall Jackson Park, next to the county Court House) added some historical context. He loomed high over all of us, sitting astride his horse.
– – – – – – – –
Tea Party 76. Having it on a weekend (and a hallowed holiday) meant that people with jobs could come — and they showed up in numbers. The estimate of the crowd was more or less a thousand people.

7. Come to think of it, having the event on the Fourth of July may have kept the numbers down. People have family parties for the Fourth and so they lost some who might have been there otherwise.

8. They kept it shorter: 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Yes, of course it ran over time, but that’s okay. People could come and go as they wished.

9. They had someone lead the singing of “God Bless America”. Group singing is inspiring. It gives one a sense of community to have the opportunity to belt out a beloved favorite.

Tea Party 4   Tea Party 10



Tea Party 210. The signs were even more inventive than those at the first Tea Party. There is simply more to work on since Congress has been busy selling our inheritance right from under us.

11. On leaving, the Baron noted, “this was just like a Boy Scout meeting”. By that he meant it was orderly, friendly, and patriotism was encouraged.

Tea Party 912. The atmosphere was quieter and more determined this time. Congress will ignore the Tea Parties at their peril. If they pay attention to what the media is saying, they won’t learn anything. For example, the local paper didn’t even cover the event. Perhaps they believe that a blanket of silence will make this new determination go away. Wrong.

13. More people have now signed up for the Jefferson Area Libertarians. They are the engine for the Tea Party in Charlottesville and they’re pulling ever more cars as this movement gains steam.

14. I found out I enjoyed chatting with fellow members of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy. Everywhere I went, I heard libertarian conservatives refusing to be pigeonholed into a party affiliation.

5 thoughts on ““Don’t Tread on Me”

  1. Great reporting of the tea party. Just one correction. The Jefferson Area Tea Party(JATP)are the organizers not the Libertarians, although both organizations support personal freedom and the Constitution.

  2. I’m glad to see some Americans care enough to go out and protest. It’s a start. Whether or not the worry is sufficiently intense to promote serious political action in 2010 and 2012 remains to be seen, though.

  3. As a founding member of the Jefferson Area Tea Party I can guarantee you that we will not rest until “reform” occurs. Tom Perriello is already in trouble for his votes and the DNC knows it and will be sending people from the current administration into the 5th district to help him out. We will be there to counter this effort. I believe that similar actions by other area tea party participants will be taking place all over the state and country. Do not underestimate this movement.

  4. Miss Anthrope —

    He is the very same person. Charlottesville is so blue it lacks enough oxygen to think straight. And it has the University of Virginia smack dab in the middle, taking up all the room and living tax free (it’s an octopus, gathering more and more land).

    They couldn’t get Virgil out on their own (have tried for years) but rules for Dem voters seem to bend a bit.

    When Kerry was running against Bush, Kerry’s daughter came to town to try to talk single welfare mothers into voting for her father on the promise of better benefits. The underclass in general doesn’t vote, and a single woman with a couple of little ones sure doesn’t vote…or listen to politicians.

    I don’t know if Perriello can be pried out or not. The Dems cheat nation-wide now and it’s harder and harder to enforce reasonable voting measures.

    OTOH, Perriello’s voting record is so bad that it might be enough to make the rest of the district turn out in larger numbers to kick him out.

    I sent him the Heritage Foundation statistics re the deleterious effects of the Cap and Trade results for VA District Five. You can see it here:

    Waxman-Markey Global Warming Bill: Economic Impact by Congressional District.

    Every district in every state is in that table. Incredible amount of work. Scroll down to VA, District Five, and see the results.

    It has Gross State Product Losses in 2012, and then an average loss for the years 2012-2035.

    The next table is Personal Income, again the two categories: the year 2012, and the average from 2012-2035.

    The final table is Non-Farm Jobs,showing losses in 2012 and then out to 2o35.

    There is not one net gain in any state or any district in any state.

    I’m not enough of a number cruncher to total the whole loss for the United States, but I’m going to ask the Heritage Foundation if *they* have rung up the totals somewhere. All I can say is that our coming losses will be huge. They will only be slightly ameliorated by hiring everyone as govt workers.

    We are on our way to becoming very poor, very fast. And the oil companies and the coal industry will still get the blame for this infamy created by the Dems.

    Many people counter that Bush started this and I quite agree. But what sane person, seeing a conflagration beginning, sends out for more gasoline and matches?

    Now…that was probably more information than you needed.

Comments are closed.