BRISTOL, Va. – On the steps of the courthouse Saturday, a small group rallied for political change.
Held during the city’s Fourth of July celebration, it was the latest local “Tea Party” protest – a continuation of the April 15 tax-day protests staged across the nation.
“We’re here all together because we are tired of out-of-control government,” said Brian Rieck, organizer of the event. “We do not want to be a socialist nation.
They set up a republic for us, and we want to continue to be a republic.”
Rally organizers also walked and rode floats down State Street in Bristol’s holiday parade. One float featured people tearing up paper and a sign reading, “They’re trashing our constitution,” while another warned: “You can’t borrow your way out of debt” and “Attn: Washington you have run out of money.”
Brandi Whiteaker, of Bristol, Tenn., wore a jail uniform with “debt slave” written on the back; she pushed her grandson Nathan in a stroller with a sign that read, “I owe how much! But I’m only 2 years old.”
“We are here because it’s time for people to start standing up,” Whiteaker said.
More than 1,300 registered tea parties were scheduled for Saturday across the country, Rieck said. Chief among the mission is to protest a government that is too big and spends too much.
The Bristol rally, which began after the parade and lasted more than 90 minutes, began with about 80 people in attendance. The crowd quickly diminished, however, as revelers drifted to the other holiday entertainment downtown, including a program at the park, a car show nearby and festivities at the train station.
Speakers at the rally addressed the issues of hate-crime legislation, health care reform and opposition to the separation of church and state. Among the grievances aired on the courthouse steps, read aloud by Rieck but also distributed to the crowd in a printed flyer:
* “wanton and reckless spending, far exceeding the capacity of the people to reasonably provide and without their consent;”
* “creating discord and upset among the people due to invented and exaggerated class differences to justify confiscation and redistribution of wealth;”
* “appointing officers known as czars, accountable to no one except our president;”
* “using federal grants and aid to create a dependent and slothful nation so that the many have become the parasites on the few.”
A larger tea party event, featuring local Republican politicians, is scheduled for Monday at Sugar Hollow Park, with a bring-your-own picnic beginning at 4 p.m. and the program starting at 6 p.m.
dmccown@bristolnews.com | (276) 791-0701
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