Posted on 03/31/2010 8:01:03 PM PDT by flamberge
The Tea Party Express arrived in Denver just after 5:00pm to meet a crowd of supporters on the front steps of the State Capital Building. I estimated 2000-2600 people were there to greet them. It seemed to be a pretty good turnout for a Wednesday afternoon during work hours.
The event was originally scheduled for 4:00pm but the Tea Party bus was delayed in traffic. Over a thousand people had gathered by the planned start time. A steady parade of local speakers kept the crowd engaged with singing, chants, and recitations of the pledge of allegiance, until the featured event began.
The demonstrators were overwhelmingly White people of mixed genders and ages, predominantly in their 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s. A small number of Hispanics were sprinkled throughout the crowd. I saw only four Black people. There was an interesting occurrence of younger women in their 20’s and late teens and relatively few young men in those same age groups (as best I can estimate ages). The crowd accommodated a distinctly large number of people in wheelchairs – more than 20.
Police maintained a discrete presence across the street with a half-dozen uniformed officers in the park and a similar number patrolling around the edges of the crowd. A lone counter-demonstrator carried a sign in support of the President and wandered up and down the steps, ignored by almost everyone. Passers-by in cars heckled some of the Tea Party supporters who were displaying signs to the street – there were also enthusiastic cheers and encouragement from some drivers. Most notably, the guards from within an armored car came to the window of their vehicle and gave a “thumbs up” to the demonstrators.
An incident of loud and prolonged honking was neither in support nor opposition to the demonstration, but rather the result of a stalled car in the middle of the street when the light changed. It was, after all, rush hour in Denver.
From the balcony above the steps to the State Capitol Building a number of legislators surveyed the crowd while staff and other government workers peered from the windows. Local news media were present in abundance posing for their camera crews and recording the commentaries for the evening broadcasts.
Signage repeatedly and specifically disavowed racism as a reason for opposition to the government. The major themes included rejection of higher taxes, demands for repeal of the Health Care bill, distrust of the “Mainstream Media”, and disgust with the corrupt leadership of Congress. Some examples:
“The People Will Not Shut Up”.
“Speak Without Fear”
“Racism is Garbage. Do not recycle – Just toss it”
“Stop Stealing from my Grandchildren”.
“Stop Organized Crime – Obama, Reid, Pelosi”
“End Corruption - Fire Congress”
“Boycott Main Stream Media”
“Cut our Taxes, not our Jobs”
“Don’t Retreat – Reload”
“Repeal and Replace”
I believe that what everyone does after they go home will matter more than anything else. People must remain motivated and persistent in their actions and directions.
The political elites appear to be firmly set in their courses and will not be moved by letters, phone calls, or demonstrations of any intensity. Only replacement of government officials in very large numbers will have any effect now.
Hopefully this will occur in the next elections.
Great report.
Two of my friends drove up to Denver today and said it was great. They saw about 7 policemen and two who mingled with the crowd were smiling and pleased.
“A page on the Infoshop News site titled “Crash the tea parties!” houses planning tools, pointers to websites on which to gather intelligence about tea party planning, and a laundry list of smears about the character of tea party activists.”
This is from an earlier post...please alert all you know who may attend a Tea Party in April.
Thank you for reporting. Always interested in how the Tea Party Express is doing.
1 thumb up!
We just found it on FaceBook.com, or at least someone commenting to someone about it. We weren’t even looking for it and up it came on Mrs. Waspman’s computer completely by happenstance!!!
Wonderful signs there. Thanks for the photos.
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