7/5/2009

Declaration of Independence read at TEA Party gathering

By GARY DEMUTH

Salina Journal

Shirley Sills is fed up with the way the big government is trying to run her life.

"They're thinking about their greedy pocketbooks in Washington, and they're doing it on the backs of the American people," she said. "If we don't come out and voice the way we see things, we'll be sorry. We have to say enough is enough."

Sills is so fed up with the current government that she drove to Salina from Hutchinson with her husband and son to attend a "Celebrate America's Heritage" Independence Day celebration at the locomotive in Kenwood Park.

The hourlong event, beginning at 11 a.m. Saturday, was sponsored by the Salina TEA Party, a nationally based conservative movement that stands for Taxed Enough, Already.

According to the group's Web site at www.salinateaparty.com, the organization is committed to "inform, encourage, equip and mobilize at the grassroots level to reclaim control of our government; local, state and federal."

A previous TEA Party event on April 15 (tax day, naturally) drew some 500 people to protest what organizer Joe Winship called an increasingly intrusive, expensive federal government and to promote individual liberty and fiscal responsibility.

The July 4th event, he said, "is to remind people of our national heritage and to show why we're so upset with the way things are going in government now, the way it's spending money with no regard for accountability."

About 300 people attended Saturday's event at Kenwood Park.

While the previous event was intended to be a protest of high taxes and reckless government spending, Saturday's gathering was meant to be more of a patriotic celebration, Winship said.

"Our goal is to celebrate the Declaration of Independence and our nation's heritage," he said.

Radio personality Clarke Sanders led a reading of the entire Declaration of Independence, encouraging the audience to read certain highlighted passages of the document from flyers.

The Declaration, written by America's founding fathers as a statement to the world protesting the authority of an oppressive Great Britain, is one of America's great documents, if not the greatest, Winship said.

"There's a list of 27 grievances against Great Britain, and taxation without representation was just one," he said.

Salinan Dr. Charles Romm, a co-organizer of Saturday's event, spoke to the crowd about what the Declaration of Independence meant to the men who wrote it and what it means for American citizens today.

Romm wasn't hesitant about comparing the current U.S. administration with that of Great Britain in the 18th century.

"If we're under a tyrant, we have the right to separate ourselves from that tyrant so we can exercise our unalienable rights," he said.

Sills wasn't shy about calling President Barack Obama "a Marxist" who "is not about America but about his own agenda."

"We need to get common-sense people back in Washington," she said.

Sills' husband, Robert, admitted that he's actually a registered Democrat but decided to accompany his wife to protest what he sees as "all this spending going on."

"Things have been out of control, in my opinion, for the last 30 years," he said. "I thought we were on our way to recovery with Clinton. That didn't happen. When you serve your party, rather than your people, that irritates me."

Salinan Charley Rhein said he attended Saturday's event because he believes in the freedom of America and believes the little guy is being shut out by big government spenders.

"I hate the thought that my grandchildren will have to pay for the mistakes of the current administration," he said. "Why should I be punished for being fiscally conservative?"

nReporter Gary Demuth can be reached at 822-1405 or by e-mail at gdemuth@salina.com.