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Published Saturday, July 04, 2009 in Local

'Tea party' rally today in Peachtree City for Fourth

By Sarah Fay Campbell

The Newnan Times-Herald

The "tea party" movement sparked on April 15 continues to grow, and a large July 4 rally will be held today in Peachtree City.

Talk radio star Herman Cain will be keynote speaker at the event, being held at Peachtree City's Frederick Brown Jr. Amphitheater.

The event will run from 4 to 5:30, said Cindy Fallon, president of the PTC Tea Party Patriots, but she encourages folks to get there early. Since a planned event in Gwinnett County was canceled, Fallon is expecting a big crowd.

Georgia's Third District U.S. Congressman Lynn Westmoreland will be the opening speaker, said Fallon. Also speaking will be Marty Harbin, a small business owner. There will also be a dramatization about Founding Father Thomas Paine, Fallon said.

"We're trying to come at it from different angles and just present our message of fiscal responsibility, limited governments and free markets," she said.

There will also be a concession stand with pizza, drinks, ice cream, informational items, books and T-shirts. There will be petitions dealing with issues such as health care reform, cap-and-trade, and the Federal Reserve, Fallon said.

There will also be a "Constitution table." A large roll of paper will be set out on the table, and attendees are asked to write their thoughts about the Constitution and government. The document will then be taken to Washington, D.C. "It's to let people know we want to preserve and protect the Constitution," Fallon said. "Our whole basis is going back to our constitutional principles and constitutional rights," Fallon said.

Local Boy Scouts will be giving out pocket-sized versions of the Constitution, Fallon said.

"We want to attract people to our movement, and also educate them," she said. "I think once you are educated about our past and our history, you find out what is really wrong right now, and where we want to go."

When the nation's founding fathers picked a system of government for the fledgling United States, they really did their research, Fallon said.

"The reasons our government works so well is the founding fathers had researched a lot of governments and the types of government that had come and gone," she said. "They felt like the republic was the best bet," she said "Our founding fathers were brilliant."

More events are coming up soon. "The tea party movement started out in a lot of places all over the nation. Now it has networked to state and national levels," Fallon said. "This is a coordinated movement across the whole country."

On July 17, nationwide, there are plans for demonstrations outside of congressional and legislative offices, Fallon said. On July 18, there will be a town hall health care forum at The Gathering Place, 203 McIntosh Trail in Peachtree City.

The point of the PTC Tea Party Patriots, and the tea parties, is to "attract people and educate them and motivate them to be proactive. As citizens, we are supposed to be involved with our government. That is how it is set up. And when we are not ... this is what happens," Fallon said. The U.S. is "being destroyed from within our country by people ignorant of our heritage and our constitutional principles."

For more information, visit www.ptcteapartypatriots.org, or call Fallon at 770-631-2683 or Treasurer Jim Richter at 770-632-9618. The national tea party Web site is teapartyday.com .

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