Published Thursday, April 02, 2009
Locals join Tea Party protest against taxes, fed spending
The Newnan Times-Herald
A group of Cowetans is joining the national Tax Day Tea Party protest effort -- and will be making protest posters Saturday at Sharpsburg Baptist Church for events planned in Newnan, Fayette and Atlanta.
Political demonstrations will be held across the United States on April 15, and some 10,000 people are expected to attend the Atlanta Tea Party at the state capitol. Protest events are being held in Newnan and Peachtree City earlier that day, said the local organizers.
Wendy Bloedt is the Coweta coordinator for the Atlanta Tea Party and, in addition to the poster-making event Saturday, is setting up a motor coach trip to the Atlanta Tea Party.
Anyone interested in working together on posters to take to the event can come to Sharpsburg Baptist from 9:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. You should bring your own poster-making supplies.
Bloedt asks that people RSVP so she will know how much donuts and coffee to bring to the church. You can call Bloedt at 678-898-0257 or e-mail ridethebuscoweta@hotmail.com . Bloedt has also set up a Web site at www.ridethebuscoweta.blogspot.com .
"I think it is just a great way for people to come together and be with like-minded individuals and discuss issues that are important to them nationally and locally," Bloedt said of Saturday's event. "I believe that there are people out there who want to be involved and don't know what to do."
Bloedt has never really been politically involved before, but the events of the past several months have changed that.
It started when the first bailout bill, known as TARP, was being discussed last fall. "I am standing in my living room, screaming at my TV: 'This is crazy, are you kidding me?'" Bloedt said.
"It just became very disconcerting to me watching the news," she said. "The amount of money being spent ... it seems like there is no regard for what they are doing," she said.
"Over time I think I just got to a point where I said to myself -- 'this is enough and I have to do what I can to try to stop it.'"
She went to the first Atlanta Tea Party in February. It was cold and pouring down rain, but "I was just very motivated by the amount of people that I did see turn out for it," Bloedt said.
On her way home, she got to thinking. She knew a bigger event was coming up April 15, and "I was just trying to think of a way that I could make it easier for people in my community to be involved in that if they wanted to."
So she came up with the idea of renting a motor couch. "Not everyone wants to drive downtown," Bloedt said. Plus, "it would be very nice for people who all feel the same way to be able to gather together and share their opinions together."
With so much work ahead, she recruited her mom, Judy Whitwood, to help out.
"I'm 60 years old and becoming politically involved ... because of my grandchildren," Whitwood said.
"I have never protested before," said Bloedt. "I'm just a little soccer mom sitting down here in Sharpsburg. I knew mom had the same concerns that I had," she said. "And we both had the time to devote to it, so it was just a perfect match."
If anyone else would like to "help us, and do some footwork for us to get the word out, we will be happy to talk to them," Bloedt said.
The national debt is working out to $161,000 per person, right now, Whitwood said. "Stay tuned. In 30 minutes, you're going to hear something else," she said. "Every day it is something else -- just stop the spending."
The deadline for reserving a seat on the bus is April 11. Bloedt will need enough people to sign up to cover the cost of the bus, and if there are not enough participants, money will be refunded, she said.
You can reserve your seat on www.ridethebuscoweta.blogspot.com through a secure, third-party server. Or you can call 678-898-0257.
Tickets are $20. The bus will have a restroom, and each seat has its own video screen.
There will be a meet-and-greet April 15 starting at 4:45 p.m. at the Coweta County Fairgrounds, and the bus will pull out at 5:30.
Fox News' Sean Hannity will be broadcasting live from the Atlanta Tea Party, Bloedt said.
For more information about the Tea Party event in Newnan, contact Chip Coursey at Chip@courseyproperties.com or call 770-296-4748. The Peachtree City coordinator is Cindy Fallon, cwfallon@bellsouth.net .
The event hearkens back to the days of the Boston Tea Party, and tea also stands for "taxed enough already."
Participants are encouraged to bring tea bags to the event, as well as signs, though signs can't have wooden stakes.
The event is "not an anti-Obama demonstration," Bloedt said. It's for everyone in Washington.
"It is a non-partisan demonstration," Bloedt said. "I believe there are just as many conservative Democrats out there as there are conservative Republicans and conservative Independents that are all in the same boat together."
