Sam Bramer - Columnist "By the curbside, looking in" April 16, 2009 The original tea party, the Boston Tea Party, was a protest to a specific tax on colonist and a protest of the way the British government viewed the colonists. It was also one in a series of events that eventually led to the American Revolution and the birth of the ml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />United States. At the time I am writing this there are “Tea Parties” planned all over the country for April 15th. When you read this they will have already happened. ml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> It is my understanding that the intent of these “Tea Parties” is to protest the massive government spending being planned by the President and the leaders in congress. I agree with the sentiment and I intend to attend the tea party in Alexandria. Will all these “Tea Parties” lead to more protest and more action or will this just be a chance for people to vent a little and for politicians to make speeches full of empty promises? I hope this is the beginning; not the end! I hope this is the beginning of an assertive renewal of the American taxpayer. I think this current economic crisis is more hype than substance and is being used by those on the left, including most members of the media, to increase government control. I’m not saying that there are no economic problems but I do question the severity of the problems. For example, interest rates for mortgages are still at historic lows and none of the lenders have indicated that they don’t have money to lend. Lending criteria is tougher today than it was 5 years ago but not nearly as tough as it was 15 to 20 years ago. The unemployment rate is rising and is projected to reach 10%; from the ’60’s through the ‘90’s an unemployment rate of 7% was common so our current unemployment rate is not unprecedented and is not at crisis level. By the way, this is not the first time the media has been part of hyping a so called crisis. In the presidential campaign of 1992, the Clinton campaign mantra was “this is the worst economy in 50 years” after the media’s choice narrowly won the election, it was reported that the recession of ’92 had been over for months. The federal government is moving to take more control of the banking industry, take over the health care industry and gain a controlling interest in the domestic automobile industry. They justify this by saying that only government can fix this problem. We, the producers and taxpayers, should not let this happen! I hope that these so called tea parties are the beginning of the producers and taxpayers of this country joining together to become activists instead of spectators. What would happen if just 10% of the people that really made this country work decided they were fed up and went on strike? Better still, what if the people that did not vote for the socialists that are now in power just refused to pay taxes? There is strength in numbers but somebody must have the guts to get it started; if they did how many of us would have the guts to follow and how many of us would just call them nuts? Everybody didn’t agree with Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin; but enough did and were willing to follow. The leadership of the founding fathers brought America out of bondage to Great Britain; we are following the current leadership back into bondage. We can change the course, but not without taking action!   © Copyright The Chronicle 2009                           © Copyright The Chronicle 2009		Search The Chronicle Recent Headlines Announcements Obituaries Legal Notices Community Calendar