Published: July 04, 2009 08:37 pm         

‘Tea Party Patriots’ protest ‘evil and wickedness’

TERRE HAUTE — Saturday’s rain might have fizzled the sparklers, but “Tea Party Patriots” loosed verbal fireworks off the Vigo County Courthouse steps nonetheless.

More than 280 picketers protested along Third Street on the courthouse steps as part of the American Family Association’s Fourth of July Tea Party, one of about 1,488 such events across American cities, according to organizer Larry Wilson of Terre Haute.

Lena Sobieski stood in the drizzle before noon, umbrella in hand, wearing a shirt with Merle Haggard’s image emblazoned across with the words “Fighting Side of Me.”

“I’m willing to give anybody a chance,” she said of President Barack Obama’s tenure in office to date. “But his policies are everything I’m against.”

Socialized medicine, lax immigration rules, welfare and higher taxes are all on a plate full of policies she said she doesn’t want to swallow. “I’m not for this working our butts off just to give it away,” she said. “I’m tired of everybody freeloading.”

Horns honked as speakers took turns with a microphone, lambasting a “relentless assault on our values” by a force of “evil and wickedness,” as one gray-haired man in a patriotic T-shirt said.

One after another, speakers lambasted what they described as a drive to take America into socialism.

Wilson said he’s unsure of the next rally’s date, but he was pleased with Saturday’s turnout. “It was somewhat bigger than what we had the time, despite the rain,” he said in reference to the April 15 Tax Day rally. “Considering the rain, we didn’t think we’d have as many as we did. It’s definitely an indication of where the American people’s minds are.”

Plastic-wrapped picket signs bore slogans such as “No Rationed Healthcare” and “No Taxation Without Representation” as participants wore T-shirts with “Wabash Valley Tea Party Patriot” across the front.

According to www.teapartyday.com, the word “TEA” stands for Taxed Enough Already.

Mike Heaton stood in the crowd amid “God Bless America” signs and said he was glad he’d attended.

“It’s a matter of doing the right thing,” he said, noting he’d also attended the April rally.

Heaton said he’s not only concerned with liberal movements at the federal level, but in the Statehouse as well. Gov. Mitch Daniels did a good job, budget-wise, working with what money the state has, Heaton said. Tax money comes from the taxpayers, and Heaton said taxpayers are fed up.

“It’s going to be an interesting 21/2 years until the election in 2010,” he said.

Brian Boyce can be reached at 812-231-4253 or brian.boyce@tribstar.com.





Check it out

• For more information on the AFA’s Tea Party, visit www.teapartyday.

com, or call Larry Wilson at (812) 235-3252, or Cathy Wilke at (812) 240-9279.