The Call Of Freedom Rang Loud In Esther Short Park

[Lew Waters]

Saturday, April 17, 2010 a large crowd gather in Vancouver’s Esther Short Park to unite and call for an end to the excessive taxation and government takeover of so many aspects of our lives we are currently seeing coming from Washington D.C. and Olympia.

Young and old, Black, White and Hispanic, Republican and Democrat and even an SEIU member, gathered in numbers that must have hit 1500 or more, all to join voices and call for our freedoms to be restored and protected.

Citizens angered and concerned about the out of control spending, ever higher taxes and elected officials ignoring the voices and will of the people came together by the hundreds of thousands earlier in the week across the nation. Clark County followed suit today and none were disappointed.

Those in attendance were treated to several guest speakers, Thomas Hann, coordinator of the event opened the event. Tom Niewulis reprised his Samuel Adams role inspiring the crowd with a voice from our founders. Reverend Wayne Perryman spoke of the history of Democrats in slavery in our countries past. Juliana McMahan of Evergreen Freedom Foundation gave an accounting of the dysfunction recently seen in Olympia as we saw the largest tax increases in our states history.

Greg Noelk Columnist for Wapathub.org spoke, but the featured speaker was our Daughter of Democracy heard every day on Portland’s KPAM 860 AM, Victoria Taft as she charged up the crowd in her speech, giving thanks to all Veterans in attendance and those serving currently.

Although not a campaign event, several candidates for office were there mingling with the people and getting known. David Castillo, Anthony Bittner, Ann Rivers, Brian Peck, Shannon Barnett, Chris Boyd and David Hedrick were seen mingling and shaking hands. Jaime Herrera’s campaign had a table set up and I heard that she too made an appearance, but I didn't get the chance to say hello to her.

Craig Riley was in Israel but his campaign filled for him. I even heard Jim Moeller, aka ‘Da Taxman,’ one who joyfully selected to slap all these new taxes on us was there for a little bit.

If I missed some candidates my apologies as I couldn’t see everybody.

Far from the majority party and much of the media has tried to portray, there was no incidence of racism, hate speech or even violence. Even the attendee in the SEIU tee shirt was welcomed; leading me to believe he came dressed in the shirt to show that not all members of the SEIU are like the thugs that beat up Kenneth Gladney last year outside a town hall in St. Louis, Missouri.

Fox News’ Geraldo Rivera was recently taken to task for perpetuating the false charges of the groups.

Lest any think that Tea Partiers are just selfish or greedy, it isn’t for us we do this, but for our children, grandchildren and future generations that will bear the burden of the follies being pushed off on the citizens of America today.

In all, We The People must be congratulated for organizing and hosting the event. If any party crashers appeared, they either kept silent or were escorted away early as I don’t recall seeing them.

To our elected officials, CAN YOU HEAR US NOW?

You can count on hearing us in November.

Photos on facebook