Sunday, April 05, 2009
Metro columnist Dan Casey: They're tea'd off at federal spending
Dan Casey is The Roanoke Times' metro columnist.
dan.casey
@roanoke.com
981-4423
Dan Casey
Recent columns
- Take a look at Palin's rule book
- Firsthand violence unnerves NAACP leader
- Readers weigh in on several recent topics
Read Dan's blog
Reduced to barely a trickle in a not-so-distant drought, the slender and shallow Roanoke River is a rotten substitute for Boston Harbor.
Sharon Nicely and Elena DeRosa are well aware of that. Nevertheless, they're vowing to make do when they host a "Tax Day Tea Party" at River's Edge Park on April 15.
It's part of a national grass-roots movement of like events sparked by an off-hand comment from a cable news guy and spurred on by conservative bloggers.
The two women, who had never met in person before Tuesday, wouldn't strike you as revolutionary icons.
DeRosa, 49, who lives in the Oak Grove area of Southwest Roanoke County, is a 1970s rock 'n 'roll-loving mom of two with a Brooklyn accent, frizzy blond hair and a razor wit she sharpens on her local blog. She's also the owner of a Salem auto repair shop.
Nicely, 52, is an upstate New York native who moved here in her late teens with her truck-driver dad. She lives in the Wasena neighborhood, is a supervisor for Goodwill Industries and has a penchant for animals.
"I have never, ever been political before," she says emphatically.
What they share is anger and disgust at the federal government's spend-your-way-out-the-recession mentality.
"I really do not like the way the federal government is spending our money," DeRosa says.
The two women were moved to action after some Feb. 19 comments by CNBC reporter Rick Santelli. That day, he was reporting on-air from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange floor when he launched into a rant about the federal government's stimulus plan.
Among other things during his four-minute diatribe, Santelli shouted, "The government is promoting bad behavior," that the spending plan would "subsidize the losers' mortgages," and "we're thinking of having a Chicago tea party in July."
Conservative bloggers quickly jumped the bandwagon. Soon there was a Web site, taxdayteaparty.com and people began volunteering to host them in different states
As of Friday, there were about 500 confirmed tea parties organized nationwide, according to Urqmedia, a Chicago-based public relations company that's helping to organize the movement.
DeRosa wrote about Santelli's rant on her blog, Roanoke RnR. "And somebody responded and said, 'You've got to get this organized.' "
It turned out that Nicely already had volunteered to lead Roanoke's tea party, which is one of 11 slated in Virginia. (Another one is noon on April 15 at the Franklin County Courthouse steps in Rocky Mount.)
And things kind of took off from there.
Jumping in to volunteer were two cohorts whom Nicely and DeRosa haven't met yet -- Kristin Gillenwater from Floyd County and David Brugh from Christiansburg.
Gillenwater organized a Facebook group that on Friday had 218 members. Brugh has done some radio interviews and is promising to bring a bullhorn to the party. They are Twittering, and they've put up a Web site, roanoketeaparty.com.
One of respondents to the Facebook page "wrote me and said, 'It took me awhile but I've invited 419 of my friends,' " Nicely said.
What's interesting about many folks organizing the tea parties is "it's not the political inclined," DeRosa notes. "And it's mostly women, really -- moms with children. It's like the mama bears protecting the cubs."
It is easy to understand that apprehension.
Right now, the U.S. Mint's presses are printing greenbacks at full tilt as the nation's leaders try to borrow and spend this country out of the economic doldrums. That is worrisome. You can understand why Nicely and DeRosa are concerned.
DeRosa vows that Roanoke's tea party will be informal and nonpolitical. There will be no Republican this, Democrats that.
There will be no stage, no march. Just some opening remarks and a simple recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance. Then they'll pass the bullhorn around to folks who show up and want to say something. According to the event's Web site, no one should plan on throwing tea into the river, but tea will be collected and delivered to the U.S. senators' offices.
They expect a crowd of people who are nervous about their jobs, their retirements, their children's future. Talking to each other, on Tax Day, about those fears and what they can do about it.
How can that be a bad thing?
Dan Casey's column runs Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday.
