The Capitol Building
Until Monday, I hadn’t planned on attending the Tea Party this year. I hadn’t attended last year. My excuse is my five little children at home and my job. On Tuesday, I vowed to go to the Tea Party in Olympia no matter what. I would bring the whole family and we would have fun being a part of history.
My wife wasn’t feeling well this morning, so I took only my two daughters. The drive was short—much shorter than I remembered the last time I visited Olympia when I was still in Brigadoon Elementary School. Parking wasn’t too difficult to find, and the paid parking was extremely reasonably priced.
The Fountain in front of the Capitol Building
Coming out of the parking lot and into the Capitol Building, we saw the fountain and the memorial to our military men and women who gave us our freedom. There were a few people with signs, eager to get to the main rally.
Memorial Statue for our Military
I stopped and chatted with a nice young mother of 7 little children. They allowed me to take their picture. Growing up in a big family, and by today’s standards, having a big family of my own, I appreciate the effort people who put family first put in for their children’s and society’s sake.
Crossing the street into the lawn between the Temple of Justice and the Capitol Building just as the national anthem was sung stopped me in my tracks. Drivers were confused by the big guy in green standing at the edge of the crosswalk with two little girls, his hand on his heart. I couldn’t move even if I tried.
Tea Party at Olympia
Once the anthem ended, I stepped across the street and caught my first full glimpse of our Capitol Building covered with the Tea Party and their signs. I bawled my eyes out. I couldn’t see, and I couldn’t face the people who likely saw me tear up. My little girl ran into the crowd, as happy as she could be. I can’t deny that there was a spirit there, not a spirit of fear or of hate or of complaint, but a spirit of love. Love of country, love of mankind, and especially the Love of God.
The people there were kinder than the people I meet in church. I’m not disparaging the people who attend church with me—no one can ask for a better group of Saints—but I’m pointing out how far backwards everyone bent to be kind and respectful of everyone.
I can’t say that I found any counter-protestors. I spent some time looking for them. No one else seemed to know where they were, although one of my friends thought she saw some on the steps of the Temple of Justice. There were, of course, the LaRouche nutcases with their Obama-Hitler posters, but they were at the edge and readily ignored or politely asked to take their inappropriate signs and message elsewhere.
Just a Sampling of the Signs
The signs! I can’t do justice to the signs! All of them were creative, all of them inspired, and all of them filled with the true love of a patriot for his country.
The people! They came from all walks of life, some rich, some poor, men, women, children, the elderly, bikers and businessmen, politicians and middle-grounders.
The children—let me say a few words about the children.They were everywhere, having a fun time running around. Some held signs, and quite a few knew why they were there. No one seemed to mind them, and those with dogs went out of their way to let the children play with them. At first my daughters were worried this was another boring political rally, but I had to drag them home at the end. They had made many new friends from all across our wonderful state.
The weather was a bit rainy as I drove down, but it quickly cleared at noon and got quite warm, warmer than the predicted 60. The sunlight made things very nice. All our prayers were answered that day. I guess that makes God a Tea Party Patriot as well! ;-)
The speakers got the loudest cheers when they spoke in favor of our founding principles. They got a tepid response when they attacked politicians who worked against those principles. And they got a deafening silence whenever they said something that could be construed as in any way mean. We were a tolerant bunch, but we were there to celebrate the American ideal—limited government, liberated people.
You can see all of the pictures I have at my SmugMug.com account.
(Technical note: This is the first time I have posted photos from my SmugMug account, so let me know if things don’t work.)
