Tax Day Tea Party

All across the nation on Wednesday, April 15th, people gathered together for Tax Day Tea Parties in protest of large government spending.


Danielle was nice enough to stay home with the new baby so I could attend. The protests took their theme from the iconic December 16th, 1773 Boston Tea Party that protested taxation without representation.

taxdayteaparty.com explains the modern tea parties:

The Tea Party protests, in their current form, began in early 2009 when Rick Santelli, the On Air Editor for CNBC, set out on a rant to expose the bankrupt liberal agenda of the White House Administration and Congress. Specifically, the flawed “Stimulus Bill” and pork filled budget.

The protesters were ordinary Americans concerned about the out of control government spending on entitlement programs that will enslave ourselves and generations ahead with crushing debt.

I attended the nearest tea party which was in the Plaza de Cesar Chavez Park in downtown San Jose from 5-7 pm. I made a sign from an image I downloaded and drove down hoping to find someone else when I got there. It wasn't hard. There were several hundred people in the park and multiple news stations with their big vans covering the event. In case you missed all of that, you could not miss the constant honking as rush hour commuters drove by and honked and gave big thumbs up in support. It was a blast!

It was a pretty easy crowd to to join too. There were people from all walks of life: young parents with kids, senior couples, war veterans waving flags, and young adults. Luckily it wasn't the wild chain-yourself-to-a-government-building protest. A kinda geeky engineer like myself fit in much better. :) Probably more effective too.

There were also some entertaining signs. Some of my favorite were these:


Here's a quick 360 degree view of the group with cars constantly honking in the background.


Here's a couple pics I snapped with my phone: