Protesting the Tea Party protest coverage

Some readers were very unhappy with The N&O's story Thursday on the Tea Party rally in Raleigh. Here are seven online-only letters. Find more on tomorrow's editorial page.

Regarding your April 16 article “ ‘Tea party’ gets pretty hot”: I believe you have seen and heard, but not understood, why we gathered Wednesday. It was perhaps the fault of the timing of the action, April 15. We were and are focused on the growth of government and its intrusion into the rights of the states, the private sector and the people. Perhaps it would have helped had you read the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence first, then reflected on what you observed, before you printed the article. It might have helped your understanding of the context. The majority of the issues expressed reflected the concern over the lack of responsiveness by the government to the will of the people. This amounts to “taxation without representation,” thus the Tea Party theme.

Robert E. Bannister
Raleigh
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The N&O should truly be ashamed of its coverage of the Raleigh Tea Party. Liberalism has become increasingly indistinguishable from Mussolini-style fascism since President Obama got into office, and the latest example of it was on display at UNC-Chapel Hill. UNC-CH police released pepper spray and threatened to use a Taser on student protesters Tuesday evening when a crowd disrupted a speech by former Colorado congressman Tom Tancredo.
More attention was given to a classroom full of young left-wing nuts in Chapel Hill than to the thousands of hard-working patriots who went out of their way to make a point in downtown Raleigh.

Literally tens of thousands American citizens from all walks of life stood up for their freedom by standing up and cheering at almost 1,000 Taxpayer Tea Parties across the nation. We face the most dangerous threat to our economic freedom in generations. The very fabric of our lives from the way our health care is handled to the way our children are educated, to the way our incomes are taxed, to the way our businesses are run, to the way we use energy, to the way the government impacts the basic personal decisions we make hangs in the balance.

Unfortunately, we face a president and Congress determined to make government bigger, and more dominant than ever. They really believe that government knows best. And if they get their way, freedom and liberty, yours and mine, will wane.

So, we must do what Americans always do when faced with a challenge: We must work and fight and sacrifice our time and treasure in order to protect our freedom.

The extreme left-wing and reporters for the mainstream media who go to cocktail parties with them are laboring under the delusion that someone other than us ordinary working folks is responsible for what happened at the Tea Parties.

Now the government considers you a terrorist threat if you oppose abortion, own a gun or are a returning war veteran.

The report, titled “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment” released last week by DHS’ Office of Intelligence and Analysis, said while there is no specific information that domestic right-wing terrorists are planning acts of violence, it suggests acts of violence could come from unnamed “rightwing extremists” concerned about illegal immigration, abortion, increasing federal power and restrictions on firearms — and it singles out returning war veterans as susceptible to recruitment.

What is the message here? That conservative organizations are not permitted to engage in any language that might be described as unfavorable to the president or the left such as CNN and The N&O?

Kerry Barton
Clayton

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The tea party was not about “the evils of taxation.” It was about profligate federal spending, and the rise of activist expansionary government.

Tea partygoers saw this with President Bush, and they want President Obama to stop it. Tea partygoers are not against taxation; they are furious at politicians (regardless of party affiliation) who have recklessly mortgaged our future by embarking on the biggest spendfest (and government expansion) in the history of the world. They recognize that politicians will stick the taxpayer with the bill when we run out of foreigners willing to buy our IOUs (the real day of reckoning). And they are steaming mad about a Rube Goldberg productivity-draining income tax system that leaves almost half of the people with no skin in the game. They are worried sick that our politicians are abandoning the basic principles that made this a great country by doing too many things for “The People” and forgetting about each person.

Glenn Howell
Raleigh

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These so-called “tea parties' protesting taxes are brought to you by the denizens of the hard right.
This is the same K Street crowd that has rattled sabres overseas and has caused the size of our defense budget to balloon to about $675 billion this year. Given that there are approximately 300 million Americans, this brings us to a per capita total of $2,250. For a family of four, that’s 9 grand in round numbers.

We spend approximately half of the world’s total of military outlays. These people might want to look right among the promoters of these “tea parties” for a responsible party.

Have these protesters paid their fair share of the burden?

John Morrison
Durham

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Your April 16 article “Tea party gets pretty hot” again demonstrates the biased reporting of The N&O. It’s clear that you did not cover the evening Tea Party on the Capitol Grounds to see the thousands of people of all races, economic status and ages who are truly fed up by what our government leaders are doing to our livelihoods and our futures. These same leaders just don’t walk down the left side of the aisle, either.

The folks who attended were not rednecks but were actually people who have become educated about the flawed monetary system we have in the U.S., how we have strayed from what our Founding Fathers wrote in the Constitution and all of the crazy taxes that we pay over and over again, among many issues. We understand history and what the government’s spending spree really will lead to. And note that 99 percent of the drivers going by honked in support of the participants.

It appears that the widespread liberal reaction to the many Tea Party events across the country is that this was the force of rich, white Republicans. It’s a shame if it’s only conservative-leaning people who really know what’s going on and have the guts to speak up and discuss solutions.

Gail Marold
Cary

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I don’t know whether your reporter attended the same event that I did at the State Capitol on Wednesday evening. Your story implied that the thousands of attendees at the Tea Party were racists because there were few blacks in attendance. Conveniently, there was no mention of the black speaker. The racial slant has absolutely nothing to do with this event but is being used by a biased media to discredit anyone associated. This just shifts attention away from the real reason that we were there. We have an arrogant government that poorly represents the interests of productive citizens.

I suspect that you were offended by the things that you witnessed: Christian prayers for our country and its leaders, ordinary citizens protesting against an out of control federal government that bears little resemblance to the one designed by the U.S. Constitution, protests against unprecedented amounts of debt that are a thinly veiled attempt to buy votes and keep the current administration in power, a show of respect for our military, a unified body that claimed no allegiance to a political party or socioeconomic group.

Will Roberts
Apex
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Regarding the Tea Parties, we weren’t a rent-a-mob.

And I remember when George W. Bush was president, dissent was the highest form of patriotism.

Where were the black Americans during the Tea Parties on Wednesday? We were there. I should know. I was one of them.

Bigger question: Where was your reporter?

Robert Daye
Durham