How to organize your own “TEA Party” protest

It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people’s minds. — Samuel Adams

If you organize your own TEA Party, be sure and send us a message  with all the information and let us know about it so we can let everyone else know!

The internet is abuzz with chatter about organizing protests around the country to put an end to this madness on Wall Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. But I’ve talked to many people out there who have never organized a protest, and so they don’t have a clue where to begin.

Here are 10 simple steps that you can follow to organize a protest in your own community.

Pick a location, date and time in your town. I’d suggest Main Street at an intersection with lots of traffic.

Tell your friends, family, co-workers and everyone else you know about the protest.

Build an rsvp email list so that you can provide quick updates if something changes.

You should also create a Facebook group so that the group can communicate with one another.

Make 5-10 signs with legible slogans that send a clear message to the public and the media. Write in BIG LETTERS.

Call your local talk radio hosts and ask them to announce the location, date and time on the air for a few days leading up to the protest.

Send a letter to the editor of your local newspaper announcing the protest. Email the bloggers in your area and ask them to post a notice about the protest.

Write a press release and email, mail and fax copies to the local TV stations, radio stations and newspapers.

Call the reporters that cover local events or politics and leave messages on their voice mail.

On the day of your protest, show up with your group; be loud, visible, and happy. Engage the public. Wave your signs, make lots of noise and move around to get attention.

If reporters interview you, give them some good sound bytes for their stories. Stay on message and keep your answers short and coherent.

Bring sign-in sheets to capture the names, emails and phone numbers of everyone who attends the protest and/or says that they support what you are doing. You will then have a big list of people that can plan the next, much bigger and louder, event.

Bring handouts with one page of quick facts about why you are protesting in the first place.

Add your pictures, video and an after-action report to your Facebook group, and send this stuff to the bloggers and reporters that you originally contacted. Ask them to post the photos, story and video.

Thank everyone who attended via email and phone, and set up a meeting to plan your next event. Now you have a list of people in your community that can help make the next protest huge. Encourage everyone to commit to bring at least one friend to the next protest.

Organize a carpool and go find a friend in your neighboring town or county and help them organize a protest there. You and your people are now veterans and should be able to keep the momentum going around your area.
Extra things you can do to make it fun, memorable, and (most importantly) have your voice heard!

Bring balloons.
Have plenty of stickers for people to wear.
Serve food and soft drinks.
Ask your local radio talk show to host and have one of the talk celebrities speak.
Invite elected leaders and candidates to speak about protecting the family budget to keep the crowd excited and engaged.

Pass out the number of your members of congress and ask people to call while they are there.
Take photographs and videos to post on YouTube and then send them to us.
Thank everyone who came and encourage them to stay engaged in the process

On April 15, be part of the Taxed Enough Already (TEA) party rally in your community
On the day you pay your taxes, Wednesday, April 15, join others across the country and in your hometown who will be participating in TEA party rallies in front of their city halls.  The TEA party rally will begin at 12 noon.

Are you fed up with a Congress and a president who:
vote for a $500 billion tax bill without even reading it?
are spending trillions of borrowed dollars, leaving a debt our great-grandchildren will be paying?
consistently give special interest groups billions of dollars in earmarks to help get themselves re-elected?
want to take your wealth and redistribute it to others?
punish those who practice responsible financial behavior and reward those who do not?
admit to using the financial hurt of millions as an opportunity to push their political agenda?
run up trillions of dollars of debt and then sell that debt to countries such as China?
want government controlled health care?
want to take away the right to vote with a secret ballot in union elections?
refuse to stop the flow of millions of illegal immigrants into our country?
appoint a defender of child pornography to the Number 2 position in the Justice Department?
want to force doctors and other medical workers to perform abortions against their will?
want to impose a carbon tax on your electricity, gas and home heating fuels?
want to reduce your tax deductibility for charitable gifts?
take money from your family budget to pay for their federal budget?

If so, participate in the TEA party rally, the Taxed Enough Already (TEA) party.
Bring your cell phone and call Congress and the president while attending the TEA party rally
(Representative and Senators, 202-224-3121; President, 202-456-1414)

Tell Every American about this effort by forwarding this invitation to your friends. Together we can make a difference.

Go to this website to listen see You Tube blurbs on people already hosting Tea Parties. http://www.teapartyday.com/News.aspx?id=104
Here are some ideas on creating protest signs and banners
Sign Making Tips:
Choose large pieces of white poster board or foam board.  Colored pieces make text harder to read.
Decide on a slogan.  Try to stick to short phrases.  Avoid obscure references and the funnier the better – those will be memorable.

Sketch out the slogan in pencil – make sure the letters are large enough to read, your text should use the entire space.

Slogans should be written in a combination of upper and lower case letters – all caps arehard to read.  Use them sparingly for emphasis.

Using broad-tipped markers, write your slogan in broad letters.  Sometimes it helps to write it first and then go over it again to make it thicker.  It’s okay if it looks homemade – that’s because it is.  I like to use mostly black – it’s easiest to read.

Underline, bold, or use another color for words you want to stand out.
If you know someone who is good at writing in block letters and if you know you aren’t good at it then leave it to them.  They will probably make great signs instinctively and you can focus on signing people up and shouting.

Sometimes, if there is a picture or image that helps your argument, you can use it on your sign.  Just make sure it is large enough to see from a distance and fairly simple so that it doesn’t obscure your words.  But don’t spend a lot of time worrying about it – the words are the most important thing.

Make sure that every sign has the name and website of your organization or event so that people walking by know where to get more information and who you are with.

Have fun and be creative.

THEME:  YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK!
After you’ve worked hard to pay YOUR taxes, come protest WHAT they spend your tax dollars ON! You can use examples from the stimulus, the various bailouts, and spending bills on your signs to illustrate and educate!

$96,600 for Doorbells in Mississippi
$386,000,000 for Convention Center Hotel in Dallas
$20,000,000 for Downtown Quiet Zone in San Diego
$1,300,000 for Golf Course Clubhouse in Des Moines
OR
Make your wish list!
Want a Plasma TV? Make your sign!
Need a new kitchen? Make your sign!
Have fun with it!

Slogans

Free thinkers for a free market
I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.  – John Galt’s Oath

Spare us Your Change
Bailouts…Stimulus…and Pork…Oh My!
Don’t Stimulate…Liberate
Paying My Mortgage…and Yours Too
Keep Your Bailout…I’ll Keep My Freedom
Obamanomics…Chains You Can Believe In
Born Free…Taxed to Death
Commander and Thief
It’s not a stimulus bill…it’s a strangulation bill.
Your Mortgage is Not My Problem
Give me Liberty…not Debt
Pillage and Plunder…At Least the Vikings did it Openly
Stop Subsidizing Stupidity
Free Markets…Not Free Loaders
If You Think Health Care is Expensive Now…Wait Until it’s Free
Repeal the Bailout
We the People…are now owned by the Chinese.
Obamanomics…Trickle up poverty
Stimulate business…not government
I’ll keep my freedom…you keep the Change
Home ownership is not an entitlement
Socialism is slavery
I’ll pay for my house…you pay for yours
Welcome back Carter
Proud American Capitalist
Repeal the pork… or your bacon is cooked
No taxation without deliberation
You can’t spend your way out of debt
$3.6 Trillion…Now that’s a lot of change!
Marxism – Reagan defeated it…Obama embraces it
I want your money (include recruiting picture of Uncle Sam)
See what happens when you give a junior senator a credit card?
Socialism is not an American value
Wall Street got a bailout…and all I got was the bill
TARP = $750 Billion
Stimulus = $870 Billion
2009 Deficit = $1.75 Trillion
U.S. Dollar = WORTHLESS!!
Just Say No (word “Socialism” with circle and slash)
Liberty is all the stimulus we need
Say No to American Socialism
Yes we can…stop the bailouts!
Money doesn’t grow on trees…some of us work for it.
Bailouts + Debt = fiscal child abuse
Stop Spending…Start Cutting
Why don’t you cut my taxes instead?
Promote responsibility…no more bailouts!
Stop rewarding failure.
Save the children – stop spending their money
Who will bail out the government?
I will not pay for someone else’s house.
I don’t want your debt.
Stop punishing success.
You can’t multiply wealth by dividing it.
Redistribution just means less for everyone.
Your pork broke my piggy bank
We the People …want our money back
Socialism – not the change we expected!
Freedom Works…Bailouts Hurt
Freedom…A stimulus we can afford
From each according to the IRS….and to Pelosi…and to Reid…and to ACORN

Quotes:
Man is not free unless the government is limited. ~ Ronald Reagan

The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation.
~ Vladimir Lenin

Debt…an ingenious substitute for the chain and whip of the slave driver. ~ Ambrose Bierce

It takes as much imagination to create debt as to create income. ~ Leonard Orr

Debt is the fatal disease of republics, the first thing and the mightiest to undermine governments and corrupt the people. ~ Wendell Phillips

The problem with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other peoples’ money to spend.
~ Margaret Thatcher

The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.  ~ Ayn Rand

The urge to save humanity is always a false front for the urge to rule it. ~ H.L. Mencken

We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm. ~ George Orwell

Pennies do not come from heaven. They have to be earned here on earth. ~ Margaret Thatcher