Indiana State House – Tea Party

April 16, 2009

On April 15, 2009 at 4:30 pm EST Indiana’s first Tea Party began in earnest. There were literally thousands of people on the south lawn of the State House in Indianapolis. The area was well guarded by a substantial contingent of Indianapolis Metropolitan Police, Indiana State Police and yellow shirted “security” personnel. No elected officials were allowed to speak at this gathering, in order to avoid it becoming yet another political platform for the incumbents that the gathering was there to gain the attention of. Hundreds of signs were well scattered throughout the crowd. Some of the crowd milled around while most found a place to stand or sit and planted themselves for the two hours scheduled for the demonstration. IMPD and others estimates was 12,000 to 15,000 in attendance if you include those who came and left early and were replaced by late-comers. Parking was certainly non-existent by the 4:30 start. I had to park 4 blocks south on Illinois Street in a bulging public parking garage and spent over 45 minutes getting back onto the street after the end of the gathering.

There was no violence and no intimidation. Lots of characters around, lots of signs bashing Congress, The Senate, The President, The IRS, etc. The crowd was mostly middle aged white folk, probably 30-40 percent female. Plenty of baby carriages and kids in tow. The policemen were friendly and generally bored with the cool weather and sedate crowd.

The speakers were mostly on-point in their message that the general public regardless of their political leanings were tired of having the Federal Government interfere with their lives. Pointing at the “bail-outs” and huge fiscal deficits being created and the nationalization of insurance companies and auto companies, et al.

There were lots of veterans there.

One veteran I had the priviledge of spending several minutes with was in a wheel chair with both legs missing above the knees. He was an otherwise healthy gentleman of mid 50′s. I asked him if he had lost the limbs in the military and he answered in the affirmative but offered no more and I inquired no further. I thanked him for his service and sacrifice to our country and discussed lighter fair, such as “how in the world our country had come so far and fallen so hard in the last year.” And, “how in the world had we elected such a bunch of Socialists into the most powerful positions in our government.” And, “how his concern was that he didn’t think people our age would ever see it straightened out.” As he left the gathering early to beat the crowd I looked after him, in awe of his spirit.

And there was the lady screaming that she was working two jobs to make her house payment and she wasn’t going to work another one so Obama could pay her neighbors mortgage.

And the black man rotating the crowd on the sidewalk with a loudspeaker warning us all to “arm yourselfs.”

It was clear that this was truly a grass-roots gathering with only a modicum of organization to it. There were some printed signs “Enough”, etc. and a few handouts of Libertarian and Independent propoganda, a few flags including the highly sought after “Don’t tread on me”, you know the yellow and black one with the serpent on it.

Some of the speakers were motivating, Greg Garrison admonished the crowd for allowing these people to get elected in the first place and reminded us that we had a lot of work to do between now and the next election.

There was mention of a “March on Washington”, perhaps on July 4th to make sure the message was getting to where it belongs.

The Capital Police found the crowd to be “well behaved.” There were estimates of 12-15,000, I estimate it to be more like 6-8,000, but regardless it was as large a crowd as the south lawn and the adjoining sidewalks could handle without pouring into the busy rush hour traffic.

All in all I found the gathering to be peaceful, spirited and uplifting, yet I remain saddened that it is too little too late.