Undaunted by the slight drizzle, Jim and I walked the mile down to Reidy’s golf course. As we passed through the opening in the fence we saw people to the east and west. As you can see, many sensibly prepared for rain:
While Jim listened to the speaker, I looked for photo-ops. I found too many to show.
Duke, had taken special pains with his attire for this 4th of July and agreed to pose for this picture. Naturally, I petted him and talked to his human companions who were happy to learn I would post Duke’s image on the web, thereby ensuring his fame as a tax-protest dog.
I strolled to the west edge of the crowd snapping examples of patriotic outfits. I asked this very friendly woman to pose. I forgot to ask her name, but I can report she had a little notebook and was taking notes. Fellow blogger maybe?
Notice the sweater?
I too was wearing a sweater. It was not warm out. Luckily, it hadn’t started to rain (again).
I milled around and checked out the literature. It began to rain, but I stuck around trying to collect as much literature as I could. Friendly people like the damp woman to the right gave me leaflets. I learned about:
- July 12: Rockin’ for the Troops featureing CSI: NY’s Gary Sinise and the Lt. Dan Band taking place at Catigny Park in Wheaton. Tickets $25. Park opens at noon, concert at 4pm.
- September 12: “Liberty Trail of 9-12”, a “…non-partisan coalition event conceived to create as much public awareness as possible of conservative ideals and values through the messages of the participating groups.” Learn more at Liberty Trail 9-12.
- I was given leaflets for Campaign for Liberty and Restoring American Liberty. ( I threw the latter away based on the stands on social issues.)
Various people spoke and sang. Given the tendency of the Illinois Republican Party to constantly bring out tired old re-treads, I was happy to see the tea party featured new face: John Arrington who has just thrown his hat into the race for US Senate. He was given about 3 minutes to speak so I obviously didn’t learn much. Around minute 2 I remembers my camera can take movies and recorded a very blurry film of his closing remarks. Here he is:
After he spoke, I identified his wife by partly on the basis of her JohnArrington for US Senate t-shirt. She was very friendly, so I asked her a few question about John before they rushed off to another tea party in Palatine. I learned that John earned a degree at Harvard, has been an alderman (for Harvey Illinois, I think….) where he battled corruption, and that that he supports more limited government. Using the information about Harvey Illinois, I googled and found this court case levied against the mayor of Harvey by several aldermen, including John Arrington. I’ll be able to learn more about the candidate when John Arrington’s web site comes online on Wednesday.
Do you want to know his position on Waxman-Markey? I was just about to ask that when some other taller, more vocal voter dashed up and began to give Arrington advice about dealing with the Illinois Republican Party. (I have no idea if the advise was good or bad.) But, I did tell John Arrington my readers would want to know his his position of Waxman-Markey. He suggested I email and he’d provide me a thoughtful answer. Meanwhile, if you want a better look at the man who may be our next US Senator, here he is:
INDEPENDENT
Pronunciation:
\ˌin-də-ˈpen-dənt\
Function:
adjective
Date:
1611
1: not dependent: as a (1): not subject to control by others : self-governing (2): not affiliated with a larger controlling unit b (1): not requiring or relying on something else
Happy Independence Day, everyone! 🙂
Andrew
I didn’t know they were even having tea parties today. Were they as publicized as the ones in April? Of course, I’ve been observing a media blackout since MJ died.
The weather in Boone, NC is awesome. I took my girls on a nice hike down to Huntfish falls, just off the Blue Ridge Parkway. I’m going to have to tell a nice story about the USA tonight because I told my oldest about Chief Joseph’s long trek trying to make it to Canada. But that sweater has inspired me…
Boris–
I didn’t know either. I don’t think they were publicized as widely; I only learned by accident. Several of the people I talked to said they heard about it yesterday and drove up for the event. But Senate hopeful Arrington’s wife said she and her husband had managed to schedule 3 appearances, which should be good for getting him some exposure.
Thanks for the great pictures. Here are some pictures from the Frankfort, KY Tea Party. Bluegrass Pundit
Nice pictures. For the most part I can’t tell how you really feel about this stuff (which is probably for the best) but I think its great you went to check it out! 🙂
Andrew_FL–
I’m an independent who leans libertarian, but I’m not fully “L”. So, when I go to these things, I don’t like the moral majority parts, but I like the limited government, smaller taxes etc. inclinations. The stuff I threw away has all the anti-gay stuff in it.
Bluegrass– Looks like a bigger turn out at the Capital than in our town of 21,000!
I have been to two Tea Party events here in Cincy this year. Both were downtown and several thousand people attended each. “News” Media Blackout was an issue at the first. I think the second was covered because word got around the first was blacked out, and the local TV stations and press were “forced” to cover the second one to cover their rear ends.
And for those who don’t think the media intentionally ignores stories… I went to the March For Life in D.C. in January this year and we had over 300,000 people march the Mall there. How many of you guys heard about that?
Andrew
Andrew_KY–
If the media ignores events, all the more reason to blog them. This should hold even if you aren’t extremely interested in the event.
We did want to go to the event, but even if I hadn’t, I would have gone, taken pictures and blogged. It was a short walk away… why not go?
If there are uncovered political events in your area, go. Send me images, I’ll post. Or I’ll set up an account for you and let you guest post. Not a problem. I think political events should be covered. My blog may only get 1000 visitors a day, it’s still better than nothing.
Oh. I should note: One of the speakers said that “others” had suggested the tea-parties were astro-turf events. Well… no. The people here were not “astro-turf”.
Might there have been someone laying out some money promote the first events? For all I know yes. But very quickly, people are coming out entirely voluntarily. They were clapping, cheering and interested. They weren’t there to appear on the nightly news. They were there to listen to others and meet others to promote their ideas.
Granted… this is DuPage county. It may be one of the easiest places in the world to collect together conservatives. But that’s still not astroturf.
Lucia,
You got yourself a deal, sister. 😉
Andrew
lucia (Comment#15697)-Well that’s okay with me, but it might be more of an irritant to some…Mostly I come for the science discussion here, and I hope noone would dismiss you out of hand for this post…say left-environmentalists.
Andrew_FL– I don’t worry about that sort of thing. If I did, I wouldn’t blog.
I like The Blackboard because I think Lucia gives a straightforward take on the inner workings of what passes for climate science these days. But I also like it because it breathes, so to speak, and people like me can express an opinion, and not be moderated out of existence because I haven’t been published in the Peer Reviewed Literature. And sometimes culture, like climate, runs cold instead of hot and a maybe a blog shouldn’t always be dressed in sandals and cabana wear, if you catch my drift.
Andrew
Lisle, Illinois? We are practically neighbors. I live in Rockford.
The people you have to watch out for are the downers from the Grove.
My mother and father in law live in Downers Grove. 🙂