A Measure of Tea

It's a sunny but blustery April 15 in Humboldt County. Somewhere between 200-300 protesters have gathered in front of the Eureka Courthouse to join in the Nationwide Tax Day Tea Party. Today, the Board of Directors of the Humboldt Taxpayers League has invited people in our community to come out on Tax Day ’09 and let elected representatives know that folks are "tired of being used as ... personal Automatic Transaction Machines."

The protest is one of hundreds taking place across the nation. Our Eureka version is quite tame, however, compared to reports of people hurling suspiciously packaged tea bags at the White House back in Washington, D.C. No, our gathering is a family affair, with the make-up of the crowd leaning more toward retirees than violent young revolutionaries. The elderly crowd gathers on the lawn and sidewalk along Fifth Street waving American flags and homemade signs just demanding some financial security, for goodness sake.

The crowd's enthusiasm is high, and the response from passers-by in vehicles is quite noisy. Every few minutes, the bass of a semi truck's horn reverberates through the group, accompanied by more high-pitched horns of passenger vehicles tooting their support. A matronly woman with an American flag apron hands out cupcakes, shouting, "We wake up early and bake cupcakes! That's what conservatives do. And we pick up after ourselves and pay for our own stuff too!"

A janky sound system is set up for people to get on the mic and rally the crowd. No one really steps up though, save for an older fella talking about putting tea bags on his head and another guy giving shout-outs to Roger Rodoni and Thomas Jefferson. The sound system is predominately used to pump out some country music and classic patriotic jams. Who needs a crowd leader, anyway, when you've got a bunch of people pissed off about their finances?

Most of the older looking folk are quite riled up about the current state of the economy. Riled up enough to get out here on this street corner and tell the town what's up. Mary Ruth Rheinschild, who traveled down from Crescent City to join the tea party, declares, "People who think this is ridiculous and that we shouldn't be doing this should pay my taxes." She's bummed about the state of her retirement and the fact her money is still being taken away by those blasted govies.

Melissa O'Hanen, a very pleasant Republican mother of five with a youngster in tow, is there to "stand against the nation's deficit." She proudly shares that one of the four teens dressed up in colonial attire standing at the corner is one of her sons. The youths are part of a constitutional law class conducted through their private high school. According to her son, a.k.a. Alexander Hamilton, everyone in the class is a Republican, and they are all bummed about the state of our economy.

Another person in the retirement zone, Judy Billingsly, is pissed because, according to her, when it comes to retirement, "you plan on what you see in front of you, and then someone just takes it away." Kathleen Duncan, yet another retiree, asks, in reference to her and her elderly husband, "Who's gonna give us a job? We're in our 80s."

A young man clad in a "911 Was an Inside Job" shirt peruses the patriotic showing. When questioned about his political affiliation, Andrew Thompson says, "I am not a Republican, but I agree with 99 percent of the signs." Andrew thinks that the blame game is a real drawback in the politically charged war on our devastated economy. In other words, don't blame the liberals for the shitstorm we're in right now. He is the only non-Republican this reporter manages to find in the crowd.

Yes, there are young professionals, little kids and blue-collar people to be found at the protest. Copies of the Declaration of Independence, Republic Magazine and John Birch Society handouts are up for grabs. All in all, it is a good turn out for the supposedly lefty-leaning Humboldt County.

comments

1. Frank Costor:

April 23, 6:50 a.m.

Are you blind? Watch any of the videos up about the tea party you can count over a thousand people. The crowd covered the entire block filled the grass area to standing room only. It makes you look quite biased when you delibertly undercount like that. Try reporting the news instead of pushing your agenda.

2. Humboldt Freedom:

April 23, 8:07 p.m.

On behalf of the people at the protest we do not belive in the right/left paridigm. its is about freedom or tyranny and we choose freedom, we don't care if you are liberal, conservative, green, libertarian, whatever. aslong as you think the constitution of the usa should be enforced and you love freedom you are welcomed to join us in taking back our country. this isn't about obama bashing this is about returning to small government that is kept in check by the people and is not a huge tyranical force for evil! Bring the troops home, End the Federal Reserve! and protect the constitution. I would expect more from the north coast journal, when will you stop playing into the fake right/left paridigm. This is about restoring honest government in america and kicking out the criminals in washington! Please join us in this! Go research the federal reserve and counsil on forign relations, bilderberg group, trilateral commision, and you will see the same thinktanks and groups behind bush are behind obama, this is about defeating the influence that the ultra rich and elite have on america, this is about defeating fascism. Mousullini said fascism is better called corporatism! Don't you understand how they do this to us, and divide and conquor us by dividing us into false left / right groups. We need to forget about looking at things this way and we should better ask does this law/rule grant more freedom or less! I choose freedom and i belive the majority of humboldt belives in freedom too! Lets unite and stop the partisian bickering and emotional battles over american culturual diffrences! if we loose this fight what we do in our personal lifes and what we think about being for or againt abortion/gay marriage etc is irrelevent if we loose all our freedoms! Lets come together peacfully to inform and educate each other so we can create a higher level of conciousness and break free!

Peace and Freedome!

3. Chris Lester:

April 28, 9:30 a.m.

To some of us this isn't a joke.

4. Don Andrews:

May 2, 5:38 p.m.

Emily Hobelmann's article dinn't mock the tea baggers at all. But it should have. How do you not mock a group of people who hit the streets to protest an administration that has cut taxes for 95% of American households and which is sending us a $250 Social Security bonus check? How can you not mock a group of people who mourn for an administration that came in with a 1.3 billion dollar surpus and left us a 1.3 trillion dollar deficit and that was content to spend 11 billion dollars a month in Iraq in perpituity? Borrowed money, by the way. How can you not mock a group of people who smugly protest the cost of a recovery effort but who pretend that inaction would have no cost?

5. don don:

May 4, 12:51 a.m.

this isnt about obama bashing, this is about restoring the constitution. I dont care who it is bush/ obama / clinton they have all looted and ruined our country. this isnt about not wanting to pay taxs this is about the federal reserve being a private bank that unfairly charges intrest to our government intrest that we then have to pay for, this is what we are mad about, not our personal finances or obama. it is the fact that we do not need to have a private corporation runing the nations central bank for there own profit!

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