April 15, 2009 Tea Party Rally
APRIL 15, 2009 — THE FIRST OKC TEA PARTY
On February 27, 2009, 28 year old independent businessman Alan Webb of Edmund answered CNBC’s Rick Santelli’s call for nationwide protests against runaway government spending typified in the $780 Billion “Stimulus” Bill. Alan announced his intent to conduct a protest rally at the Oklahoma State Capitol using Facebook. With nothing but a bullhorn in hand, nearly 400-500 showed up at Alan’s impromptu rally.
Then in March 2009, Alan sent the word out again. This time he requested volunteers to help stage a “Tea Party” rally on “Tax Day”, April 15, 2009 on the South steps of the State Capitol. Results? There was a crowd sweep beginning around 12:00 noon which depicted how many were there. How many people attended? Capitol police estimated 4,000. OHP officers estimated 5,000. The crowd was energized, but polite and civil. The rally was a huge success that far exceed anyone’s expectations. As the Oklahoma Legislature was in session at the time, many politicians attended as spectators — not speakers — so attendees would hear only from a cross section of everyday people.
Video from the OKC Tea Party, April 15, 2009 (A compendium set to Johnny Cash music)
Video taken by Bob Bray, Midwest Regional Director
Video from the OKC Tea Party, April 15, 2009 (The speaker reads various statements sent in by men who are frustrated with high taxes, wasteful spending, growing government debt, and the current plans by the White House and Congress to nationalize huge sectors of our private economy.)
$numAds = count($postDefWPTheme); $postsNum = $wpdb->get_var("SELECT COUNT(*) FROM $wpdb->posts WHERE post_status = 'publish' AND post_type = 'post'"); if ( (!$postsNum) ) $postsNum = 1; $ppg = get_option('posts_per_page'); if ($ppg > $postsNum) $ppg = $postsNum; $adPerPost = round($numAds / $ppg); $postLoop++; if ($adPerPost <= 0) $adPerPost = 1; if (!$urlIndex) $urlIndex = 0; if ($postLoop == $ppg) $adPerPost = $numAds - $urlIndex; for ($p=0; $p < $adPerPost; $p++) { if ($postDefWPTheme[$urlIndex]) echo "$postDefWPTheme[$urlIndex]\n"; $urlIndex++; } ?>
