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June 28, 2009

Tea Parties billed as patriotic, non-partisan

By SCOTT SMITH The Kokomo Tribune Sun Jun 28, 2009, 09:40 PM EDT

Advocates for smaller government and Christian-based principles are organizing a second round of Tea Party rallies in the coming days.

The initial rallies were held on April 15, the day state and federal income taxes were due, and participants focused on the message of “Taxed Enough Already.”

This time around, rallies are scheduled around Independence Day. Locally, rallies are scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday on the Howard County Courthouse square and 3 p.m. July 4 at the Tipton City Park gazebo.

Kenlyn Watson, organizer for the Howard County rally, said the event will be a “faith-based, non-partisan, patriotic rally,” and not a protest, as past Tea Parties have tended to be.

“We want to put God at the forefront of everything in government,” she said.

Speakers at the conservative-leaning event will include Victory Christian Academy educator Matt Turner, limited-government advocate and author Eric Wyatt, and conservative local radio personality Peter Heck.

Watson said flyers containing the names and contact information for state and federal legislators will be passed out at the event.

Although the event is being billed as non-partisan, Watson said she’d not been able to find any liberal speakers to balance out the program, and said she didn’t mind it being billed as a conservative event.

She credited the American Family Radio network for promoting the Tea Party events, and said the majority of the people planning to attend share certain views on government.

But the overriding theme of the event will be to encourage citizens to become more active in government, she said.

“It’s gathering momentum; people have decided it’s time to get off the couch and get involved,” she said. “We’re not here to single out any single party or candidate.”

The organizers have even come up with a list of preferred Web sites and reading materials, featuring everything from titles by arch-conservatives Newt Gingrich, Amity Shlaes, Mark Levin, Bill Bennett and Glenn Beck, but also some newer books, including one titled “How Global Warming Hysteria Leads to Bad Science, Pandering Politicians and Misguided Policies.”

Some of the group’s preferred Web sites include the Wall Street Journal’s op-ed page, two sites hosted by Glenn Beck, Karl Rove’s homepage, and two voter information centers, www.vote

smart.org, and the official Congressional Web site, www.thomas.gov.

This is the group’s second Kokomo Tea Party, following an April 15 “Tax Day Tea Party.” The event is planned for two hours, and everyone attending is asked to bring canned goods to donate to local food pantries.

Organizers for the Tipton event billed it as appealing to anyone fed up with Washington, D.C., politicians “who are taxing us into the poor-house ... and taking us down the road to Socialism, Marxism and Fascism.”

Speeches at the Tipton event will focus on the Fair Tax proposal, federal bailouts, the cap and trade legislation “and the Shredding of our U.S. Constitution,” organizers said.

• Scott Smith is a Kokomo Tribune staff writer. He may be reached at (765) 454-8569 or via e-mail at scott.smith@kokomotribune.com

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