Nationwide TAX DAY ( APRIL 15 ) Tea Party Organizing/Planning Directory

Building upon the success of the February 27th "Chicago Tea Party" Rallies, many of the organizers are now working to develop an even larger day of protests set to happen on April 15th, 2009.

Our goal with this website is to try and help pull a lot of the Tea Party event organization in to one easy to navigate and user friendly place on the web. We learned, after much feedback, that one of the biggest frustrations was the difficulty in finding information. Our hope is that this website will solve a lot of these problems.

Planning a Tax Day Tea Party? Contact us so we can post your information and contact details on the site.

It’s important to show them how many of us there are. Get out there! Declare yourself. RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE TO PETITION. The time has come. We cannot wait. It must start NOW. We’re telling them WHAT we don’t want. MY SIGNS:

NO SOCIALISM COMMUNISM MAXISM
NO CAP & TRADE
NO UN TREATIES
NO BAILOUTS
STATES’ RIGHTS RULE

Oh goodie, more little non-effective street demonstrations with a couple hundred people. Like the corrupt self-serving politicians will actually listen, providing you even get any coverage from the MSM.

I applaud your efforts, as I was once on the streets myself, but have since learned that nothing short of civil disobedience will get their attention NOW. Are you ready for that? I thought not.

An excerpt from my latest column Tremendous Tax Day Tea Party - Protest Big Government In A Big Way:

Here's some things you can do or suggest to your local Tea Party group. First, a sign making party would be fun for a Saturday, Sunday afternoon or evening. Perhaps some can get together and purchase a large banner from a sign shop. Signs should not be too complicated, with about 3-5 words. Even 2 words is good, such as "Stop Overspending!" for instance. Second, call local and national conservative talk radio stations and talk about the protest. Third, send email announcements to every conservative club, website and party organization in your local area that you can find on the internet. If your local Tea Party organization doesn't have an announcement, make one up and get busy. You can also print flyers and post them on bulletin boards. Fourth, contact local news organizations and ask if they will cover the event.

Finally, it is very important to have a flyer to pass out. The two-sided, one page flyer should be an article or summery of how government spends too much and why that is bad (with points that can be used in an letter) on one side, and local, state and national government contact information (such as Congress) on the other. Have a print shop near the protest ready to print extra copies if you run out. The side with the contacts should have a header exhorting the reader to be sure and write their government repeatedly. In the current political climate, once is not enough. Once every month or two is much better, or even twice a year.

I understand your skepticism. However, we do have along term plan. Any large societal movement starts with the building of an effective grass roots organization. Right now, as I see it, the main purpose of our efforts is to build such an organization, and in part that is by getting more and more people out, so that folks who think like us are not alone. The bigger the protests, the more who will be comfortable getting involved.

By organizing people to come out en masse (and we expect hundreds of thousands on the streets around the country on April 15) we are connecting a like minded group of people, and activating people who have never been active before. At this stage, we are building a network of people who can then move on a variety of issues in an active manner.

Politicians do respond to pressure, if there is enough of it, if it is long term, and if it is organized and targeted. If you are interested in seeing how this plays out, I’d suggest you read Saul Alinsky’s, Rules for Radicals. This is only phase one of our activities, and our plans go from here until the elections in Nov of 2010.

If you’d like to speak to me personally about it, you can feel free to email me directly at mark.grassroots@gmail.com.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.