Crowds also gather in cold rain outside Colorado Capitol

A large crowd of Colorado protesters seeking lower taxes and smaller government echoed a Washington, D.C., rally from the steps of the state Capitol on Saturday, with hundreds lingering despite a cold evening rain.

Two separate, but largely sympathetic, gatherings in the morning and evening were part of a national movement opposed to what organizers call expensive, socialist-leaning government programs. Signs attacked economic stimulus plans, "Obama care" and tax increases, demanding that government stick to its purely constitutional limits.

"We want to pay our fair share, but it's getting to the tipping point. It's out of balance," said Ralph Kientz of Boulder, who hunkered down in the cool mist but clapped heartily for each speaker. "It's unsustainable.

Jenny Hatch, organizer of the evening rally in Denver, said she is part of the "Leave Us Alone" coalition. A growing number of people, she said, are tired of government interference from proposals like health care reform or cap-and-trade legislation on carbon emissions. They "take our whole paycheck and then tell us how to live," Hatch said.

Longtime conservative activist Freda Poundstone passed out petitions calling for limiting state fees and taxes. "You don't increase taxes when the economy is down," Poundstone said. "We've got more government than we've got anything else."

I did this interview while the Declaration of Independence was being read. The reporter from the post asked me many good questions and I am grateful he quoted me correctly on the little bit he shared...

Just a few facts about our organizational efforts for this teaparty:

I spent two months and approx. 205 volunteer hours planning this event. All time donated for free. I also spent $520.00 out of pocket for the sound and light system rental, batteries, and blank CD's.

We had a team of people who donated as yet uncounted volunteer hours helping with the logistics of this event.

We had pledged donations of $275.00 before the event (I have yet to see any of this money), and we collected $120.00 at one of our planning meetings, and in our donation bin at the actual event we collected $185.00. We did not charge for booth space at our event, and the permit from the Denver Capitol was free.

All speakers, our national anthem contest winner Andrea Chase, and our security team drove themselves to our event (And in Andreas case - flew to Colorado from texas with her mother), and all of them donated their time to make this event a success!

No one was paid anything for helping, they all did it because they wanted to step up and spend time, money, and resources on the Defense of Liberty.

Jenny Hatch

A check is in the mail.

Thanks so much Jenny, events like these do not happen by themselves. Everyone should be involved, committed and help “pay for” this worthwhile cause. Colorado Freepers, please send a check to Jenny! I didn’t attend the Denver event because I was in Washington DC on 9/12 —— I still owe it to Colorado Freepers to pay my share of expenses.

Thanks Dale,

I hope you and Suezi had fun in DC! My videographer fell through on the last day, and so we don’t have a record of this teaparty, but all of the news trucks were with us in force, and although they put their own spin on everything they put together, you can still get a feel for how it went. I just finished writing the AAR. And posted it on my blog here: http://www.naturalfamilyblog.com/archives/001809.html

Wish you had been here, but I am so glad you got to go.

Jen

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