Posted on 03/21/2009 4:19:17 PM PDT by Roos_Girl
What a great event! Lisa Feroli and the gang hosting the event did a fantastic job of organizing.
The Tea Party was supposed to last from noon to 2pm. I got there around 10am and met up with SeekTheTruth and her hubby and we started getting set up. There was a good number of people already there. Fantastic job and a big Thank You to Freeper "surfer" who ordered and donated a 3' x 8' banner with the simple message www.FreeRepublic.com. And well done and Thank You to Freeper MinuteGal for supplying business cards with Free Republic information, all of which were handed out!
We had a good number of people stop by the table that either were already Freepers or who said they were regular viewers and every one of them commented that Free Republic was the best conservative forum on the web!
There was a lot of talk about Glen Beck showing up, but he did not. However, our own Kristinn Taylor was the last speaker of the day and (not being biased or anything) Matchett-PI and I thought they saved the best for last. This is a list of the other speakers:
Tom Gaitens, Florida coordinator, FreedomWorks
Nathan Pick, Americans for Tax Reform
Harry Mihet, Senior Litigation Counsel, Liberty Counsel
Jon H. Gutmacher Esq, local attorney and second amendment expert
Andrea Shea King internet radio talk show host
SeekTheTruth was kind enough to supply a disposable camera and the pictures I took with it are posted below. I stayed at the Free Republic table most of the time, except to get a closer seat when Kristinn was speaking. There was such a huge crowd I was mostly trying capture the number of people there and had to do that by just holding the camera up over my head and hoping I was catching something good! Hopefully some other Freepers will post their pictures too and add their comments about their experience from their vantage points.
I was too far away to get a good photo, but this is Kristinn speaking and chargin up the crowd.
Glenn Beck is dumb like a fox. No doubt he couldn't make the event as he's probably the busiest man alive with a daily radio show and a nightly TV show.
But he did what he could, that is, he intimated he would be at the Tea Party (and probably hoped he COULD make it), thereby hoping to increase the crowd. And I'm sure he did. His name alone probably swelled the crowd by a thousand.
Glenn knows the tricks and how to play the game like the liberals do. Would that other big names would deign to do the same for conservatives battling in local trenches.
Rush has a tendency to pooh-pooh the tea parties and other demonstrations by the right as ineffective.....and I didn't hear a peep from Todd Schnitt of the Schnitt Show.
Can we imagine what the Orlando Tea Party's crowd would have been like if Rush had hinted he would be there, LOL.
Thanks for the big boost, Glenn Beck!
Leni
I just joined the freepers after the Orlando Tea Party.
Had a great time and was glad to see so many patriots
show up,and really surprised to see myself in one of the pics posted
The news media might say a few hundred. But we know better!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwyDWHjNJ6c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xpn1J9Nt4e0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2H8xHFXC8U
Welcome to FRee Republic.
If you will get your Florida flag up on your profile page, clicking on it will get you to our Florida state forum. This forum is da place for Florida freeper news, announcements, notices of freeps and other info.
Freepmail me at "MinuteGal" if I can be of any help (click "private reply" under this comment).
Leni
Great show of people,where was the media?
Many years ago I had an apartment a block off of Lake Eola. 5K people there is a substantial crowd.
Care to imagine what kind of coverage would have been given to a crowd of 200 people waiving vulgar signs in protest of AIG?
We are going to be forced to march a million people on DC to get any attention.
Thanks Leni for mentioning our Florida Freeper Board. I know many Freepers across the country don’t know about their state FR forum within FreeRepublic.
For Florida Freepers the link to our state board is below. Hope to see everyone again at our Florida Freeper Convention in April! :)
http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/profiles?location=57
Great Pics, Great efforts, thanks for the early efforts and keeping us posted...Especially the ‘locating’ post advising where the table was to be. I can empathize with those who didn’t see that post and never found the FReep table. Especially glad to get the chance to finally meet you guys face to FReindly face. Good talking with you all.
Great to have you aboard! Keep an eye out for our upcoming Freeper Convention to be held in Orlando on April 25.
Some seriously fantastic stuff out there for those interested....thanks for the links. Say hi to the Mr. for me...my Boss claims she was more aware of what was going on than I was, and I agree. You guys are better at multi-tasking!
FR cards that were distributed to FutuRe FReepers!
(Thanks, MinuteGal! )
A proud parent of one of America's finest!
PORK Defined!
NObama supporter!
"TEA" shirt Extraordinaire!
Classic shirts never go out of style!
Here's another view of the "several hundred" Tea Party participants as reported by the local media.
FR's Kristinn Taylor addresses the Tea Party...
Although most of the speakers and the speeches were good, FR's Kristinn Taylor was the perfect conclusion to the days events.
Kristinn began by having everyone in the audience "hold up your signs" and acknowledging several in the many "sea of signs" in the crowd.
Kristinn went on on briefly to give a history of FreeRepublic and how we as Americans need to contnue as Americans to stand up for our FReedoms and do it WITHOUT FEAR of our government.
The audience was lovin' every word of it and was hungry for more.
My most memorable part was when Kristinn said that he will not stand in fear and will do so without a mask shielding his face as the cowardly anti-Americans do.
The Tea Party participants were carnivorous for words of wisdom and inspiration.
Thank you again Kristinn for the work you do.
Here's another FR gang photo!!!
For the "keyboard kommandos" that willingly stayed away, stay where you are. We have it covered.
I too spent my first 2 weeks in Orlando long ago in an apartment-hotel across the street from Lake Eola. Kinda helped with the decision to move to Central Florida!
Woo hoo!! Great job, Orlando!!
Sell him a new one!
Leni
Leni
Welcome to Free Republic! We Florida Freepers welcome you and hope to see you at future FL events. I will be helping to get the news out about other events and expecially our Florida Freeper Convention the weekend of April 24th. My hubby and I will be in Orlando on the 24th to enjoy the whole weekend with other Florida Freepers! :)
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