Posted by
Catmman on Sunday, July 12, 2009 2:32:47 PM
Photo essay and commentary.
As promised, a more detailed post for the 4th of July San Antonio, Texas Tea Party event held at the Rio Cibolo Ranch This will be a rather lengthy post. It will include photos, opinionated commentary and a breakdown of the event venue a well as general impressions. Please stick through to the very end.
First of all, the weather was horrendously
HOT! The kind of hot that makes you go, "
Damn, it's HOT!" Like I said in my teaser post, the kind of hot that makes your face melt off your skull like that guy in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Crotch-pot cooking
HOT! OK, that last was a bit crude, but it was necessary to impart on you, my dear reader just how HOT it was. Now that we've got that out of the way we can move on to bigger and better things - with no more references to how HOT it was.
The event was held at the Rio Cibolo Ranch. A nice spread a bit west of San Antonio. See their website
here. A nice, country venue away from the city. A very "picnicky" family reunion type place which really added to the "feel" of the event. Whereas the April15th event at the Alamo was more akin to a traditional "rally", the venue in this instance imparted a more "family" type atmosphere which added a closeness to the event. The main area was covered with (fairly) green grass, wit large pecan trees bordering the stage area, providing much needed shade and again, a great ambiance to the whole affair. There was a large "pavilion" area made to resemble a large ranch "barn" from the outside, but under the roof made to look like a old fashioned honky tonk. There was a "old west town" type facade under the roof next to one of the two open bars. The food spread of traditional Texas fair, BBQ, brisket, potato salad, the obligatory platters full of jalapenos, etc. just added to the festive atmosphere. More traditional foods, burgers and hot dogs was also available.
There were additional drink kiosks, a snowcone vendor, a temporary tatoo artist supplied as well. The area had a small playground available for kids and the openess of the area facilitated families playing a little ball or throwing a frisbee and other similar outdoor activities.
We arrived at the event parking area, a mowed down corn field. This was free parking. Parking closer to the venue was available for a fee, $10 bucks I think. They had charter busses moving attendees back and forth from the venue to the parking field throughout the event. The charter busses were a nice touch for those who didn't pay for parking.
We arrived right about 3 PM. Due to the heat of the day, there wasn't anyone sitting in front of the stage since it was right out in the sun. There was a band playing music (
The Jokers Wild Band) starting at about the time we got there. We scoped out the area, just walking around taking things in. We started out in the covered area since it was out of the sun and the majority of the activity was here at the time. The Vice-Commander and I stood in line to sign a petition:
"No to Amnesty, Cap and Trade, Obamacare, Hate Crimes, Sotomayor. Yes to auditing the federal reserve."
There was a copy for every local (regional) congressional representative as well as our two state senators, Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn.
At 4 PM there was an invocation, The Pledge of Allegiance, a Color Guard and the singing of the National Anthem. Once the opening was underway the event MC, Evan Sayet came on board to officially open things up. Mr. Sayet was a comedian and at one time a self-professed liberal. I watched a You-Tube video of a speech he gave at the Heritage Foundation some time ago. It was a great speech.
Watch it here.
Mr. Sayet did a wonderful job in hosting and MC'ing the event. He was funny as well as relevant. His was a good addition to the lineup.
Next on the agenda was a speech from the group "
Oathkeepers". This was the only part of the day I had some problems with. The message was generally good and on point for the event. I have an issue with the premise apparently governing this group. See more on my thoughts and feelings
here.
The above photo is of the "Oathkeepers" representative. You must forgive me, I did not make an annotation of his name. Please follow the links for these guys and make up your own mind. Note: I STILL have not received a response from the group or the site founder addressing some of my concerns.
Next up was Katherine Moreno:
This lady is an immigrant (now a US citizen) and she gave an outstanding speech at the
Alamo Tea Party. This time, her message was good, but (and this is just me being a nitpicker) she seemed unprepared or that she hadn't practiced her speech perhaps? You could tell what she wanted to say, but she had some trouble getting the words out. Once she got started, things went a bit better, but she stumbled a bit.
Before proceeding, you might get the impression that I'm being overly critical on some points. This is not my intention. I do these essays attempting to be as impartial as possible, telling you my impression of the event as I saw it. This to me includes what I thought was good and bad about as many aspects of the event as possible. Good? Let's move on.
Dr. Donald R. May gave a great speech about the problems with and dangers of President Obama's "health care" plan, referred to as Obamacare:
Not the greatest picture, I didn't see the microphone in front of his face.
After a break, we had a visit from some representatives from an organization called the
Heritage Alliance.
These two gentleman (again, I don't have the names - sorry!) were there to speak about a new initiative, The
Contract with the Constitution. In essence this is a contract to be used to get politicians at all levels of government to pledge they will return to the principles of Constitutional (our Constitution) government. Attendees were encouraged to take this contract and give it to their representatives to get their signatures. Why? One, to be able to have something to hold them to account for. Two, to put pressure on them to make some kind of justification in case they refuse to sign the contract. Can you imagine the RPM's of a politician spinning his way out of trying to
not sign a documant stating they will uphold the Constitution?
A special guest was on hand to be one of the first politicians to sign this document - Texas Governor Rick Perry! It was a pleasant surprise!
Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell was on hand and can be seen to the Governors right in the long sleeve blue shirt.
A word about Governor Perry. After the Tea Party, some moron had put flyers on the cars in the parking area accusing the Governor of being a "Big Goverment P%^p". I have my problems with Governor Perry, not least of which is his support of toll roads in Texas. There are some other things, but the Governor is hardly a "big government p%^p". His refusal to take any "stimulus" money for Texas should speak volumes. And the fact that, even with the issues our state has, our employment rate and economy are doing head and shoulders above many others in the country right now speaks to decent government leadership. Making a stand about raising fees a strip clubs and having a stance on vaccinations hardly makes one a "p%^p". I don't have a scanner or I'd make a scan of the flyer. It's really sad and just smacks of the person who made it being at least a bit of a conspiratorial nutjob. I see stuff like this and just get the feeling this person also believes "fire doesn't melt steel". Having the Governor show up was a nice surprise. Considering he could have went to the big Tea Party in Dallas that got all the publicity, speaks to the guy I think. It also speaks to the San Antonio Tea Party organizers. Well done!
Mr. Lutell's message was, and I'm paraphrasing, "Stop whining, get off your butt and do something," This man is a true American hero. If you haven't read his book,
Lone Survivor, you really need to read it. It's a great read, a story told about how he became a Navy SEAL and what happened to him in Afghanistan.
And "Joe the Plumber",
Joe Wurzelbacher (who assured us he is in fact a real plumber):
Every time I see or hear about this guy the one thing that stands out to me is how this guy was villified, and continues to be, simply for asking what the left in this country deemed to be an inappropriate question. What was inappropriate about the question? Nothing other than it put our future President on the spot and unmasked him for ewhat he is - a old fashined tax and spend liberal. We have indeed come a long way down the wrong road as a nation when a citizen can't ask a question of a man running for president.
The Tea Party event was an overall success in my book and in this case was even capped off by a great fireworks display! The speakers were informative and inspiring, each in their own way. As I wrote in a teaser post this event wasn't smply an outcry of frustration and angst from the populace. There was an element of this at this event, but this time the atmosphere was more celebratory (owing in no small part to the day itself, being Independence Day) more than a "protest" rally. This event was more of a "get together" or gathering of like minded folks. The organizers apparently had this in mind as the speakers weren't so much geared towards simply tapping into the feelings of disappointment as at the ealier event, but more of a call to action.
In fact, there is now a
Citizens Call to Action. A criticism of the Left, not withstanding the derision of the "teabaggers" epithet, is that "OK, you had a Tea Party, now what?" Something I find interesting is this question is never asked of the Left. I have never seen, in all the reporting and videos of leftist protest, be they anti-war or whatever, anyone ever ask a Lefty protester "Now what?" Because the Left isn't interested in really doing anything. People on the right of the political spectrum aren't handicapped by an inate laziness as is seen with the Left. If it were, people would give up on the Tea Parties. There would be no attendance at these rallies, because people on the right have better things to do with their time than waste it on feel good platitudes.
This event and it's message wasn't simlpy to gather and vent frustration, it was to begin to answer the question, "Now what?"
Well done to all involved!
Scenes from the event:
Old Glory fluttering in the wind
A boy playing a little ball with his mom
Some pics of the Pavilion:
The "Spread"
Some of the signs on display:
Some pics of the crowd: