The heart of the tea party

Because I heard the tea party participants being accused of using pejorative language, 1 wanted to see for myself, so I decided to attend the April 6 tea party rally in Rockford. Here are some of my observations.

Once the program got underway it quickly became obvious it was not made up of radicals or rabble-rousing racists. I met a lot of nice folks who seemed genuine in their concern about our federal and state mind-boggling deficits. They know that the irresponsible Socialist Democrats now in control have such large majorities that they cannot be stopped. They know the history of the economic devastation visited upon other countries that have gone this route, and they are frightened for their children and grandchildren.

Many in the media attempt to marginalize the tea party movement. They employ ridicule and report attendance numbers far below the actual numbers. The tea party Express passes out sign-in cards and tallies attendance. You can trust its count.

It appears the tea party movement is really about encouraging our citizens to support our country's Constitution. If the tea party's position seems radical to you, then you must also consider Washington, Adams and Jefferson to be radicals.

The tea party movement says that privilege and power held too long becomes addictive and results in corruption, arrogance and poor representation. It believes that this country's sovereignty must never be compromised and granting amnesty to 20 million illegal aliens would be a mistake.

I admit that at the start of the rally I was feeling despondent about the direction America is heading, but I left with a feeling of hope. If enough Americans begin to realize a fundamental change to Socialism is not what's best for America, we may hear a resounding "not so fast" next November.

Vincent A. Froberg

Elgin