Tea Party in Wilkes-Barre, PA

So here I am at Public Square in downtown Wilkes-Barre with my homemade sign. All credit to Karmasurfer for the idea. (He snapped this pic, and the others on this post.)

It was a nice crowd. There was a mix of traditionalists, who are simply angry about taxation, on up to real radicals like me, who want an end to federal government as we know it. (Get rid of the IRS, ditto Federal Reserve, maintain a skeleton federal structure and turn everything back to the states.)

What some signs said:

- "Repeal the pork or your bacon is cooked"

- "Term limits NOW"

- "Our Congress is a toxic asset"

and

- "Where is John Galt?" (for those who don't know, read "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand; spells out how self-destructive socialist parasites destroy civilization.)

An amusing footnote to the last sign: Karmasurfer went up to the lady holding the sign and informed her that HE is John Galt, and that her quest ended here! She laughed, and said her husband back home in Virginia is a big Ayn Rand fan, and would be greatly interested to know she had met his hero :)

Public Square turned out to be an interesting venue for the protest; it's surrounded by banks. Seems we free-floating viruses may just have stuck a pin into enemy tissue. The weather was partly sunny and mild, just right. Perhaps Greedy Bank Monster Host was lulled into a false sense of security before WE came on the scene and zapped it with stealth antigen zest.

There were a few speakers, whom most people couldn't hear, on account of the one bullhorn someone brought put out anemic sound, at best. They weren't celebrities; one was an Army chaplain, another a veteran of Iraq, and yet another a lady who has pursued, and held, various local offices. All were heartfelt, all passionate. Choruses of "America The Beautiful" and "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" were sung, though there was a sense that no one really knew why. (And I found that something to ponder.)

Once the speakers were done, people seemed loath to leave right away. Knots formed here and there of people sharing opinions. Karmasurfer and I found ourselves chatting with Audrey, who is involved with the local tax-assessment outrage (a LOT of seniors in Luzerne County are about to lose their homes because property taxes have just been tripled), and Eric, a native of New York who is simply observing the train wreck that government is rapidly becoming. We all exchanged addresses.

Vernon joined us after a bit. He's black, and he most definitely does NOT approve of the first black president. Obama, he says, is pulling the rug out from under his very life. Turns out Vernon was caught in the crossfire of some drive-by shooting, and disabled. He works, as and when he can, because he has a strong ethic that way, but body pain prohibits him from being able to do most things. The little he receives under Social Security is under threat, he says.

Mike joined us briefly, wearing a tricorn hat, a la the first Tea Partiers. Mike is a traditionalist, but he was willing to listen to our belief that radical measures are necessary in order to return this country to the way our founding fathers envisioned it.

I left with two feelings: One, a profound sense of satisfaction that I actually put my money where my mouth is, belief-wise. Talk truly is cheap, and, unless one physically and visually shows others one is willing to do whatever it takes to protect a principle, one is a wuss. Worthy of sinking to the bottom of the moral cesspool, there to decompose unlamented.

The other was an unsettled wondering where this whole anger will go. To begin with, it's not clean, coming as it does from many discontents. And it's still undefined, really. It's taxes, and Big Brother, and chicanery; but how to galvanize it, and how to go forward?

It could be argued (and I have) that all will be moot, very soon -- 2012 being indicated by the Mayan Calendar, but dates are fluid things. Regardless, life as we know it is changing, and rapidly.