In 1773 at the Boston docks, a group of patriots confiscated a shipment of tea from England and through it into the water beside of the docks. Their reason for dumping the tea was that it had an excessive tax which the King of England was levying upon products shipped from England to the Colonies. This was the act that declared that the colonies were rebelling against the reigning gov-ernment of that day.

On April 15, 2009 across the United States a spontaneous action began. It was called the TEA Party Movement. Using the letters TEA as an acronym for Taxed Enough Already, the citizens who participated were sending a message to the reining government in Washington that they were un-happy with the gigantic spending deficits that are taking placed which can only be paid be massive tax increases. In all of the major cities of the United States, groups held rallies with prominent speakers to get their message to the public that they planned to take the government back from those who think that they own it and can do what ever they wish. Except for Fox News, the major newspapers and TV networks ignored the rallies and did not report how large the crowds were. In many cities, the groups counted in the tens of thousands.

From that time, TEA Party groups began to organize in smaller cities across the country. On Sep-tember 12 just after the 9/11 remembrance memorials there was a TEA Party gathering in Washington that was well attended.

Major news media reported that the attendance was in the tens of thousands but a density count based on satellite photos showed that more and 1.5 million people were present for the Washington rally. One notable occurrence was that when this crowd left downtown Washington, the cleanup crews only had to go around and empty the trash cans. There was nothing on the ground. The same area was used for the Inauguration of the President and it required a large group of groundskeepers several days to clean up the litter from the ground.

There were several busloads of citizens from Northwest Georgia that traveled to Washington for this rally. On these buses were several citizens from Gordon County. They returned very excited and began to organize a group which they are calling the TEA Party of Gordon County. Their major problem has been in publicizing the meetings but the last meeting which was the first Monday in November was announced in the Calhoun Times. It was held in the banquet room at Shoney’s and they were hoping to have 25 to 30 in attendance. Before the 7 p.m. scheduled starting time there was al-ready over 50 in attendance and eventually the attendance exceeded 60 citizens.

Several local politicians and government office holders were present but the attendance was primarily citizens who are concerned about where our government is trying to take us. Party affiliations are totally ignored. The TEA Party movement is neither Republican, Democratic, Libertarian nor Independent.

The primary purpose of the TEA Party movement is to encourage citizens to get involved and try to influence the government to act with more fiscal responsibility. The local group provided a list of all of the members of Congress and instructions on how to contact them by telephone. The November meeting served more as an organizational meeting but in the future they expect to have speakers who will inform the citizens about legislative actions that Congress and the Georgia Legislature are considering.

The November meeting was very lively with a number of attendees speaking up to let the group know about the things that are troubling them. It was handled very courteously with everyone having an opportunity to voice their concerns.

There will be another meeting on the first Monday evening of December. The location will be an-nounced in the Calhoun Times and on the new website for the TEA Party. It will not be held at the banquet room at Shoney’s because it is not large enough to handle more than 40 people. There are no dues for this organization but contributions are accepted to help cover the cost of the meetings and the printing.

The Gordon County Tea Party can be contacted by email at teapartygordoncty@aol.com. The Web site is www.gordoncountyteaparty.ning.com