Love of country, fears for the future expressed at TEA Party

By BETH FOLEY
The Palestine Herald

July 04, 2009 11:12 pm

— Fear of what rising taxes might do prompted Elkhart resident Edna Higginbotham to take a walk Saturday morning.
Wearing a dress made with patriotic patterned material and a matching hat, Higginbotham marched with the rest of the crowd attending Palestine’s first TEA Party from a storefront on W. Oak Street down to the corner of Crawford and N. Sycamore Street, some singing “God Bless America” as they strolled along in the morning sunshine.
“It’s going to bankrupt our country,” Higginbotham said. “I don’t see how in the world they can come up with enough taxes to pay for what they want to do.”
Dozens of residents rallied at the old Totah Bros. Men’s Store, where organizer Steve DeVault and others took turns speaking to the crowd about their fears for America’s future as news of higher taxes and expensive health care plans come out of Washington, D.C.
“We’re looking to limit the size of the government, to bring it back down to what the Founding Fathers and framers of the Constitution had in mind, and I don’t think what’s going on today is anything near what they had in mind,” DeVault said.
Leon Hardin, a Korean war veteran, took the mike and gave an impassioned speech urging other to wake up to threats to American liberties.
“We need to get off our duffs and start fighting and let our government know how we feel,” Hardin said. “You don’t work for the government. They work for us. We are their employers.”
Love and concern for America drew Palestine resident Vaude Langston out to the TEA Party.
“I care about my country, I love my country,” she said, walking down the hill on E. Crawford Street and carrying a small flag and a large handwritten sign emblazoned with “Let Freedom Ring.” “I have seven grandchildren. I care about what’s happening. I want there to be a country.”
A short distance away, Darwin Link of Palestine walked slowly and steadily along, carrying a poster board reading “Less taxes, more truth and integrity from Washington” and wearing a patriotic shirt and a hat with a smaller version of the sign.
A veteran of World War II, Link said he didn’t like the direction that his country seemed to be taking.
“I don’t believe in socialistic ways. That’s the way it seems this president is headed, with the support of Congress,” he said. “So I’m opposing that.
“Big government takes freedom away from people. Ronald Reagan said freedom can’t survive big government.”
Originally, organizers planned for those who came to walk to the Anderson County Courthouse and then back to downtown to Palestine City Hall to voice their opposition to Washington politics. However, their route would have taken the crowd through a part of E. Crawford Street at Old Town already barricaded in advance of the Fourth of July Children’s Parade.
Rather than possibly interfere with the parade, organizers asked TEA Party attendees to take a break and watch the parade from the sidewalk at the corner of Crawford and N. Sycamore streets as the children passed by before walking back up Crawford Street to city hall to wrap up the event.
Many of the TEA Partiers obliged, providing a cheering section as the children passed by in brightly decorated wagons and bikes.
The event concluded at city hall.
“We had a little bit of a rally, did a few cheers and talked about plans,” said Westwood ISD superintendent Dr. Ed Lyman, who attended and who spoke briefly on the sidewalk prior to the parade. “We said a prayer for our servicemen and for our country.”
The group stretched across party lines, Lyman added.
“We’re Republicans, Democrats and Libertarians,” he said. “We’re not just siding with the political parties. We’re just cheering America on to a better future.”

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