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 Thursday, April 16, 2009

My 3.5 Minutes of Fame at a Tax Day Tea Party Protest

By Greg Perkins @ 12:01 AM



Here's a great example of what the Ayn Rand Center is enabling around the nation.

They made some excellent material available, and I thought it would come in handy for any tea party protests that might happen here in Boise. When I found out that there was indeed one being organized here, I quickly put together a single-sheet front/back handout and printed several hundred in full color to distribute. Quick and easy cultural activism!

And then Tammy suggested that I offer myself as a speaker, on the off-chance that the organizers might be receptive to an Objectivist and find a way to fit me in. So I sent them a note the night before and heard back the morning of that they would like to have me speak! I cribbed and customized the backside of my handout, and voila, a 3.5-minute speech ready for delivery with almost no notice.

They ended up using me as their opening speaker! You can see me above in the lower-right, a while before I took the stage (it was cold and drizzly, and my papers were getting soggy). By the time I had the mic there were thousands of people in the audience, and I was surprised at how vocal and receptive they were! Tammy was off handing out the flyers (likewise, surprisingly popular) and didn't expect me to take the stage so early, but she nonetheless managed to capture a nice chunk of my performance on her little point-n-shoot camera:



Lots of people expressed gratitude and enthusiasm after I left the stage. The crowd was mostly stock conservative folks unhappy with the current situation and filled with all sorts of mixed, inconsistent, disintegrated ideas. And of course (ugh) there was the inevitable handful of crackpots. One conspiracy nutter buttonholed me to let me in on the secrets of the Federal Reserve, and we moved on pretty quickly. I was also pulled aside by a couple of far-Left media people looking to confirm that I was some crank trying to rewrite history or something -- I just responded pleasantly and explained more about what I was saying. We'll see what shows up in their outlets, if anything.

Quite a day for a guy who simply didn't have the time to design a flyer or write a speech from scratch. Thank you, ARC!





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 Comments

Thursday, April 16, 2009 at 4:02:01 mst
Comment ID: #1
Name: Dave Evans
E-mail: dave.evans55(at)googlemail.com

Good for you, man. I'm pleased that the Tax day protests went so well with no violence.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic in the UK, our MSM has not devoted a single
column inch to the Tea Parties. To be expected of course, as the MSM are dead scared we will
start emulating them over here.

If anyone finds any mention of the Tea parties in the Brit MSM, please post details here.

Thursday, April 16, 2009 at 4:42:51 mst
Comment ID: #2
Name: Mark Wickens
E-mail: noodlefood(at)wickens.ca
URL: http://randex.org/

Bravo and thank you, Greg! Great to hear a big cheer go up for Ayn Rand.

Thursday, April 16, 2009 at 4:59:41 mst
Comment ID: #3
Name: brian0918
E-mail: my handle, through gmail
URL: http://reality.ohio.newintellectuals.org

Excellent work, Greg! We at the Ohio Objectivist Society tried to get a slot for a speech, but were not successful. We did however get interviewed on location by two local radio stations, as well as a local newspaper. We handed out dozens of essays and free copies of Atlas Shrugged, and got on the local TV news. Here's my favorite photo of the event:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rarabecca/3446584846/sizes/o/
(our exec. director is being interviewed by a radio show, and we're holding up signs)

We also met a couple other Objectivists there, and expect to see them at a future meetup. That was quite a surprise!

My favorite story was from a guy who said he met his wife over Atlas Shrugged - they were both reading it at the same time. He had his son at the event, and said he couldn't wait till his son was older to read it for himself. Then we handed the kid a free copy and his face lit up.

We definitely accomplished way more than we planned.

Thursday, April 16, 2009 at 6:34:53 mst
Comment ID: #4
Name: Tammy Perkins
E-mail: tammy.ryan(at)gmail.com

A friend and I distributed the flyers at the Boise Tax Day Tea Party and we were both shocked that people were approaching us asking (almost grabbing!) for a flyer. I was also surprised by the number of participants I spoke with had either read, are reading, or plan to read Atlas Shrugged!! It was a great day!

Thursday, April 16, 2009 at 7:41:13 mst
Comment ID: #5
Name: brian0918
E-mail: my handle through gmail
URL: http://reality.ohio.newintellectuals.org

Check out our summary of the Cleveland/Canton events from the Ohio Objectivist Society - with photos!

http://reality.ohio.newintellectuals.org/?p=304

Brian

Thursday, April 16, 2009 at 7:45:01 mst
Comment ID: #6
Name: brian0918
E-mail: my handle through gmail
URL: http://reality.ohio.newintellectuals.org

Tammy: That was definitely the surprising thing we found as well. People were flocking to our "Atlas Will Shrug" / "Ayn Rand Was Right" signs, giving us stories about when they read it. Some had just finished or were still reading it, while others had read it over 50 years ago. Others were pointing and smiling, taking photos, etc.

Thursday, April 16, 2009 at 8:28:15 mst
Comment ID: #7
Name: Richard

Great job! It's very heartening and inspiring. Looks like it was tricky to hold the camera and applaud at the same time, haha.

Thursday, April 16, 2009 at 10:07:32 mst
Comment ID: #8
Name: TK
URL: http://tklounge.blogspot.com

Good work Gregg!

I attended the Chicago protest and handed out flyers as well. It sounds as though my experience of warm, receptive protesters was par for the course. This is the most encouragement that I have felt for awhile in objectivism. I have some pictures posted here:

http://tklounge.blogspot.com/2009/04/tax-day-tea-party.html

and my commentary about the day here:

http://tklounge.blogspot.com/2009/04/tax-day-tea-party-protests.html

Good work objectivists!!

--TK

Thursday, April 16, 2009 at 13:32:38 mst
Comment ID: #9
Name: Dave Evans
E-mail: dave.evans55(at)googlemail.com

I found a reference to the Tea parties in the UK Daily Telegraph which I got around to reading this evening.

It was in a small sidebar in an article about the leaked DHS Right Wing Extremism report. A casual reader might assume the the participants in the Tea Parties were right-wing extremists in the traditional form, for example Nazis. And this is in a conservative newspaper! I haven't yet looked at the left-wing press (Guardian). Of course we are all right-wing extremists now by the DHS definition ( anyone who question the size or authority of government).

Thursday, April 16, 2009 at 13:49:15 mst
Comment ID: #10
Name: Tom
E-mail: tom(at)hallserver1.com

Great little speech Greg !
It seemed to me the crowd got awfully quiet when you said Capitalism needs a moral defense - I could almost hear people thinking "Capitalism; moral ? I've never heard that before". But when a few brave souls applauded it spread quickly; all right !

Thursday, April 16, 2009 at 14:42:17 mst
Comment ID: #11
Name: Greg Perkins
E-mail: greg(at)ecosmos.com
URL: http://ecosmos.com

Thanks everyone -- it was pretty exciting. :^)

And wow, Brian, you guys really worked it! I'm definitely going to adopt some of your materials and approach at future events.

Thursday, April 16, 2009 at 23:40:51 mst
Comment ID: #12
Name: Kevin Morrill
E-mail: morrillkevin(at)gmail.com
URL: http://netprofitmotive.com

Greg fantastic work! I think you picked the perfect Ayn Rand quote--exactly what people need to hear and think about. And yes hearing the applause is very encouraging.

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