Share

Close to a thousand “tea baggers” lined the north and south sidewalks of Government Street, just outside the walls of Government Plaza before marching to Cooper Riverside Park in what was Mobile’s installment of the national tax day Tea Party.

Amidst the acknowledgement of honking car and truck horns, rally goers cheered patriotic chants and held signs reading “Don’t spend my wealth, spread my work ethic,” and “District of Consumption,” or, “Now deal with the pirates in D.C.”

Tea Baggers take to the streets on Tax Day

Protestors outside of Government Plaza

These signs express the sentiment of a group many are calling Tea Baggers, or those who feel they’ve been Taxed Enough Already.

And, while some might think this is a partisan attack on the Obama Administration, a few people were quick to point out that the basis for such outrage goes as far back as the middle of the last Bush administration.

Chad Fesler a software engineer in Mobile feels that if enough people speak their minds today, and the government as a whole takes notice, we’ll be able to fix our country’s economic standing.

“We need to turn this economy around, and turn it around in the right direction,” Fesler said. “It’s time to get some momentum now, because we can’t afford to keep spending like this. We’ll never be able to pay this debt off.”

Fesler also says for him and many others it’s got very little to do with President Obama, despite that being a popular assumption.

“Some of us were complaining about it when Bush ran up a $500 billion deficit and now spending $2.8 trillion is a good idea? It’s just unfathomable the direction we’re headed,” Fesler remarked.

Small business owners are hit especially hard in any economic downturn, often faced with the reality of minimal resources and mounting workloads on a daily basis.

Jennifer Morgan is co-owner of an insurance company in Mobile and finds the economic climate scary.

“If you keep taxing us (small businesses), we’re going to have to start laying people off,” Morgan said. “Small businesses are what run this country. My business will get the tax increase. My household doesn’t, but my business will.”

Morgan is hopeful these Tea Parties will make politicians in Washington D.C. aware of her reality.

Tea Baggers take to the streets on Tax Day

The back of the pack on the way to Cooper Riverside Park

“We just want to send the message that we’re not silent and I’ve seen a few of my friends that I know are liberals, so I don’t think this is just about affiliation,” Morgan observed.

As the march to Cooper Riverside Park concluded, political talk show host Uncle Henry greeted the Tea Baggers. On a chamber of commerce day, surrounded by hundreds, Uncle Henry belted out a quick “Roll Tide Roll,” and graciously said he was glad to see that “young people with their brains not yet fully developed were able to organize the event.” He was alluding to the fact that Mobile’s Tea Party organizers are the nation’s youngest.

While the talk show host decided to speak for only a short time, he did offer some encouragement to those in attendance, citing something “wise” that came from the mouth of former president Ronald Reagan.

“Less government intrusion, people will go for that every time,” the talk show host recalled of the former president saying.

As of Tax Day 2009 (April 15) the national debt was $11,175, 805, 598, 920.90 according to the U.S. National Debt Clock’s Web site.