The Red River Tea Party is holding a long overdue Freedom Rally this week, Thursday, October 25 at the Bossier Civic Center from 5:30 - 7:30.
We've had several Tea Party rallies in Shreveport/Bossier since the first one in 2009 and each one gets better and better. There will be live music, as always, and in the past there have been booths with groups distributing information (Fair Tax, etc.) or selling concessions.
I can't think of a better thing to do on a beautiful fall day right before the most important national election in recent history.
Scheduled speakers are conservative radio talk show host Moon Griffon, who appeared at the 2010 God and Country Rally.
Also speaking will be veteran Sharon McCullar. Sharon is also the proud mother of two Marines and is a small business owner. I've heard her speak at several of these rallies and she is always a highlight. She's brought me to tears before with her moving and powerful stories. Her speech at the 2010 Tax Day Tea Party was epic.
Also speaking will be U. S. Senator David Vitter and almost certainly the highlight of the day will be C. L. Bryant's speech.
I've often told this story, but C. L. showed up at the first Bossier/Shreveport Tea Party in 2009 as just a spectator. He had his little church in DeSoto Parish and his conservative views, and he came to see the Tea Party. Organizer Royal Alexander started talking to him in the crowd and pulled him up on stage to speak; his spontaneous speech that day launched him onto a nationwide platform that has culminated most recently into his acclaimed documentary Runaway Slave. That documentary is now available in a number of digital download options.
Add this event to your list of things to do this week! The weather is supposed to be grand, so come on out!
The Red River Tea Party held the first "One Nation Back to God" Rally & Picnic this morning on the lawn of the Bossier Civic Center. It was a pleasant, but humid, 83 degrees when I arrived; much better than the 103 we had last year for the "Freedom Rally." I'd estimate there were between 400 and 500 people there this morning and it was certainly an energetic and fired up crowd!
As I arrived, the LA Outlaws were warming up the gathering crowd:
Emcee Royal Alexander welcomed the crowd, opened the program and explained the focus of this year's rally. He pointed out that in the past, we've gathered to protest loss of individual liberties, the take over of health care, etc., but this year the focus is on bringing the nation back to God and to encourage prayer for our nation and for our nation's leaders. He explained that we need to keep "our nation 'under' God rather than above him.
He cited 2 Chronicles 7:14 which says,
If my people, who are called by name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
This was definitely the tone of each speaker. The first speaker was Pastor Stephen Robinson from the Pilgrim Nazarene Chuch in Shreveport who spoke of the importance of prayer and especially, right now, how important it is to pray for our nation.
The crowd was gathering and filling in as he spoke.
As always there were lots of flags and a few pets. I didn't see nearly as many signs this time and I think that's probably because this was billed a less of a protest rally but as a celebration of God, family and country. Sharon McCuller opened with a very moving prayer that brought a tear to the eye:
I was thrilled for her when she told me one of her sons is returning from Afghanistan this month.
I spotted Moon Griffon getting ready to take the stage:
He is one tall dude!
Moon joked with the crowd a little when he took the stage, pointing out that Royal Alexander was dressed in a sport coat and slacks while Moon donned shorts and a casual shirt for the event. He opened with his trademark, "How y'all ARE?!" and the crowd roared! I wish I'd taken video of Moon's speech but there will be some online later and I'll try to come back and link it or embed it. Moon got everyone fired up and said he's had about enough "change" right about now.
He thinks we need to get back to church, get back to Christian values, quit trying to take God out of the schools, and hold our leaders accountable. His final point was that "You need to get back to church! You need to get in the churches!" because he said only half of the people in churches are voting. Get the message out. He said we need good, strong God-fearing leaders with Christian values and God in their hearts to lead us and to fight for us.
Moon was followed by more LA Outlaw music and then Royal introduced Rev. C. L. Bryant. Here's a snip of his opening:
Again, if you want to hear his whole speech, I'll come back and link it. He's such a motivational speaker! The crowd was on their feet the entire time:
There were some closing remarks by Royal Alexander and then the program ended and the music and picnic began. Emma Meeks performed again, and this is a young lady to watch;; she's got talent!:
I didn't stay much longer because the rest of my weekend beckons. We've got cookout plans to pull together and I still owe you a FMJRA.
The Rally was good for me this morning because I've been so bummed out the past couple of days. Everything I'm reading in the news just SUCKS and the oil spill crisis is awful and getting worse; the EPA is trying to shut down 1/3 of our nation's refineries; all the Obamacare news is worse and worse....I just had to back off from it for a day yesterday. So the message this morning was very timely for me.
If you live in my neck of the woods be sure to mark your calendar for July 3 as the Red River Tea Party puts on its now annual picnic on the lawn outside the Bossier Civic Center.
The program kicks off at 10:00 a.m. and runs until about 11:30 with music and picnic following. I'm excited because the line-up this year is awesome: Louisiana radio personality Moon Griffon will be there and C.L. Bryant will be making a return engagement. If you've never heard C.L. Bryant, do yourself a favor and watch this from his speech at the March on Washington last September:
I first heard him at the first Shreveport/Bossier Tea Party event in April of 2009. Bryant just appeared at that event, not scheduled to speak or known to the organizers. After Board Member Royal Alexander visited with him for a bit, he pulled Bryant on stage. Thank goodness he did. You can watch that equally rousing speech here. I don't know if Sharon McCullar is speaking again this year or not, but I hope so. She moved me to tears with her speech in April of this year; at about 3:55 in this video when she starts talking about her two Marine sons, I lost it.
There will be vendors at the event this year to include pizza, hamburgers, hot dogs and sno cones.
Make your plans to bring the family and come celebrate the Fourth and have a good time!
The nation will be watching our own Bobby Jindal tonight as he gives the response to Obama's pseudo-State-of-The-Union-Type address.
I'm watching Jindal too. He was elected with great promise in Louisiana; after the debacle that was Blanco and Katrina, he looked really good.
There are a lot of folks that have not been happy with Jindal, however. One is vocal radio host Moon Griffon. I adore Moon and listen to him regularly when I'm off work in the summer. He's a grassroots, homespun kind of guy. He thinks Jindal has been disingenuous in touting his six tax cuts for the state.
Moon points to the Stelly tax mess as evidence of that and to his credit, he is correct. Jindal is touting the repeal of the Stelly tax as one of his tax credits but to date, nobody is receiving that tax break. In fact, a non-profit group, Believe in Louisiana, ran an ad promoting Jindal last summer; the ad said "Jindal's getting rid of that awful Stelly tax; it's a $300 million income tax cut!" The group bought ad time on Moon's show and once Moon heard the ad, he dropped it and sent the check back.
C. B. Forgotston is even more vocal in his criticism of Jindal. C.B. has a blog and has run several posts demanding that Louisiana citizens "hold Bobby's feet to the fire" about the hiring freeze and outmigration just to name two.
LSUS Professor Jeff Sadow writes articulately about "the dunderhead chorus" who criticized Jindal's decison on the stimulus funds. He explains clearly the logic behind Jindal's refusal of the funds.
What sticks in my mind most is last summer when the state legislature tried to give themselves a huge pay raise immediately after the election. I wrote about it here; Jindal refused to veto the raise until the very last minute despite his campaign promise that the leges would not be allowed to do that. There were protests at every stop he made around the state and a recall petition was circulating until he finally pulled out the veto pen.
Jindal's speech tonight will be poised, articulate, intelligent and he will shine. He will be informed of his facts and he won't be vague. He won't say "uhm" and "uh" a thousand times. He might say "Let's be clear" too much - a favorite of his. Here's a preview of his style:
