NEW: Thursday's tea party to be more interactive than before

Posted: Wednesday, September 9, 2009 12:00 am

Peter Adelsen Perspective staff writer padelsen@kokomoperspective.com | 0 comments

After having two successful tea parties earlier this year, a third tea party is planned for Thursday at the southwest parking lot at the Kokomo Event Center, formerly the Johanning Civic Center. The event will start at 6 p.m. and last until 7:15 p.m.

The first couple tea parties had between 300 and 500 attendees, said Deb Hearn who with Kenlyn Watson are organizing the event. At the upcoming tea party, they are expecting much of the same, if not more, to attend. She says to bring chairs and some friends to the event. Like the previous tea parties, there will be patriotic music and speakers.

The featured speaker will be Peter Heck, who is a conservative radio personality at WIOU-AM and is also a history teacher at Eastern High School, she said.

Others involved are Eric Wyatt who may also speak about state sovereignty and Matt Turner who will serve as the emcee. In the past, Turner has spoken on ethics and morality, she said.

This tea party will be a little different than the first two, she said.

"This one is going to be a little more interactive," she said. "We want people to get educated, involved and engaged, so we are going to have booths from the four major areas out there: health care, fair tax, audit the Fed and cap and trade."

Each table will have a letter about the four areas and participants can sign the letters and they will be sent to our area's representatives, she said.

"We aren't trying to tell people how to feel," she said. "Whatever side of the fence they are on, they need to engage."

The people representing the booths will also speak with Heck, but they will have about two minutes each so the attendees can learn in greater detail by talking in person to the experts at their tables, she said.

Also representatives from tea parties held in Miami, Grant and Tipton counties will have tables, as well.

Everyone at the event will have the opportunity to do a video taping. This is in response to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi calling tea party protesters "the mob," she said. The point of the video is to say who the tea party protesters really are to the politicians, she said.

Hearn said one example of what to say is: "I don't like what you're doing. I am the mob. We are normal human beings, parents and grand parents, and we are starting to take notice. Nobody is funding us. It's just Kenlyn and I and we are normal."

She said that people should not be afraid to come.

"This is not just a conservative movement; there are a lot of Democrats involved in it too," she said. "We were concerned when President Bush was doing these things. We all wanted change. In some ways we aren't sticking to the foundations of our 'Founding Fathers.' We just want them to start engaging and start taking responsibility for those who are in office and educate."

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