WEB EXTRA Tea parties rally residents

Concerned Lake County residents borrowed a note from history this week, gathering twice at Riverside Park in Polson for “tea parties” to protest government spending policies.

Saturday’s rally organizer Joe Schneider said it was in the spirit of the 1773 Boston Tea Party that he put together the gathering, which included speakers who spoke about uncontrolled government spending and how today’s politicians are misusing taxpayer dollars.

The first speaker on Wednesday, David Myerowitz of the Flathead Valley, said more than 7,000 protesters turned out in Boston in 1773 to make themselves heard. The crowd on Wednesday slowly grew in Riverside Park, with people slowly trickling in. The crowd easily passed 100 early into the event. Attendees held homemade signs and American flags as the four speakers told their sides.

Will and June Elliott of Polson attended the weekend rally because they say they’re worried about the burden their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren are going to have to shoulder if government officials don’t stop their spending ways.

“What happened to doing for yourself?” June said.

Charlo resident and former state representative Rick Jore spoke at both events. Jore said on Saturday that spending policies are enslaving future generations. Before his speech, Jore led the crowd of nearly 30 people in a prayer holding a sign that read “We the people want our Constitution back.”

Dr. Edwin Berry and Annie Bukacek of Kalispell also gave speeches on Saturday. Berry spoke on the over-inflated fear of global warming and Bukacek on the mishandling of the Social Security structure by politicians. Rep. Janna Taylor spoke briefly at the beginning of the rally, saying she does all she can to keep state spending in check.

At the end of Schneider’s rally, it was Flathead Lake that accepted the offering of tea, which was dumped into the lake by Tony Billington of Proctor.

Tax Day Tea Party websites have popped up all over the Internet recently, urging citizens to look the nation’s deficit and the recent stimulus package spending and tell politicians to stop voting for policies that run up the national deficit. On the TEA (Taxed Enough Already) website, it listed close to 2,000 cities nation-wide that were scheduled to hold rallies. Many Montana cities hosted rallies in the past week, but the bulk were held symbolically on Tax Day.

Annette Schiele took it upon herself to organize Wednesday’s rally in Polson after she reached her breaking point when none of her concerns were adequately addressed by representatives. The people have been taxed enough already and are now seeing their money be spent in concerning ways, she said.

Schiele is not a registered member of any political party or organization, but said that she, like Schneider, believes that the rallies are a way for people to be heard.

“It’s the idea of freedom of speech and being represented and not being ignored,” Schiele said.

There wasn’t any tea being dumped into the river during Tax Day teas party held yesterday in Riverside Park, instead, the two hour event concentrated on “letting the attendees know they’re not alone in their feelings of discontent with spending policies,” Schiele said.

Gil Mangles also gave a speech at the rally on Wednesday. He spoke to the younger audience on lemonade and capitalism - what capitalism really means. Mangles hosted a showing of the movie “Harry’s War” at the Miracle of American Museum.