Napa's Tea Party

By ANGELINA GERVASIO

No wonder liberals hold so many protests... They are FUN!!!

Yup, we went to the Tea Party April 15 in downtown Napa in front of Congressman Mike Thompson's office on Main and Pearl (I wonder if his staff took a day off because I didn't see anybody in there or maybe they had already gone home for the day). My mom and I arrived around 6 p.m.,We parked in the former Mervyn's parking lot and as we walked over, people welcomed us and thanked us for joining them in a cause that affect us all. Yes, all. I'm 13, I don't even pay taxes yet, so why should I bother? Even if I don't pay taxes, my parents do, my grandparents do eventually I will have to!!!

With a flag in one hand, and a poster in the other we soon joined the enthusiastic crowd. I didn't count them all, but I would guess there were at least 200 people at that point. Remember, this demonstration started at 8 a.m., people came and went all day long and according to some of them the crowd stayed just about that size sometimes thicker sometimes thinner.

Many cars drove by, quite a few with their passengers waving American flags, most of them honking all the way from First to Pearl or vice-versa, there were even three fire engines, two police cars and a (very loud) tow truck.

Some drivers looked completely and entirely clueless. Perhaps they didn't know whether or not they wanted to keep their hard earned money or be forced to throw the money away to bankrupt programs like Social Security? It didn't seem like a very hard decision to make to me.

A few of the drivers were giving us thumbs up in support of what some of the signs and posters read:

- I am Joe, don't tax me bro!

- Is this the change you voted for?

- Congress represents me, I must be corrupt!

- I'll pay for my house you pay for yours!

- Hey Obama, my GM truck needs an oil change!

- Looked like a bow to me...!

- Honk 4 Freedom!

- You work for us. We say: Stop the insanity. No more spending!

- Otrauma!

- You can't borrow your way out of debt!

- Got a Birth Certificate?

- Born free, taxed to death!

- Overtaxed already!

- Honk for Capitalism!

- R's sold us out just like the D's!

And my favorite one was the poster outlining two people standing up, one holding a bag of money in his right hand, and the other man pointing a gun to the first man's head with his right hand and his left hand asking for the bag of money, and underneath both in capital letters read SOCIALISM.

It never fails, at least five different people in their cars flipped us off (so much for "peaceful" and "tolerant" Obama supporters), even though giving somebody the "middle finger" could motivate anger and retaliation I didn't see anyone in the crowd "flipping them off" back, instead we all booed them, asked how they could still like him, shook our heads and laughed.

People from all different ages and social and economic backgrounds came out in protest of excessive taxation that is not fixing any of the problems our country is facing right now (and for years and generations to come), grandmas and grandpas, latinos, blacks, asians and caucasians, teenagers in their skateboards. We saw the working trucks with ladders or landscaping equipment, the luxurious Porsches, BMW's and Lexus', the old sedans, the SUV's and even the hybrid ones (Now you know liberals are not the only ones who buy Prius and the like).

A homeless man walked by on the sidewalk pushing that shopping cart full of bags and things, I looked at his exposed clean legs and I thought of the many posibilities, maybe he just came out of a shelter, or perhaps he was an undercover agent (yes, I know, I watch too many movies... but they're funny!).

When's the next Anti-tax protest? I'M GOING!!!

Angelina Gervasio is a seventh-grader at Redwood Middle School in Napa. She writes a blog at NapaValleyRegister.com on a variety of subjects ... when her mom says she is caught up on homework.

Napa Valley Register Copyright © 2009