The Herald, Sharon, Pa.

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July 4, 2009

TEA’d off citizens turn out

Courthouse crowd decries government spending, proposals

By Tom Davidson

MERCER COUNTY AREA — The times are still a-changing.

For some folks in this corner of America, the changes aren’t welcome.

“Our government’s going down the drain,” Harriett Pascarella of Pulaski said, sitting on the courthouse lawn in Mercer.

“People better wake up. One of these days, they’re going to wake up in a socialist country,” Dee Miller of Hermitage said, sitting next to Ms. Pascarella. Both hung tea bags from their hats.

They were among several hundred disgruntled Mercer Countians, who came together — as did countless others across the nation — on Independence Day to protest the direction of the country. Billed as a “Taxed Enough Already” party that’s part of a national uproar over the government’s bailout of the financial and then automotive industries, the local protest was sponsored by the Mercer County Christian Coalition — an organization that coalition President Vivien Moon emphasized is non-partisan.

Previous TEA parties across the country were staged April 15, tax day.

The east lawn of the courthouse was packed with people — many of them senior citizens — who waved flags and signs protesting the direction of the country since Democratic President Barack Obama set up shop in January after eight years of Republican rule under George W. Bush.

The sounds of Mercer singer Chuck Thorpe singing Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land” and other folk songs carried above car engines and occasional firecracker bangs. People carried lawn chairs and protest signs.

Among them, “If it sounds like Marx and acts like Stalin, it’s probably Obama,” “Keep State’s Rights, No Fed Socialism,” and “Hands Off My Health Care.”

Outrage over Obama’s policies motivated Laurie Lindey of Mercer to protest, she said. Sharpsville resident and health care worker Brenda Griffin said she’s worried about Obama’s proposed health care reforms.

Ms. Pascarella said her husband fought in Korea and two sons in Vietnam for freedom, “and now we’re going to have to fight to have freedom in our own country.”

Many in the crowd sported red, white and blue clothing and the patriotic theme continued when the national anthem was sung and the pledge of allegiance given. “Under God” was emphasized by many in the crowd when the pledge was said.

“We are one nation under God. We do not say God damn America, we say God bless America,” the Rev. William Schafer said in the invocation. The pastor of Dewey Avenue Holiness Church, New Castle, referred to a statement made by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright that received much media coverage last year during the presidential campaign.

“Stand up for justice,” he implored.

Conservative Pittsburgh-based radio talk show host Jerry Bowyer spoke. He read portions of the Constitution and decried politicians, saying that many of them were out of touch.

“When I hear a politician say workin’ people, I flinch” Bowyer said.

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