What I did not know or anticipate when I started the series was how incredibly huge the Tea Party Movement would become or that it would literally take over every aspect of my life.

The following is not about whether or not you agree with the politics of the Tea Party Movement but more about what I have been doing the past 8 weeks in relation to the Tea Party Movement. When I was on the first nationwide conference call for the Tea Party Movement on February 20th, there were about 22 of us on the call. When we hung up we thought there would be 5 or 6 Tea Parties across the nation the following Friday. Instead there were 48. In that one week, I put in many hours and had a conference call every single night.

Since then in the second wave of Tea Parties, there are now over 700 Tea Parties planned nationwide for today. I have continued to be involved at both a national level and here in Atlanta. The movement has taken over every single aspect of my life. I am working on it literally 18 – 20 hours a day. Over the last 3 weeks, I can think of 3 nights when I have had over 6 hours of sleep. Most nights I am going to bed around 2 – 3 in the morning. There have been conference calls that stretch into the wee hours of the morning. Even with all the work that has been involved in volunteering for this movement, it has been a joy to do.

The Atlanta Tea Party is the biggest event I have ever managed. I am so lucky and blessed to have 3 other women Co-Coordinating the event with me. I am also lucky and blessed to have an even larger volunteer team who has stepped up to help out and been able to run with their expertise and experience to make the event a success.

I am learning so much from this experience. I am making so many new contacts, acquaintances, and friends. The use of tools to make these connections possible is incredible. We have used social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and others), blogging, Skpe, and conference calls. The ability to keep costs low and plan a nationwide event on a shoestring budgets is amazing. When this wave of Tea Parties is over today, I am really going to have to sit down and think about the things I have learned and how they can be applied to other parts of my life and to business life.

My brief tweets updating what I am doing that are pushed both here and to Facebook have given me the opportunity to reconnect with friends from earlier parts of my life (high school and even elementary school) in a way that I never would have before. Several of my friends from high school who I literally have not talked to in over 16 years have sent me the kindest messages on Facebook and through my cell phone. I know without a doubt that some of them do not even agree with my politics but they have still been supportive of my efforts as friends.

I have had experiences that I never imagined I would have. I have been interviewed on live tv, live internet tv, and live radio. Yesterday I was on the Montel Williams radio show on Air America. Air America?!! Going in I knew it was going to be a tough interview and it was. But I learned so much from it. The opportunities and experiences are incredible.

I do intend to finish posting my Surviving the Lien Years series. I plan and hope to begin that again next week. It is a series that I have internalized for months and have worked hard to put all my thoughts down on paper. Those thoughts deserve to be proofed and edited appropriately and not rushed. Thank you for bearing with me and putting up with my slack blogging habits. Obviously, as I continue to be involved in the Tea Party movement, I am going to have to develop a better plan of action to keep my blog up to date and to keep up with my fellow bloggers who I have come to consider my online friends.

If you have heard about the Tea Party Movement and have any thoughts on it, feel free to leave them here. I cannot promise that I will reply to them in the next few days but I will read all of them. Feel free to leave comments saying you do not like what the movement stand for as well. As long as the comments are polite and family friends (as is the theme of this blog), then they will remain posted here.

Have a great day! All my regular readers, thank you for putting up with my slack blog habits over the last few weeks!!

By Ashley Fuller
afuller@cherokeetribune.com

A Towne Lake woman is part of a national movement to use a “Tea Party” to once again protest taxes levied on Americans.

Jenny Beth Martin is the assistant event coordinator for the Nationwide Tax Day Tea Party movement and co-chairwoman of the Atlanta event planned for April 15, the day income taxes are due. She also is director of congressional outreach for one of the movement’s sponsor organizations, Smart Girl Politics.

The first Tea Party protest, which she also had a hand in planning, occurred in February after CNBC on-air personality Rick Santelli called for a Chicago Tea Party to protest government spending.

“It hit a chord with conservatives,” she said of the idea, which soon became a hot topic through the Twitter social networking service.

Mrs. Martin participated in a conference call to plan the first Tea Party and, within a few business days, tax-protest events were staged in more than 40 cities.

The April Tea Party could grow to 300 cities, Mrs. Martin estimates.

“This has mushroomed in a way we never imagined,” said Mrs. Martin, adding people have been energized by the concept. During the conference call to set up the February event, she said “you could sense people had excitement and passion.”

Her duties for the Atlanta event to be held at the Capitol include communicating details to attendees, securing speakers, arranging sign-making parties, coordinating carpools to the Capitol, publicity and public relations. She also maintains the event Web site at www.atlantateaparty.net.

Her involvement adds up to about 20 to 25 hours a week.

“It is like a part-time job,” she said, adding the cause is worth it. “It is a call for fiscal responsibility.”

She said the message of the Tea Party is intended to be non-partisan, noting while many people involved in the protest are Republicans and Libertarians, Democrats are invited, too.

“It is aimed at everyone in D.C.,” she said.

This month, American Solutions for Winning the Future, a non-partisan organization created by former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, signed on as a sponsor of the Tea Party. Other sponsors include the DontGo Movement (http://dontgo.ning.com) and Top Conservatives on Twitter (www.topconservativesontwitter.org) as well as conservative columnist Michelle Malkin, radio host Dana Loesch and GOPUSA.

Amy Kremer of Cobb County, event chairwoman for the nationwide Tea Party movement, said people are serious about making their voices heard to elected officials.

“We are tired of the excess spending. It has got to stop,” she said, noting another large Tea Party event for the Fourth of July is in the works.

Mrs. Martin said the event has been helped by social media such as Facebook and Twitter.

“The power these tools have is amazing,” she said. “Five years ago, this would not have been possible to coordinate as rapidly. The tools were not there to do it.”

Thanks again to everyone who joined us for the Atlanta Tea Party to send the message to the liberals in the US House, the US Senate, and the White House that if they fail to repeal the “stimulus” bill then we will retire them in the next elections.

Several notable Georgia politicians and public figures spoke at the Atlanta Tea Party and were well received by the crowd which was fired up and in good spirits despite the cold, cold rain. At the bottom of this post are links to videos and photos from the event, and I’ll add more as they become available.

One of the speakers was Eric VonHaessler of the Regular Guys from Atlanta radio station Rock 100.5. An Atlanta Tea Party attendee video taped his speech and was kind enough to post it on You Tube. I’ve embedded it here:

I have the sign in sheets from the Atlanta Tea Party event. They are thoroughly soaked from the pouring rain, as was everyone out there, and as soon as they dry out I will scan them in and tabulate the numbers. Because of the pouring rain the clipboards did not get passed around to everyone, so we’re forced to use photos to try to calculate the headcount of the crowd. That’s also difficult because the umbrellas hide the heads! But we gave it our best shot.

With only 7 days from conception to execution, with the usual reluctance of conservatives to attend a public protest, and with the unpleasant weather conditions, a turnout of 500 demonstrators is pretty significant.

RELATED LINKS:
Atlanta Tea Party Various Video Clips
Senator Chip Rogers speaks at the Atlanta Tea Party
TCOT’s Photobucket Album of Nationwide Tea Parties

Moving quickly, Top Conservatives on Twitter , Smart Girl Politics, the #DontGo Movement, Americans for Tax Reform, the Heartland Institute, and American Spectator Magazine joined forces to announce a “Nationwide Chicago Tea Party”, to be held on Friday, February 27 at noon EST.

The tea party will be held simultaneously in Chicago, Washington DC, Atlanta, and dozens of locations around the US, and on Twitter, using the #teaparty hashtag.

Dress in patriotic attire and bring signs, cameras, and camcorders with you! Also, please don’t forget your tea bags and/or tea leaves!

For more information, please go to NationwideChicagoTeaParty.com

For those who are unfamiliar with the case, Adam Walsh was a 6 year old boy in Florida. He was abducted outside of a Sears store in 1981. His mother had left him in front of a the Sears brand Atari video game console while she stepped a couple of aisles away to shop. The kidnapping happened in a matter of just a few short minutes. Later his head was found but never the rest of his body. Until today, the murder was officially unsolved. Today, Florida police closed the case by officially announcing Ottis Toole as the murderer. Toole died in 1996, in prison, where he was serving 5 life sentences for murder unrelated to Adam’s case.

As a child, the story scared me and made me appreciate my mother’s overprotective nature. It also helped me be much more careful when tasked with watching my younger siblings than I might otherwise have been.

The story had an impact on my mother as well. She never let me go into a video arcade without being supervised. In fact, in seventh grade, I won $20 worth of tokens to a local video arcade from my school for helping out with PTA. When I moved from the Atlanta area to Rome going into 9^th grade, I think I still had $19 worth of those coupons left. The Adam Walsh incident bothered my mom so much that she did not want me to go in the arcade very often.

Just so you do not think my mom went off the deep end because of a boy who was abducted hundreds of miles from our home, I should point out that around the same time that Adam Walsh was abducted, the Atlanta Child Murders were happening. Growing up in the metro Atlanta area, I vividly remember the Atlanta Child Murders. Some of the bodies were found near where I lived. I remember hearing the names of roads on the radio telling where bodies were found. These were names of roads I was familiar with. It was not until I was much older that I realized the “Atlanta Child Murders” were really Atlanta Black and Mostly Boy Murders. Race and sex were unimportant to me and were never discussed as a differentiating factor around my home. I just knew I was a child in Atlanta, lived near Memorial Drive, and my friends and I were frightened of it. I sure some of the Atlanta Child Murder hysteria played into my mom’s caution.

I do my very best to balance the fear I have of something awful happening to my children with not totally overreacting and protecting my children from everything in life. As the schools have taught them about stranger danger, we have done our best to explain it without totally freaking them out. The schools have actually freaked them out far more than we have so in that area at least we are reaching our goal.

As an adult, I cannot imagine the agony that his parents suffered. Also, I have so much admiration for John and Reve Walsh. In 1999 or 2000, I attended a conference where John Walsh spoke. His speech was moving. He took what is the worst thing that could ever happen to a parent and turned it into something positive.

Positive does not even begin to describe what he has done. He turned his son’s tragic and horrifying death into a legacy to help prevent others from going through what he went through with education. He invented the use of the “Missing” posters that are used each time someone goes missing in this country. “Missing” posters inspired using the same missing photos and information on milk cartons, in Wal-Marts, on unsolicited mail. He revolutionized the way police handle child abductions. If memory serves me correctly, he went on Good Morning America or the Today Show immediately after being notified that the police thought his son’s head had been found, to still ask for help in solving the crime. His example taught parents how to use the media to help find their missing children. His pursuit of justice helped start the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Schools are more secure today because of John Walsh’s activism. On the 25^th anniversary of his son’s murder, the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, which categorizes sex offenders and established a national database of sex offenders, was signed into law. He has assisted countless families in attaining justice through his television show, America’s Most Wanted.

John Walsh is strength and leadership personified. Occasionally, right before falling asleep at night, I ask my husband how John Walsh and his wife have been able to do what they have done. Then I thank God that John and Reve Walsh were able to turn something so horrific into something so profound.

Tonight, I will be thanking God not only for the Walsh’s strength and leadership example but also that John and Reve Walsh can go to sleep this night knowing that their son’s case was finally solved and the book is closed on it.

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Update 1: Several people have found this post searching for “Adam Walsh Sibling.” According to what I have read, John and Reve Walsh have 3 surviving children, Meghan, Callahan and Hayden, who were born after Adam’s death.

Update 2: John Walsh’s strength, perseverance, and leadership work for me and I decided to make this my Works for Me Wednesday post this week.  I hope his example might inspire others.  To see more Works for Me Wednesday posts, check out the official site. For those who are visiting from WFMW, since Christmas is only a few days away, if you would like to read about Christmas traditions in our home, you may enjoy these links:

• Make Your House Smell Like Christmas
• Extreme Christmas Lights, Part 1
• Christmas Crossword Puzzle for Kids
• Top Christmas Memories of 2007
• Santa Doesn’t Have to Pay for It
• What My Twins Have Taught Me About Selecting Toys
  
• Christmas Eve Dessert