Cleveland Tax Day Tea Party Making a Splash

I would like to thank Mr. Wanger of the PD for writing about the Cleveland Tea Party that will be held on 4/15/09 at Mall C from 4-6pm, but I feel some clarification of our conversation and the event is required.

The Cleveland Tax Day Tea Party is part of the nationwide Tax Day Tea Parties. The American Family Association has joined the Nationwide Tax Day Tea Party event, naming theirs “Taxed Enough Already.”

As explained to Mr. Wanger, the Tea Party protests are against wasteful spending at the federal level and taxes being placed upon, or that will be placed upon citizens – BECAUSE of the absolutely ridiculous spending we have recently seen. The Tea Party event is NOT being held because of local taxes, but because of outlandish, uncontrollable and wasteful spending at the federal & state levels that will ultimately be paid for with our taxes, be it federal, state or local.

I am confident many of our local Mayors could find a laundry list of a lot better things to do in their communities with the millions, billions & trillions being spent on protecting field mice, studying grape genetics or bailing out irresponsible businesses.

Furthermore, the people working together on the Cleveland Tax Day Tea Party Protest are not part of or affiliated with any group. We are a group of citizens wishing to exercise our right to free speech as part of a nationwide movement. It was stressed numerous times that this event is a non-partisan event and, even though I am in the RPCC, and while they are aware of and support the event, they are not involved in the planning and/or staging of the event.

Some of the lefty bloggers have correctly pointed out that I am a member of the Republican Party of Cuyahoga County. But they somehow missed that I am not above, be it locally, statewide or national, challenging our party leaders, poor candidates or feeble thoughts. A quick review of this blog will verify that.

You can pretty much say - I am not at the top of their Christmas card list and they would not shed a tear - if I was no longer involved. In fact, I'd best most would encourage it!

The location of Mall C was chosen first and foremost because of the available space. Originally planned for Public Square, due to the expected crowd we changed the location to minimize any negative impact it would cause on rush hour & pedestrian traffic. And yes, as pointed out in the article – Mall C will most likely be the location of the proposed MedMart, which will be funded by a sales tax forced on consumers in Cuyahoga County. But, it was repeatedly stressed numerous times throughout the conversation with Mr. Wanger, that this non-partisan event is being staged by private citizens – again, as a platform against WASTEFUL SPENDING.

Lastly, but surely not the least important, it was stressed that we were in the process of dealing with the City of Cleveland regarding the usage permit. That at this point in time we have requested that Mayor Jackson waive the $500 fee as a way of showing support for this event against wasteful spending. We are expecting to hear back from the City of Cleveland today on if they will allow us to pay the $100 fee or if they will forcefully impose a $500 fee on private citizens wanting to use public property.

I also requested that Mr. Wanger please note that the City of Cleveland (Special Events Dept.) has been highly professional, very friendly and more than accommodating in helping us private citizens wade through this process.

In closing, while we are again thankful for Mr. Wanger’s article, we would be remiss in not making the above clarifications and allowing this event to be portrayed as an event against Cleveland.