I talked to many people in the crowd -- and heard a recurring theme in the comments -- "I never dreamed something like this could ever happen in Santa Fe." I guess when the people get stirred up enough over major changes in our government that they don't like -- anything can happen!
The tea party was peaceful, the crowd was enthusiastic but friendly and respectful. Seemed to me that everyone was there just to get their message out. We had made dozens of signs in the past two weeks at our sign parties and at home, but I was suprised at how many people brought their own signs...creative and colorful ones. I was also surprised at the number of people who took the time to dress up in costumes; it made the event all the more colorful and fun.
There were several speakers: former Governor Gary Johnson, whom the crowd obviously loved, former state senator John Grubesic, whom the crowd did not love and who was roundly booed, and General Greg Zanetti, a member of the New Mexico National Guard who is hinting at a run for governor in 2010. He gave an inspirational speech calling us to action for the future.
We anticipated protestors and if they were in the crowd, they kept a low profile, but a number of vehicles drove around the Plaza honking their horns and somewhat drowning out the speeches, so I am assuming they were people who planned to do just that.
Here are some of our pictures and they tell their own story (click on the pictures to enlarge):
3 comments:
Nice pics, Sharon. Thanks for sharing. It looks to me like the greatest percentage of people attending were over 50, the pics of the children aside. Maybe that's because the younger people had jobs to go to... I read comments to that effect at Lex's place this morning.
Still and even, I think the turn-out was respectable, especially considering the political climate in Santa Fe.
Well, they purposely scheduled our tea party from 5:00 - 6:30 p.m. so that people with jobs could go after work. I think there was a nice mix of age groups. I still have about 20 more pictures to post when I get to it. Buck, it was SO MUCH FUN!!!!
I was one of the under-50 crowd, and wasn't the only one by a long shot.
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