Tea Partiers Get the Party Started in Potter County

Tea Party Wishes to Create a Potter County Chapter

By Tim Hallman

The Elk and McKean County Tea Party, together with a Tea Party representative from Cattaraugus County, visited Coudersport today at the Courthouse Square. The turnout was quite large, filling most of the lawn surrounding the Courthouse Square gazebo, with approximately 150-250 people in attendance. Most brought beverages and lawn chairs for the event.

The meeting began with a Prayer and the Pledge of Alliance.

On the agenda was a new Tea Party chapter for Potter County, which currently does not have one. While some assumed that Lou Karija (credited with bringing the Tea Party to Coudersport) would undertake the leadership role for the Potter County chapter, he said he had too much on his plate for such an endeavor. He did however say that he would be a part of such a movement, and would offer whatever support he could.

The meeting was mostly aimed towards creating a new Potter County Tea Party, but speakers also touched on topics important to the Tea Party movement, such as the ever increasing grip of government control, the loss of personal freedom, and how the government is squandering our money and our children’s money each day. They stressed the importance of individual involvement and encouraged the audience to remain active, motivated, and involved in politics.

The crowd applauded several times, and stood to a standing ovation when one speaker said, “if there is anyone here who is mad as Hell at what has been done to our Constitution, then the Tea Party movement is for you”. He went on to say, “Our Country is at a fork in the road. We’re either going to go the Socialism route, or we’re going to go back to following the Constitution”.

Another speaker said it is devastating what is happening to our Country right now, and that the upcoming elections are the most important in history. He urged everyone to contact their Representatives, Congressmen, and Senators and express their views and opinions.  He said, “you’ve gotta stay motivated, you’ve got to call your Congressmen, your Senators. They work for you, you don’t work for them. So, if there is something they are doing that you don’t like, get on the phone”.

Speaker Blaise Dornisch addressed the many stereotypes given to the Tea Party by “the Media”, and told the audience it is sometimes difficult in the face of such adversity. He said this about the verbal attacks on the Tea Party Movement, “…Entitlements and other favors to the Entitlement’s Seekers, Multinational Banks, Insurance Companies, Industrialists, Big Union and the majority of News Outlets began an immediate effort to discredit [the Tea Party]. This movement – sincere, authentic and motivated would not be deterred”. He went on to say that despite such adversity the Tea Party has flourished, and continues to grow rapidly today.

The meeting finished with the speakers asking the crowd for questions. One gentleman asked if the Tea Party would ever attack or stifle someone asking a question, in a joking reference to the recent assault on a student news reporter by a Congressman, as seen in the video below.

For more information about the Elk County Tea Party visit elkcoteaparty.org, and for the National Tea Party, visit teapartypatriots.org.