Thank you Trish, and the tea party committee for inviting me to speak today.

I am glad to see so many people here today.  I am especially impressed to see all the young people that are here.  I have spoken to many of them and I am amazed at the depth of their knowledge and I am encouraged by their passion for sound government.

The first tea party was to show the tyrannical king of England that we did not like being taxed so heavily and being represented so lightly.  We all remember from school, ‘No taxation without representation.’  Please, we advocate only peaceful and lawful protest.

Today’s tea party is not that much different from the first one.    Washington is not listening us.  Washington ignores us.  Washington does not fear us.  Today, we want to send Washington a message:  We are Fed Up and we are not going to take it anymore. 

Our forefathers gave us a Republic form of government.  That means Rule by Law.  Not rule by tyrants in Washington!  Our forefathers gave us the Constitution as our law.  We are a Constitutional Republic. 

The Constitution does not give Washington the power to do what ever they please.  The Constitution limits the Federal government.  The Constitution protects our God given Rights from an abusive government.  The Constitution holds the government in check and prevents the majority (acting through their government) from violating the Rights of the individual.

The Constitution states exactly what the government is allowed to do, and friends, it is not that many things.  The legislative branch, congress, has 20 things listed that they are allowed to do.  That’s right, 20.  The executive branch, the president, has 6 things listed that he is allowed to do.  And there are 14 things listed for the Courts to do.  All of these are listed explicitly.  Why is our federal government so large?  Also listed are things the Federal Government is not allowed to do.  There are the first 10 amendments, known as the Bill of Rights, which most of them start with “the congress SHALL NOT”, “the congress SHALL NOT’,  all the way to the that wonderful 10^th amendment, which says “if we forgot anything, then you can’t do that either”. 

Our leaders in Washington swore an oath to follow the Constitution.  Does anyone here believe they are keeping that oath?  Our country is  11  TRILLION dollars in debt.  Yet our Congressmen are giving Billions away in foreign aid.  Is taxing you, the public, in order to send your tax money to other countries in the Constitution?    We are 11 Trillion dollars in debt.  Yet our Congressmen are giving Billions away to private banks and private industry.  Is that in the Constitution? 

We have a department of Education.  Is the education system today working well?  Is government, excuse me, public education listed in the constitution?   We have a department of Energy, is energy listed in the constitution?  Is transportation, health, housing, or labor listed in the constitution?  People, if Washington would follow the constitution, our government would be 20 percent the current size and only 20 percent the current cost.  Send a message to Washington.  No More unconstitutional spending.  No more unconstitutional micro managing of our very lives. No more deprivation of our Liberties.

Washington thinks that if they are not prohibited, then they can do anything.  We have been asleep and elected a bunch of self serving politicians.  Thomas Jefferson said, "bind men down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution."   

We, here today, are here, to remind Washington that They have it Backwards. 

They work For Us, not Us for them.  They are to Protect, not provide.

This tea party today is to let Washington know that we are Not asleep.  Law Breakers, I mean Law Makers, You are here by put on Notice.  We are Watching you. We may have been asleep when we elected you, but your self-serving inability to follow your oath to these United States of America, and to the Constitution, has awakened the sleeping giant.  And we are mad.

But, in fairness, should we place all the blame on Washington?  We elected them?  Let me ask you, Just what is the problem in our great nation?  What is wrong in America today?

Our national problem is ignorance.

Ignorance is desired, created, and sustained by those we have trusted. 

Friends, freedom cannot survive in a Nation of Ignorance.  But we here know that a majority of our citizens, us, will act responsibly and vote intelligently when we are correctly informed. 

We must build understanding and increase awareness among the American  people.

Informed and alerted citizens must be organized and activated as

quickly as they can be found and taught.

An active and informed electorate would first bear down on the U.S. House of Representatives, where many of these unconstitutional programs can be stopped, mainly by cutting off the funding for them. By the same means, other unconstitutional and harmful legislation can be blocked, and the disastrous course of our nation can be reversed.

The next objective of an informed electorate would be the U.S. Senate, to restore its role as legislative check on the House.

A constitutionally correct House and Senate would then strip the Court and the executive branch of the unauthorized powers they have assumed.

My fellow Americans, we are at war.  The battle is between individualism and collectivism. 

The individualist believes that the rights of the individual must not be destroyed by the desires of the collective or the group.

Collectivists believe that the group is more important than the individuals that belong to it, and the individual must be sacrificed, if necessary, for the greater good of the greater number.

The individualist believes that with Rights, come responsibility and since we insist on individual rights, therefore we except the principle of individual responsibility, rather than group responsibility.  We believe that every person has a responsibility to provided first for themselves, next for their family, and then for those outside their family who may be in need. 

The collectivist on the other hand says that the individual is Not personally responsible for charity or raising their own children or providing for their aging parents or even providing for themselves for that matter.  This is a group function of the state or of government itself.

The Individualist wants to be free to do it himself; the collectivist wants the government to do it for him.  He believes government can solve all problems.  Because government is the One group that can Force everyone to participate.  It has the power of taxation backed by jail or the force of arms.  Friends, collectivism is Legal Plunder.

Individualist believe in Freedom, collectivist believe in compulsion.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we are at war.  The battle is between morality and amorality.

We want integrity in government.  We want honesty in the market place.  We want social harmony.  These things must be based on morality, they can not be legislated into existence. 

True morality is not possible without a firm religious base.  True morality is doing what is right just because it is right, and for no other reason.

Religion is indispensable for a nation’s morality and for liberty.

Thomas Jefferson also said, "Resistance To Tyranny Is Obedience To God.”

Let this tea party today, here in Somerville, Fayette county Tennessee, mark the beginning, the beginning of Less Government, More Responsibility, and with God’s Help, a better World.

Thank you