‘Tea party’ protest group gathers in Monroe
Published 10:51 pm Friday, March 13, 2009
MONROE — For the first time in Gloria Pidgeon’s 83 years, the Monroe piano teacher protested Friday.
She sat on her walker at the corner of U.S. 2 and Lewis Street and perched this sign on her lap: “Let failures fail.”
The Monroe woman’s sign is referring to personal responsibility, something she feels is lacking in contemporary society. Pidgeon’s widowed mother raised her and seven other children during the Depression. She doesn’t approve of government bank bailouts, wasteful spending or an erosion of family values.
“I really love this country,” she said. “I don’t like D.C. and what’s happening to it.”
She joined about 50 other locals for a modern version of the Boston tea party. Most drivers honked, waved and gave the thumbs-up sign. Some rolled down their windows and shouted their approval.
The “tea party” protestors want more responsibility from elected officials, said Julie Martinoli, a Monroe businesswoman who organized the tea party. They also want leaders to stop out-of-control spending, too-high taxes and bailouts, she said.
She was moved to action after hearing about a wave of tea parties protesting “Obama-era spending” across the U.S.
Those tea parties got their start after CNBC analyst Rick Santelli called for a new Boston tea party from the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on Feb. 19. He was responding to President Barack Obama’s proposed $275 billion deficit-financed homeowner bailout plan and other spending measures.
The two-hour tea party drew people from both political parties to stand along the sidewalks during the evening rush hour, people including Veronica Rood of Monroe. She hadn’t held a protest sign since high school but she came because she was fed up with the way her leaders were spending taxpayers’ money.
She already tried contacting U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee. The only return message she received was an e-mail telling her his inbox was full.
“You can tell your Congressman what you think, but they’re not listening,” she said.
She finds it particularly irksome that many elected leaders don’t seem to read the legislation they’re signing. The bills they are signing are stuffed with pork-barrel spending, she said.
Pete Espinoza, a grass-roots Republican organizer from Arlington, said government spending in the last several months has gotten people’s attention — and not just people from the right.
“It’s a bipartisan thing,” he said. “A lot of people are not happy. They’re pretty much fed up with where the money is going.”
Debra Smith: 425-339-3197, dsmith@heraldnet.com.
