Third Annual Dixon TEA Party Seeks ‘Liberty Lovers’

TEA Party press release

Feel like screaming when you read another article about wasteful government spending or increased taxes? Become part of the chorus and enjoy some refreshments at Dixon’s 3rd Annual Independence Day TEA Party, July 2, 10:30 a.m., to noon at the Women’s Improvement Club Park, corner of North First and C Streets in downtown Dixon along Highway 113.

Several speakers have been invited this year, most notably including Young Americans for Liberty Southwest Regional Coordinator Adam Weinberg and former San Francisco congressional candidate John Dennis among others.

“Bring your protest signs that spout your pet peeve with government out-of-control spending, bailouts, burdensome bureaucracy, wasteful welfare, inefficient subsidies or deceptive Federal Reserve,” said Devon Minnema, President of the Young Americans for Liberty of Dixon High School.

“The TEA—Taxed Enough Already-- Party movement is really the ‘Liberty’ movement,” he said. “It is more than a random group of ideas that may appear cohesive. It is about the sovereignty of the individual—a philosophy embraced by our founding fathers and the philosophers who inspired them to write the Constitution.”

Minnema has unabashed fervor for the Constitution and was the only attendee at Dixon’s first TEA Party—a factor that gained him local and national attention with a photo that went viral of him on a major intersection of Highway 113 holding a large sign stating that he was “13-years-old and trillions in debt.” He has since appeared on national television and recently spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference, the nation’s premier event for tea partiers, conservatives, and libertarians alike in Arlington, Virginia.

Minnema organized the YAL chapter on his campus during his freshman year and the DHS club held numerous activities including a film showing of the documentary, “Why We Fight;” held a “Constitution Day” event, and hosted a forum titled “Are We Re-building the Wall,” concerning moves by the American government in relevance to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Most recently, they constructed a massive debt clock to display to students the burden of national debt being passed on to them.

“The date is purposely set close if not on America’s Independence Day because many of the same conditions in the country are what existed in the time of the original Boston Tea Party in Boston, Massachusetts on December 16, 1773,” YAL@DHS member Jacob Rubow explained.

“Protestors back then destroyed the tea rather than concede to the authority of a legislature in which they were not directly represented,” Minnema added. “Then, it was tea; now it is our way of living. Taxes are being raised because of the government’s inability to use our tax dollars wisely.”

Refreshments will be available during the event but after the speakers, attendees will be given ‘TEA Party Dining Discounts’ to downtown Dixon restaurants. For more information, there is a Facebook event page or go to www.yaliberty.org. To donate or volunteer at this event, contact Minnema at (530) 848-3786.