By Katie Black

Sorry the article you are about to read has nothing to do with actual drinkable tea, though I do love a nice glass of sweet tea and on occasion, green tea. Oops…better get back on track. Everyone who filed taxes and even those naughty ones who didn’t know that April 15th is the dreaded (I emphasize dreaded) TAX DAY! So, try to stay with me. What does delicious tea and not so delicious or edible tax day have to do with each other? Well I never pass up the chance to go back through history.

Let’s pick the date December 16, 1773. To those of you who are not smarter than a fifth grader this was the day of the Boston Tea Party. Again what is the correlation between tax and tea? Don’t worry I will brush up your history. Back in the days of the New World, America was colonized and controlled by the British. No big deal except the British got the bright idea to pass an act in 1721 that said, and I will summarize, colonist can’t buy tea from anywhere else but Britain. Yes the British allowed the East India Trading Company to become a monopoly on tea and many other goods, our focus is tea though. To make a long story short, in 1773 the King passed a Tea Act on the American colonists. Ugh, more money the colonists didn’t have or didn’t want to spend. Well the Tea Act actually reduced the cost of tea but just the tea not other goods. Basically ridiculous amounts of taxes were being forced on the colonists because it was thought they wouldn’t do anything about it and because Britain had accumulated a bulky amount of debt, and who better to push it off on then the people across the sea. Well the monarchy was wrong. The colonist did do something. On December 16th men boarded three British ships and threw the tea overboard into the Boston Harbor, sending the message “no taxation without representation”. The Boston Tea Party along with other events led to the Revolutionary War and American freedom.

History aside, the question now is what is the point of this article?!? On April 15th 2009 “tea parties” were held all across the United States supporting smaller government, supporting free markets, taking on fiscal responsibility, and respecting the constitution. I along with Jack, Patti, and Pete Berbach attended the Tea Party in Dayton. Some of you I know are rolling your eyes saying, “This is another political event”. I want to inform you that it is a political event but it is not held by a parties or politicians. It is held by the people, republican, democrat, independent, libertarian or whatever you call yourself. For once there were no party lines, just people upset with the stimulus package, hard working citizens paying tax dollars for individuals who don’t work at all, supporters of the fair tax, and so many other issues. It was a respectable protest of our government today bailing out car companies, banks, etc, increasing our taxes when the government should not be involved in any of the companies. Our country is founded on capitalism, small government, and an open market. Strangling us with a tax rope will not help the economy, and most important it will not help the citizens. Like the Boston Tea Party we want “no taxation without representation”. Spending trillions of dollars might help in the short-run but what happens in the long-run? I guess it will be another Presidents problem, another Congress’s issue, but it certainly will stick with us working class citizens for generations.

If you are interested in who spoke, what issues were discussed, or just curious you can visit www.daytonohioteaparty.com.