A little follow up…



On Oct 17th, following the TEA Party, one of our speakers, Sue Jeffers, discussed the event on her program. Listen here.


Then, this past weekend, I was asked to speak on her program about the TEA Party and my letter to Commie Channel 5 (of which, I've still recieved no reply...). You can listen here.


Give a listen if you’d like.


Thanks!

Oct 17 OC TEA Party

Ok, so yesterday was the much anticipated OC TEA Party in Hudson. We were so excited. We planned so hard. We worked so hard. We were just stoked. Or as my 20 year old sister would say, "jazzed".

We loaded up and left the farm around 8 and headed to a Pancake Breakfast fundraiser at the Hudson Rod, Gun & Archery Club. They’re great friends and supporters.

Then we went to the park to set up. It went well and people began showing up early, with enthusiasm and questions. Did we need help? What time was it all going to start? Etc. We were in a great flow and everything went off without a hitch. Well, we did temporarily pop a breaker and the coffee took a little longer to brew than planned, but no major catastrophies.

The speakers spoke; they were great. We had lots of people coming through our line to sign the guest book. Nearly all with comments of appreciation for the event and thanks for organizing it.

About a quarter of the way into the program, some people started yelling from the top of the hill. They were anti’s who didn’t want us there. They were biligerent and few in number. There were around 600 of attendees at the TEA Party. All of us peaceful and social-able amongst one another. A few attendees moved towards the protesters. We hoped that should this have happened, the protesters would have just been ignored. They just want to start crap; stir up trouble and then spin it against us. Anyhow, only the protesters were yelling. The attendees who moved towards them kept level voices and soon enough, the protesters left. The event proceeded without any other drama.

Pastor David King was one of our speakers. He is quickly becoming one of my favorite people. He is running for Secretary of State in our great state of Wisconsin. He had done some amazing things in his home area of Milwaukee. He said when the police put him in place with their troubled youth in Milwaukee, crimes dropped 75%! Can you believe that! Amazing what God’s work can do. He’s truly a blessing and we were so blessed to have him speak at our event. Check him out, if you would, please at: http://www.milwaukeegodsquad.com/ or find him on Facebook “Apostle David King”.

We had wonderful weather, a wonderful day, met some amazing people, and for that we are blessed.

At the end of the day, while we were cleaning up, a wedding party was passing nearby. One of our honored guests has a tractor painted up in honor of the troops. The wedding party loved it and asked to get some wedding photos taken on it. It was really cute. The bride and groom in the seat and the wedding party around it. It was an awesome end to an amazing day.

Then came this lame report by Channel 5 news from the Twin Cities.

http://kstp.com/news/stories/S1197061.shtml?cat=1

They chose to show none of the wonderful-ness that the day held. It prompted me to send them this email.

To the Channel 5 News Team;

I'd like to start by introducing myself. I'm Mellissa Vircks, the oldest daughter of Dave & Annette Olson, and a co-organizer of the Hudson TEA Party Event that took place on Saturday, Oct 17, 2009. We worked very hard to prepare for that event and make it a safe, informative event for all those who chose to attend.

I'm very upset by the way you chose to depict the event. There were so many positive things that took place that day, and you chose to focus on the one and only brief negative portion.

We had many soldiers in attendance, on their own free will, one of whom I noticed won a Purple Heart. You interviewed him. However, you didn't thank him for his service that protects your ability to broadcast your slander like you did. What you did instead, was showed people making statements saying that events like these "spew more hate". The few protesters (versus the nearly 600 TEA Party attendees) were the only ones yelling and being angry. Yet, we are continuously labeled as angry hate mongers. If you'd have captured the rest of the crowd, you would have seen a positive, cohesive group, who were united to try to work together to create a better country for our future. A better future for the children of ours that were present. But you didn't show them either.

You interviewed my dad for close to a half an hour. Yet, none of his passion for why we organized this second event made it on your broadcast, either.

You came over to the table where we were selling items and asked to see the information about where the proceeds go. In case you forgot, which I'd hope you didn't, since you filmed it, the group we send donations to and work with is called Soldier's Angels (http://www.soldiersangels.org/) They are an amazing group who do so much for our troops. But you didn't show any of that either.

You didn't comment on any of the wonderful speakers, who donated their time gladly, to speak to the group and help educate.

You didn't show the laws we had posted in the center of the group, that was also to help educate people, and help dispel fears about firearms.

You could have told your viewers, though, about all of their legislators and representatives who were invited, but either ignored us all together, blew us off, or backed out later. They obviously don't care about their constituents, since they refuse to make public appearances and talk to the people.

I know this email is an exercise in futility, since all you and other media outlets care about is sensationalism. However, I hope that it somehow opens your eyes for the next event you attend. Try to show something positive that is going on around us. There is so much going on, and all the media wants to show is the bad.

If you would like to discuss this matter further, I can be reaced at email.com or by phone at number.

Thanks,
Mellissa Vircks

Hopefully, we'll have more pictures and maybe some video up on the website.  Check the site out if you want:  http://www.donotinfringe.org/.

With that, I think I’m done with this post for now. As usual, I just needed to rant.