Earlier this year, when “Tea Party” events began to pop up across the country, I was particularly interested to see how the “Tea Party” movement emerging in the population-center closest to where I live (Portland, OR) would do. Considering how challenging this very Blue local political environment has been for me, I knew that the Portland Tea Party would be in for more of an “uphill battle” than other “Tea Party” groups in more welcoming communities.

Considering this “uphill battle”, I was particularly interested in getting acquainted with the central figure in the Portland Tea Party movement, a young man named Geoffrey Ludt. Since I hoped to get involved in the “Tea Party” movement myself, I thought it was likely that I’d get to meet Geoff at a Portland Tea Party event. However, other developments in my life made the timing bad for this. Just as the “Tea Party” movement was beginning to get some traction, I took on a new job. In addition to markedly reducing my frequency of blog posts, that has made getting involved in any new “extracurricular activities” out of the question. In spite of this, amazingly (I say tongue-in-cheek), the Portland Tea Party movement seems to be succeeding without me. So, instead of continuing to wait for circumstances to bring us together, I reached out to Geoff and we got to spend some time together recently. That meeting gave me some encouraging insights that I want to share.

PERSONAL

First, I think it’s only fair to let you know that I came away from my first meeting with Geoff as a fan. It’s not uncommon for Baby-Boomers like me to have concerns about “the younger generation” and how that bodes for “the future of our country”. Well, Geoff is from the generation of Baby-Boomer children (Echo Boomers) and he has life’s priorities in order in a way that I wish I’d had sense enough for at his age. Included in this is the fact that Faith and Family are paramount for Geoff. If you check my Twitter Bio, you’ll find that those are my top priorities too. With this in mind, I’m sure you can understand that I came away from our meeting not just thinking “he’s my kinda guy” but “I’d be proud to have a Son like that”. And, of course, I found that to be personally encouraging.

THE GREATER “UPHILL BATTLE”

My primary goals in meeting with Geoff were to get better acquainted with him and the Portland Tea Party. Of course, the “getting acquainted” process is a two-way street so, early on in our conversation, Geoff was hearing my points of view as much, if not more, than I was hearing his. In what is probably another typical Conservative Baby-Boomer rant, I expressed my sadness over the present state of our nation and the direction its being taken. Of course, I let Geoff know that this is why I have such great appreciation for efforts like the Portland Tea Party. But, I added to that thought my discouragement, that things may have already gone too far for us to ever recover. With that, I was prepared to move on to another subject but Geoff stopped me. He said, “Don’t be discouraged. Remember, we are at the beginning of a reform movement.” Maybe you had to be there to appreciate it but I have to tell you; that sensitivity, that wisdom and that optimism lifted my heart in a way that was most welcome.

GOALS

Once we had a good start on getting acquainted, I shifted my attention to learn more about the Portland Tea Party. To set the stage for that, I asked about the organization’s goals … what they are now and how that differs from what they were at the outset. Geoff’s response was that the organizations goals remain the same as they were at the beginning. These are:

•  To speak out about governmental irresponsibility.
• To inspire others to stand up and voice their opinions on this. 

MEASURABLE SUCCESS

It struck me that gauging success might be difficult, with those sort of goals. On the contrary, Geoff was able to point to:

•  Portland Tea Party’s first event was on February 27, 2009. Geoff started out on his own with this one, tying into the nationwide Tea Party movement, protesting the massive amount of government spending that was being advocated by the Obama administration. Based on the guidelines of the national organization, Geoff thought he was pretty much on target in expecting most of the 30 people who had signed up to show up for the march from Portland’s Pioneer Square to the waterfront park on the Willamette. Over 100 people showed up to join Geoff in that march.
   
• Next, was Portland Tea Party’s participation in the Nationwide Tax Day Tea Party, on April 15, 2009. By this time, Geoff was no longer a one-man-band and the group was expecting a turnout of around 600. According to one local TV station, the crowd that showed up was estimated to be between 5,000 and 7,000. Although that is impressive on its own, it’s at least equally notable that 22 other related events took place on that day, throughout Oregon, in part due to the inspiration of the Portland Tea Party. Likewise, the Portland Tea Party served as a source of inspiration for the many National Tax Day events held across the Columbia River from Portland, in Washington State, where I live.
   
• Although the two events, detailed above, demonstrate measurable success in “speaking out” and “inspiring others” to do so, the Portland Tea Party’s greatest achievement so far may be in “enabling others to speak out”. I believe that being smarter with social networking and especially in leveraging new media is a key to the Conservative cause regaining its place in U.S. politics. The example, noted above, of the Portland Tea Party’s single event on February 27^th blossoming to inspire dozens of events in Oregon and Washington on April 15^th, is a great example of this. Additionally, Portland Tea Party has connected with other significant groups and individuals including: Local (KPAM) Talk Radio Host, Victoria Taft; Top Conservatives on Twitter; Smart Girl Politics; American Liberty Alliance; The 912 Project and the most recent protest over journalistic sellout at Portland’s ABC TV affiliate, KATU. In this last case, the Portland Tea Party teamed with Tom Cox, the organizer for that event, to succeed in getting KATU to broadcast a non-partisan panel discussion following what many thought of as ABC’s day-long “Obamacare” infomercial.

CONTINUING THE “UPHILL BATTLE”

Next up is Portland Tea Party’s July 4^th Rally and Parade in Hillsboro, OR. No doubt, this will be another successful event. I was particularly pleased to learn that it will incorporate an element aimed at encouraging those “yearning to be free” in Iran, to not lose heart. However, in winding down our visit, I wanted to focus more on practical advice for individuals who want to get involved, especially those who (like me) have been frustrated in doing so due to some lack of resources (in my case, time). Here again, I found Geoff’s response both wise and inspiring. He said,

•  “Now is the time to get involved. The campaign season of 2010 will soon be upon us. Everyone has to deal with limited resources, in one way or another. However, if you get involved in whatever way you can now, no matter how small it may seem, you’ll have more time to develop your ability to contribute and learn how to better leverage your contribution.”
   
• “Generally speaking, those who want to get involved want to do so because they long for restoring a government that is truly Representative – i.e. A government that serves us and not the other way around. The key to successfully getting involved is for those who want to get involved to move from an attitude of ‘I should …” to an attitude of ‘I am …’.”

For me, one of the best illustrations of Geoff’s last point is Geoff himself. He recognized that he was accomplishing nothing by going around thinking “I should do something about the irresponsible way our government is conducting itself with all this outlandish spending.” So, he changed his attitude to one that moved from “I am tweeting about this” to “I am starting a local group to speak out about this” to “I am an integral part of an organization that is impacting this locally, regionally and nationally.”

I’m blessed to be getting to know Geoff and I’m certainly inspired. For me, it will mean continuing to struggle to find time for blogging when I can and looking for more ways to leverage that. And, even if I’m just one face in a crowd, to show up in support of more events.

So what about you? How will you respond to Geoff’s challenge to move from an attitude of “I should …” to an attitude of “I am …”? Of course, I can’t answer that for you but, with Geoff, I want to encourage you to do so now. To me, it’s terribly sad to imagine waking up the morning after the elections of 2010, learning the result is not what I’d hoped for and thinking “I should have …”. So, let’s don’t let that happen. As we honor Independence Day this year, lets move to an attitude of “I am …” and in doing so help assure that we will continue to be able to celebrate many more Independence Days to come.