Upwards of 1,000 people came out Saturday to Citizens for Liberty's Independence Day Tea Party in Rapid City.

You never know what you’re going to get for attendance at such an event when it's held on a holiday. Many people, like most of my family, were traveling out of town and didn't get back until late Saturday afternoon.  There were also something like 20,000 people up late the night before at Mount Rushmore for the fireworks, and around the time the Tea Party rally started in Memorial Park, it looked as if it might rain any moment.  Later that day, attendance was also down considerably at the Black Hills Heritage Festival, and at the Rapid City fireworks show that night, I had never seen so few people in attendance.

But plenty of freedom-loving people came out for both the sign-waving and the program.  Like the Tax Day Tea Party, people lined up along 5th Street by Memorial Park and down Omaha Street.  Despite fewer numbers at the event and of cars driving by on the road, it seemed there was even more energy and enthusiasm from both the sign-wavers and from the people driving by, waving and honking their horns.

Citizens for Liberty held a great program at the bandshell.  It started with singing some patriotic songs, then the crowd was introduced to several veterans who had been wounded in combat in service to our country.  Barb Lindberg spoke on the cap and trade global warming tax (people weren’t thrilled about that), and Don Van Etten spoke  about government health care (people didn’t like that, either).

T-shirts, bumper stickers, patriotic books and more were sold out at the table set up by Citizens for Liberty.  People donated generously to the group's efforts to educate and inform about limited government, and their plans to recruit and support limited government candidates.  Also, hundreds signed up for Citizens for Liberty's newsletter, to be alerted to big-government legislation, and to be notified of volunteer opportunities when help is needed.

It was wonderful to be around so many Americans who love their country deeply, respect their Constitution profoundly, and are committed to saving our great nation from the spending and socialist abyss.  These patriots sacrificed from family time to come on their holiday and take a stand for their country and their freedom.  

They also wanted to send a message to the socialists in Washington: America is our country, and we will not allow you to destroy it or our freedoms.

It is not in the nature of conservatives and average Americans to demonstrate and protest.  Most Americans just want to be left alone in the freedom to take care of their families and live as they choose under God.  In other words, they just want to be left alone.

But the threat to that freedom and way of life has become so large and unmistakable from our own government that most patriotic Americans realize they must take a stand before we lose all that we hold dear.

If every patriotic American will take a stand as these courageous people did, we can save our country and Constitution, and drive these socialist usurpers from office.

Let freedom ring!

It's no secret that the public education system in America is in trouble and has been so for some time.

Academic scores are mediocre at best, and in some areas children are graduating while barely being able to read.  More and more, public schools are indoctrinating children with pro-homosexual propaganda and with their secularist approach are teaching children that their religious values are something not relevant to the "real world," something to be ashamed of and kept out of public discourse.  Even much of the time children spend with their peers in class and between classes is toxic, since so many parents couldn't be bothered to instill values and discipline in their children these days.

So it comes as no surprise that the Argus Leader reports homeschooling is on the rise in South Dakota and across the nation.

The number of home-schooled children in the United States almost has doubled in the past decade, according to a new federal government report.

As of spring 2007, an estimated 1.5 million were home-schooled. That's 2.9 percent of all school-age children in the country, up from 1.7 percent in 1999.

The percentage is smaller in South Dakota, where public-school students outnumber the home-schooled 50 to 1. During the 2006-07 school year, the state had 2,484 home-schooled students from kindergarten through 12th grade, up 2,311 from the previous year.

(I think they mean "up from 2,311" in that third paragraph.)

My family has a daughter (11) and a son (6) who have been homeschooled from Day One.  When my daughter took her last standardized test, she scored well ahead of her grade level, coming in at "post high school" in most areas.  My son has been reading for a couple of years and doing arithmetic for more than a year now.  

My children have achieved this academic success on a fraction of what would be spent on them in the public school system.  We also don't have to worry about the values and discipline we work to instill in them being countered at school, and we have better control over the peer groups that influence them.

And while the average income level of homeschool families is rising, it is not necessary to make $50,000 a year or more to homeschool.  Some families in our area homeschool on half that or less.  It is a matter of priorities, and they are willing to sacrifice and forego high-paying jobs in order to make an investment in their children.

It is ultimately the responsibility of parents to ensure their children are properly educated, and also to ensure that their children have adequate moral instruction.  No matter how dedicated the paid educational representative, they will never serve the child's needs with the dedication of a caring parent.

Besides, the charge that "Government officials should have done better" is little consolation if your child is unprepared to find a good job, or so morally bankrupt that their life is an unbroken chain of self-inflicted crises.  

Citizens for Liberty, the group that brought you the Rapid City Tax Day Tea Party, now has their website up and running.

Citizens for Liberty is a group of about 40-50 concerned citizens from Rapid City and other areas in West River South Dakota who recognize the need for our country, state and community to return to the values of limited government and personal responsibility that made us the greatest nation on earth.

While there have been a few steps back in the direction of our foundation in the last 30 years, most of that time has been spent moving farther and farther away from the time-honored and proven values that created a healthy, successful civilization.  We have crept incrementally away from our founding values and toward the values that, ironically, we have seen fail over and over and over again around the world.

The folly of these un-American values began to make itself evident last year as our economy sputtered and major businesses and industries came to a crashing halt.

Unfortunately, rather than follow the free-market model upon which our country was founded, our elected representatives rushed headlong into more of what created the problem in the first place: government meddling in the private sector and irresponsible fiscal policy.

But millions of patriotic citizens across the country have had enough, and on April 15 (Tax Day), hundreds of thousands of them in about 2,000 cities across the country rallied in support of Constitutionally-limited government.

That event sent a loud message to the meddlers and spenders in Washington, but we know the work isn't done and the pressure will have to be sustained if we are to return our beloved country to greatness.

Because we understand this is a long-term effort, the group that organized the Rapid City Tax Day Tea Party have officially adopted the name "Citizens for Liberty," have set up a website to foster communication and education, are moving to incorporate, are preparing to recruit and equip limited-government candidates, and are organizing the next Rapid City Tea Party rally.

The next event will be at Memorial Park (again) on July 4 from 9:00 am to 11:00 am.  Expect a similar format to the last time, but with different speakers.  Don't forget to bring your signs to wave along Omaha Street and 5th Street!

Rapid City will be joining more than 900 other cities with this Independence Day Tea Party, and that number is sure to grow in the month remaining before the rally.

What better day to celebrate and call for a return to the founding values of our nation than on our nation's 233rd birthday!  We're gearing the event so that, despite the day being a "family" holiday, you can take some time to do something truly and profoundly patriotic and still have plenty of time for recreation, cookouts, etc. with your family.

The Black Hills Heritage Festival will also be taking place later that day in Memorial Park, so you might want to just stick around and attend the fantastic annual festival.  My family goes every year to enjoy the musicians, rock climbing, canoeing, information booths and hot dog stands.  Why not make a day of it with the Tea Party, the BH Heritage Festival and then the Rapid City fireworks later that night (I'm assuming they'll be that night)?

For more information, and to keep updated on any new information about the Independence Day Tea Party, check www.sdcitizens.com.  Sign up for newsletters (coming soon) and RSS feeds while you're there and we'll send the new information to you.

Come to the next meeting of Citizens for Liberty in Rapid City and find out how you can join our efforts to strengthen our country and renew respect for the Constitution.  Our next meeting is today, Friday June 5 at 11:45 at Godfather's Pizza on Campbell Street in Rapid City. Grab some pizza and join us in the back room!

Arlen Specter's long-awaited departure from the Republican Party today should have taught RINOs something if they were really smart.

But these liberals like Senator Olympia Snowe and Senator Susan Collins just don't get it...or don't want to get it. They want people to believe that the Republican Party should become even more liberal (and remain out of power even longer).

From The Hill:

Snowe said the day’s news should serve as a “wakeup call” to the party.

No, actually, today's news should serve as a "wakeup call" to RINOs like Snowe: if you don't shape up and act like a Republican, the conservative base has had enough and will see you ousted in your next primary...and like Specter today, no one will want to see the door hit you in the rear on the way out.

The Republican Party's core values are and always have been conservative in nature.  If someone who doesn't share all those conservative values wants to come into the big tent and work alongside Republicans in the areas where they agree, they're still welcome to do that.

But liberals shouldn't expect to come into the party, work against Republican values, and expect everything to be peachy.  

If you can't work with Republicans where your values line up and acquiesce to the rest, then you need to find another party.  You'll be happier somewhere else, and Republicans can find a conservative to fill your slot unhindered.

Arlen Specter did...and Senators Snowe and Collins should consider doing the same. 

You may or may not have heard about the restroom incident in Rapid City recently which has spawned yet another incident where government is trying to stick it's nose under a tent--or in this case, into a restroom--where it doesn't belong.

According to a recent article in the Rapid City Journal,  Bob Knecht told the council about a problem he had in not obtaining access to the restroom of a local business: 

But some Rapid City businesses won't give their customers restroom access, even in cases of a urinary emergency, Knecht told the city Legal and Finance Committee.

"I'm one of 60 million Americans who are on water pills. And when you're on them and you gotta go, it's right now," Knecht said. "You better get in the bathroom in a minute or two or you wet your pants."

The 85-year-old Rapid City resident said he has been denied restroom access while doing business in certain shops and offices in the city, even though he told employees that he could not make it to another store. Knecht asked the committee to mandate in city ordinance that stores and offices make restrooms available to their customers.

Jim Steele accompanied Knecht to support his complaint. Steele said he and his wife faced a similar problem at a gas station and convenience store in town, where they were told they could use bathroom facilities next door, he said.

The latest article doesn't appear to be available online at this point, but it says the city council rejected on Monday a proposal to mandate restroom access in businesses. The article states Councilman Bill Okrepkie says the proposed ordinance "is a 'dumb as dirt' government intrusion into private business".

“I mean, come on, let’s think about it. What we were being asked to do was tell businesses they had to open their stores up to anybody who wanted to use a restroom,” Okrepkie said.

Such a government mandate would be an unfair imposition on private business that could require expensive improvements in restroom facilities and open businesses up to liability problems, Okrepkie said.

Many businesses in the downtown area are located in buildings that are up to 100 years old or more.  They were built in an era when few if any businesses provided public restrooms, and any restrooms they have are small and many times located in storage areas which could be pilfered by customers coming and going.

These days too many people's knee-jerk reaction is to call the handy government thug to strong-arm the source of their problem for them.

But people can and should handle many things themselves.  People are not completely powerless. They can "vote with their feet" and not bring their business back to such an establishment anymore. They can tell others how they were treated, and perhaps dissuade others from doing business there.  They can make further written appeals to the business for a change in policy.  People are not powerless; how self-demeaning that so many people believe they are.

Everyone feels acutely offended when they have a problem they believe is caused by someone else. But elected government officials are supposed to be objective arbiters of what is right.  It is their job not to sympathize with the aggrieved party, but to examine the entire issue and determine what--if any--action is required to make things right.

Too often elected officials develop an inordinate sympathy with "the little guy" and completely lose sight of the bigger picture.  This is especially likely to happen if the official is of the same personal predisposition to call the nearest government thug in case of discomfort.

From what I've read, it sounds as if this man made it clear to the store personnel that it was not a frivolous request. Based on that, even if the business had a general policy not to open their restroom (probably a small one, intended for limited employee use), they should have exercised a little discretion and allowed the man to use the restroom.

Their failure to do so, however, is not a justification for government to come in with its heavy hand and start issuing mandates on private individuals and businesses.

If a business fails to exercise compassion and common-sense judgment, then the "victim" can use their free speech to tell other people about the incident, and it's likely the business will suffer a loss of patronage...and hopefully learn from the mistake.

In fact, the latest Journal article quotes Knecht as having found this answer himself:

“If I can’t use a bathroom downtown when I have an urgent need, then I’m not going back there,” he said.

But we don't need government--whether it's at the federal, state or local level--meddling any more than they already do in the affairs of private individuals or businesses.

Was this a sad and avoidable incident?  Yes. Is the world perfect?  No.

People--especially those in positions of government authority--need to grow up and realize this is not a perfect world, and when government sticks it's nose where it doesn't belong, not only is it engaging in a vain and endless attempt to perfect a hopelessly broken world, it is usually making a direct assault on freedom at some level.

It's stunning that freedom has been abused for so long, and government has felt free rein to overstep reasonable boundaries for so long, that things have reached such ludicrous levels.

But that's what happens when the people stay disengaged and don't smack down bad government.  When we remain silent in the face of minor infringements of our freedom, when we acquiesce to bad government, when we tune out and assume government won't really do something bad,  things end up getting out of control.

But it's looking like the government-regulation-addicts have overplayed their hand, and the Tea Party movement seems to be an indication that people are awakening to the threat that out-of-control government poses to their freedoms--on many levels.

Whether it's something relatively small, such as this restroom incident, or whether it's something big, such as trillions of dollars wasted in a few months or patriotic Americans being labeled "extremists," the people must hold government accountable to its limits any time it attempts to move beyond them.

 The Tax Day Tea Party in Rapid City yesterday was fantastic!

We had a good crowd when we lined up in Memorial Park along the intersection of Omaha Street and 5th Street, and in short order it only got better.  Before long, people were lined up along 5th Street from Rapid Creek, around the bend in the intersection, and down Omaha Street to the 6th Street stoplight.

The cars, trucks and semis driving by were honking their horns like crazy, letting us know they were with us in spirit even if they had to be on the road and about their business.

I recall only one car from which derogatory comments were shouted, and I think that young man failed to look close enough at our signs.  He must have thought we were a bunch of hippie protesters, because he yelled, "Why don't you go back to Russia!"  If he had looked more closely, he might have realized our goal was to keep our country from making the same mistake that nation did in 1917.

At about noon we walked across the park to the Bandshell for the program.  Gordon Howie officiated and the program kicked off with a patriotic medley by Cecillee Streetman.

Several speakers followed who talked about how our nation has gotten off course, our government is acting irresponsibly in piling up mountains of debt we can't pay for, and how most of governments solutions cause more problems than they solve.  Speakers included Mike Howard, Brian Barber, Dawn Pence, Jesse Freeman, and Ira Taken Alive.

Pastor Dale Bartscher from the South Dakota Family Policy Council closed by leading the crowd in singing "God Bless America."

Many of the attendees then went on another march around the sidewalk with their signs along Omaha Street and 5th Street before calling it a day.

The group that organized this event will be meeting next week to discuss future actions designed to hold our government accountable.  People were encouraged today with handouts and by the speakers to stay engaged, stay involved, and stay in touch with their elected representatives--to hold our government accountable to THE PEOPLE they are elected to serve.  And more events of today's nature will be coming...

We had several people assigned to take a head count during the event and it came out to 1,500 or more in attendance yesterday!  Not bad for a hastily-planned event on a cool and cloudy work day!

I took some video of the crowd along the street, interviewed a few attendees, recorded the speakers and interviewed several of the speakers afterward.  That video will be uploaded to YouTube and will be available on Pajamas TV as it finishes uploading and processing. You can also see some pics at Pajama's TV.