Downtown flooded by over 1,200 for tea party

A peaceful protest of government taxing and spending brought more than 1,200 to the Colonial Capital Tea Party in New Bern Wednesday evening.

The crowd - mixed by age and sometimes representing three generations in a family - lifted American flags, signs and a chanting voice as it marched from the Craven County Administration Building at Craven and Broad streets to Union Point Park three blocks away.

Tea time was 6 p.m. but participants in the event organized by Coastal Carolina Taxpayers Association began arriving much earlier and was larger than even the organizers expected earlier in the afternoon. The line stretched from the county building to Union Point for about 15 minutes.

Joan McGraw of River Bend marched with a tea bag over her ear, not far behind Cheryl Switzer of New Bern, who said, "The problem with government is they don't believe the silent majority will speak."

She rounded the corner to booming voices with a contagious chant up East Front Street, "No more 'pork-ulus.' We've had enough."

"We are mad about outrageous spending and Congress passing a bill nobody had even read," said Tracy Fritzsche of New Bern. She marched carrying her baby Amalia in a pouch while pushing with her mother, Dorothy Fritzsche, in a wheelchair against a strong breeze in temperatures in the low 60's.

"They are coming out of the rafters and they are ticked off," said Al Coley, a longtime community leader in groups like New Bern Area Chamber of Commerce, Craven County Committee of 100 and assorted volunteer organizations.

That early chant was led by taxpayers' association president, Michael Speciale, who also spoke when the crowd assembled at the confluence of the Trent and Neuse rivers. Also speaking were representatives from conservative state and local groups, including Craven-Pamlico Christian Coalition, the John Locke Foundation, the John William Pope Foundation, American's for Prosperity, and longtime Craven tax protester Bill Harper.

Speciale said, "There was a lot of exposure to emphasize that this is a non-partisan event. Those who have historically opposed taxes are probably going to be more numerous but there are a lot of people getting upset and ready to get involved.

"State government has spent the $3 billion surplus, $1.5 billion two years in a row. Now we're looking at a $2 billion to $3 billion deficit. We're going to go after both parties."

The event took its name partly from the 1773 Boston Tea Party to protest the English crown's tax on tea and partly based on what signs near the group's booth spelled out: "Taxed Enough Already."

North Carolina's colonial capital in New Bern did not have its own tea but North Carolina did have its share of protests, according to a room full of local historians meeting at Tryon Palace earlier on Wednesday.

Significant tax protests in the state preceded the Tea Act of 1773 including a rowdy protest in Brunswick Town, a port city below Wilmington, of the Stamp Act of 1765.   

Provincial Deputies of North Carolina resolved to boycott all British tea and cloth after Sept. 10, 1774, in response to the Tea Act of 1773, and in October 1774 women in Edenton held their own tea party in symbolic rebellion against "taxation without representation."

The sign lifted at Wednesday's march by Tom Barber of Trent Woods said "History repeats itself" and had drawing reproductions of a 1770 colonial New Bern rebellion against Gov. Tryon's taxes and extravagant spending.

There were at least 35 similar tax protests scheduled across the state today and Chris Hayes of the John William Pope Foundation came to the New Bern event on the heels of one that gathered about 1,000 protestors in Morehead City.

He told the crowd there had been about 2,000 in Charlotte, 1,000 in Rutherfordton, 1,000 in Winston Salem and 1,200 in Greensboro.

"It's a great start," said Rev. Walter Leake of the Christian Coalition. "But a great start is not a great finish. Fight. Fight. Fight."

According to a show of hands, it was the first protest for about a third of those attending.

Speciale, Karen Talesek of the John Locke Foundation, and Jonathan Bandy of Americans For Prosperity said there will be more protests on Memorial Day and July 4 and more opportunities to help change the volume of taxation and spending organized by their groups.