Come to the Tax Day Tea Party Rally and Mail a Teabag to the Whitehouse to Protest Wasteful Government Spending – Grass Roots Movement!
Summary of eRumor:
A forwarded email offering a solution to American taxpayer complaints of wasteful government spending focused on April 15, the day individual taxes are due. You are urged to attend a rally in your local area as well as send a teabag to the White House so it arrives by April 15.
The Truth:
There are several organized protests across the nation by members of group called Tax Day Tea Party. They used this name from the inspiration of the famous event of 1773 in Boston that sparked the American Revolution and was popularly known as “The Boston Tea Party.” According to their site, “Tax Day Tea Party is a national collaborative grassroots effort organized by Smart Girl Politics, Top Conservatives on Twitter, the DontGo Movement and many other online groups/coalitions.”
Concerns over the bailouts, the 2009 Stimulus Package, the threat of higher taxes and wasteful government spending caused the group to put up a website where viewers can find local information on rallies called “Tea Parties”. So far, there have been many such rallies in more than twenty states across the country that have been attended by massive groups of people.
The first wave of rally’s began February 27,2009 when “an estimated 30,000 Americans took to the street in 40+ cities across the country in the first nationwide ‘Tea Party’ protest. Organizers of the February 27th events pledged to continue on with an even bigger and better protest to follow the first. With April 15th being ‘Tax Day’, it was decided to schedule the second round of Tea Party protests to ride alongside the tax deadline.”
The Tax Day Tea Party web site encourages people to organize rallies in their local area but to prevent duplication and to ensure that all efforts are within the law they suggest that organizers consult the guide posted on their website. Click here for Tax Day Tea Party guide.
According to the report, the “Teabag DC” idea suggesting that taxpayers to send a teabag to the Whitehouse came from the group called “ReTea Party”. The Fox reporter speculated that no teabags would actually arrive at the Pennsylvania Avenue address but some nearby post office instead.
This eRumor took on the name of “The New American Tea Party” , one of the originators of the February 27th rallies but they are not endorsing the effort of sending teabags to Washington. They posted a disclaimer on their web site saying, “We have received hundreds of questions about an email circulating that urges folks to send tea to Washington on April 1st or April 15th. This effort is not endorsed by the New American Tea Party, so we can’t answer any questions about it. It is a neat idea, but things like that will likely either be held up getting scanned or end up getting thrown away due to security precautions.”
Click for Fox News report on Tax Day Tea Parties.
updated 03/16/09