Fred got an urgent call Thurs. morning at the “Carmen Breakfast Group”. The call was from Mark Petzold at the Tea Party of West Mi. in Grand Rapids pleading for “Health Care Freedom” petitions. Seems that even though they had their Kent County “Petition Drive” kickoff Wed. the day before they were already out of petitions. The TP of West MI. was having an event next to the Hannity book signing at Schullers book store in GR to promote them and sell shirts, flags and what not. They thought that this would be a great place to get signatures.
Fred and I agreed. We saved 50 petitions for ourselves and bundled up the rest (about 300) and off I went. I decided to get there early so I left around 4:00. The actual book signing was to start around 7pm. It was cold and windy.
Before I even got out of Muskegon it started snowing pretty heavily. Luckily it was short lived and the snow stopped before I got to GR; but as you can see by the pictures of the set up for the TP of WMi from 4pm and the next pic from around 7pm it was still cold and the wind kept threatening to blow the tent away.
It didn’t dampen anyone’s spirits however and there was a slow but steady stream of people buying Tea Party stuff and signing petitions; as they walked to the Book signing. Our location was on 29th st. just behind the Book signing and a lot of people parked by us and walked up the alley to the bookstore.
I hung out and help out. I’m glad I did. When they got overloaded I managed to get some signatures also. I only picked up about 15 but they were from 8 different counties. I bought a “Don’t Tread on Me” Flag which I’ll unfurl at Muskegon’s April 15th Tea Party at Heritage Landing. So far we have Location secured. John VanWyck is providing a professional sound system. The mechanics of it are getting worked out. Invitations are being sent out on facebook and our ning site plus the Tea Party of West Michigan site. Please see our facebook and ning sites also. sign up join the fun.
From where we were behind the book store, we couldn’t see Schulers or the line of people getting numbers for the book signing. I decided to walk up there and see what I could.
First thing I saw was the Hannity “Conservative Victory” bus parked in front of the bookstore. As I walked in I was impressed with the size of Schulers. The place had between 700 to 1000 people and it was only half full.
The Hannity show was actually being filmed in the back. It was hard to see but I stood on a bench and with my camera overhead I got a pic of Hannity and Hookstra. For the rest of the people waiting with their Numbers, there were at least two big screen TVs of the actual show as it was being taped. People in one spot were sitting on the carpet watching and giving an occasional cheer.
One line of Pete’s I liked was something to the affect that before there was Barack Obama we in Michigan had Jennifer Granholm. Hannity was making the case basically for how Michigan especially Detroit was the poster child for failed liberal policies. Pete’s statement fit right in .
I do have an ego lol. Here is a pic of me with Pete who was gracious enough to let happen. I went back to mingling and found some familiar faces below. The Beck Clan from Fruitport had showed up. LeRoy is heavily involved in the Muskegon Partiot Tea Party and Chris of course has been part of the major events in Muskegon as a speaker on Veteran Affairs.
Big news from Wendy Day. Wendy has been talking with the State GOP Party and had a big pow wow that day with them. It has been decided that the Party will lend a hand with this “Health Care Freedom Petition Drive” (much like the Tea Partys have done from the get go). I called up the fix Michigan Center in GR and asked Jeff Orzechowsky about it. He confirmed it and said the Fix Michigan Centers throughout the state were going to jump into it with both feet.
Jeff said they were shutting down other activities for a while like phone banking to concentrate on getting signatures. He mentioned a rough goal of a thousand signatures a week once they ramp up and a state wide Republican goal of 100,000. For Wendy this must feel like a breath of fresh air. While 100,000 signatures is only one fifth of the 500,000 we want, her job now must seem more readily attainable. This also may open some doors to keep the funding coming in so she can keep the enormous job of printing the petitions.
A brief word on what I’ve learned so far as far as her job goes. She first off is all into this. She is crisscrossing the state like a gubernatorial candidate and she started out with pretty much nothing at the start other than her indomitable spirit.
She has already organized a loose state wide distribution system of County coordinators. She has spoken at various “Kick Offs” across the state. She has personally provided us in Muskegon with a few thousand petitions and business cards along with circulator instruction sheets, sign up sheets, and business cards. Yesterday at the event she had provided yellow hats for the circulators so they can be easily picked out in a crowd. As county Coordinators, Fred and I got a gift card from her to Staples for misc items such as long clip boards, more envelopes etc.
Needless to say, again Fred and I need more petitions. I’m going to GR and pick some up from the Fix Michigan Center today. Wendy said she will be mailing out some to us Monday also and we should get them Tuesday. We need all the petition circulators we can get. It’s simple and free, Fred and I will provide the material through Wendy. Talk with your friends about it, your neighbors, where you work, in your Rotary or other group; the ways are endless. We at Muskegon Patriots will need people to walk around at the April 15th Rally and other events. However you want to do it – with us or alone we need you – every signature is gold even if you only get 5 signatures we need them.
Give me a call and I’ll hook you up. 231-728-3455. Do it at your leisure.
Well I’ll keep you posted
Regards, Live Dangerously Be A Conservative
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