First, I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak today.

Why are you here today?

Many of you have been involved with the Tea Party movement from the beginning. Some of you have just recently become involved. Some of you are here out of curiosity: you want to check this Tea Party thing out for yourself.

A couple of the claims, that critics of the Tea Party movement make, is that we hate government, and that we don’t want to pay any taxes.

First of all, we don’t hate government, we just want limited government that follows the constitution and derives it power from the consent of the governed. And we want representatives that listen to us and read bills and know what is in them before voting on them.

Secondly, we don’t oppose all taxes; just excessive and unnecessary taxes. Things like slapping an extra tax on tanning salons to help pay for the health care reform bill. We want to pay taxes, but only for those things that the constitution authorizes, not a bunch of unconstitutional, bloated, wasteful programs and agencies.

And we want a government that understands the American Legacy: which is, “Leaving our children a better America than the one our parents left us,” NOT saddling them with a debt they can’t repay and shrinking individual liberties.

There is a lot of speculation out there as to why Tea Partiers get involved. Let me tell you what I think is the main, driving force in the greatest grass roots movement since the American Revolution. I have an 11 year old son. Most of you have children, some of you have grandchildren. I think the reason you are involved is that you want your children and grandchildren to have the same opportunities and blessings that you had. You see the direction this country is headed, and you don’t like it, and you’re not going to sit back and let it happen anymore.

From the beginning of the Tea Party Movement, the liberal media, and many politicians have engaged in smear tactics in an effort to discredit us and discourage us. A funny thing though, everything they do to try to bring down our movement only makes it grow stronger and fans the flames of passion and discontent among those of us who want our country back.

They figured if they disparaged us, belittled us, and attacked us enough we would just…give…up.

They counted on us to run off, with our tail between our legs. Well, in the words of Ronald Wilson Reagan, THEY COUNTED WRONG!

They underestimate our heart and our resolve.

They don’t understand how important our freedom is to us.

They don’t understand how important it is to us to leave our children a better America than the one our parents left us.

They don’t realize that we will never, ever give up, until they give us back our country!

Sometimes it seems that all this legislation is not random, that there is a system designed to fundamentally change this country.

The Stimulus, Health Care Deform, Cap and Tax.

Back in the years leading up to the American Revolution, British Parliament imposed a series of laws that took power away from the Colonies and centralized it with the British Crown. The Intolerable Acts, as they came to be known, were described by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia as, "a most wicked System for destroying the liberty of America". A most wicked System for destroying the liberty of America.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

There is a line from the Declaration of Independence, that we have all heard, hopefully:

“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.”

Our quality of life is being eroded by progressives in government.

Our Fortunes, our wealth, is being taxed away at ever increasing rates to pay for out of control government spending.

Finally, our sacred honor, our reputation is constantly under attack. Maybe family members or coworkers talk about you behind your back or roll their eyes at you. To be involved in this movement, you have to be willing to pledge your reputation: your sacred honor.

But I ask you this, is your reputation more valuable to you than the country you will be leaving to your children and their children? I say NO!

Is your life, or lifestyle, more important?

Is your wealth more important?

Is there anything more important to you than leaving for your children a better…stronger….freer… America?

In closing,

Ronald Reagan, when asked what his strategy was for winning the cold war, replied very simply, “We win, they lose.”

“We win, they lose.”

It seems that we have lost the last two battles. We said, “don’t pass the stimulus bill.” They passed it anyway. We said, “don’t pass the health care bill.” They passed it anyway.

This victory will not be easy, the media is against us, many representatives have stopped listening to us, and there is a lot of work to do. But as Ronald Reagan said in one of his speeches, “we have the right to dream heroic dreams.” Our heroic dream is that we will turn this country around, it is not lost. The future does not belong to the fainthearted, it belongs to the brave. We must be brave and keep the faith.

We will win this battle! Don’t give up! Don’t ever give up!

Thank you, and God bless America!