RIPLEY--Wednesday, in much the same way the American colonists in 1773 turned to protest when angered by British tax on tea, approximately 150 area citizens gathered for the Tippah County Tax Day TEA Party.



The gathering of protestors--upset over their tax dollars going to support President Obama's proposed $3.6 trillion budget--was just one of over 2000 rallies coordinated across the nation.

T.E.A. stands for Taxed Enough Already. Supporters of the group say taxes are too high and that interest accrued from the recent series of government bailouts will cause a huge financial burden for their children and grandchildren.



The sizable crowd on the steps of the Tippah County Courthouse consisted of mostly local citizens. Others, like keynote speaker Les Riley and his two sons drove over from Pontotoc. One of the event coordinators, Chris Petersen is originally from Chicago.



Petersen, who introduced Riley to the crowd, said he got involved for his two young children. He said they will have to repay the money the government is freely spending.

amp"They are talking about a trillion dollars here and a trillion dollars there, but then you really see the actuality of paying 950 billion dollars a year in interest in 2019,amp" said Peterson. amp"That's going to strap my two little boys with a tax burden.amp"

Riley, who runs a website dedicated to stopping abortion and cloning, urged the crowd to amp"stop worshiping Washington,amp" and promoted personal responsibility rather than government dependence. He talked about the Founding Fathers and their Bible-based principles used to write the Constitution, as well as, and how far the United States has moved away from those principles.

amp"I'm a sinner saved by Grace,amp" Riley said. amp"I love God and I hate tyranny. Anytime we can stand up for righteousness and speak the truth we ought to take the opportunity. I would hope that people would take responsibility because it's easy to be angry at what someone out there is doing, but it's much harder to blame ourselves.

amp"I would hope that people would make up their minds to get involved in people's lives and most importantly, in dark times people wouldn't turn to government they would turn to Christ.amp"

Beverly Humphreys, who lives in the Lake Mohawk at Dry Creek, said this is her first protest since the 1970s when she protested the Vietnam War. She said came because she's fed up with government bailouts for large companies, while ordinary Americans suffer.



amp"I'm tired of them spending our tax money on giving it to the banks and giving it to the GMC car companies,amp" said Humphreys. amp"There are people out her that have no jobs and they are losing their homes.



amp"We're paying the tax money and they (Congress) are doing what they want to do with it. It's the politicians that we have in now, and I don't care if they are republican or a democratic. They don't care any more about my country, and I love my country.amp"