Tea party movement's local leader surprised by her own role

BY ROY WENZL
The Wichita Eagle

There are tea party people in Wichita, hundreds of them, and they are ticked off.

Republican politicians respect them, woo them and fear them because most tea party members are Republicans and conservatives who denounce Republicans in the same breath that they denounce Democrats even more.

They have invigorated the local and national political debate.

Who are these people?

What do they want?

We hold these truths

At the most recent rally in Wichita, Feb. 20 at Century II, tea party organizer Lynda Tyler told 2,500 enthusiastic listeners from the podium that the last time Americans were as upset about government as they are now, they wrote a document called the Declaration of Independence. That document pointed out that it sometimes becomes necessary "for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another."

Organized locally by Tyler, a licensed Wichita financial adviser, tea party members are motivated, energized and ticked off at both mainstream parties.

They are not highly organized or moving in lockstep, and Tyler says that means their opinions are fresh and unrehearsed, unlike many stale mainstream liberal and conservative opinions.

"Tea partiers are honest enough to have open disagreements," said Wichita tea party devotee Jim Gragg. "So organizing tea party people is like herding cats."

Many tea partiers are common working people. Sedgwick County Republican Party Chairman Kelly Arnold counts himself a tea party enthusiast.

Republicans locally and nationally are courting them vigorously, not only because they like their spirit and their ideals, but also because they fear their anger, and fear that a third-party movement might weaken the GOP.

Some tea party critics, nationally and locally, have warned that there are some kooks in the tea party, though locals say this is true of any political movement.

Most Wichitans at these rallies, Gragg said, disagree with each other about many things but are united in their disgust at how government has spent trillions that it doesn't have.

"We may be as hard to herd as cats," he said. "But all the cats got their hair up right now."

Who they are

Gragg is a laid-off aircraft cabinet installer. Dan Heflin is an engineer and longtime aviation company employee who also is laid off. Gary Townson is a retired postal worker.

Tyler herself, besides working as a stockbroker, is a wife, a mother, a veteran beauty pageant organizer who still competes and often wins beauty pageants in the Mrs. division.

She was surprised to end up at the head of rallies in the last year where thousands of people gathered to denounce government policy.

In contrast, at most City Council, County Commission or school board meetings, few residents show up. In some recent off-year elections, voter turnout percentages, even among registered voters, has reached the low teens.

But a tea party event she organized in Sedgwick County Park last August startled her when it drew 1,200 people.

A "Tea Party Express" gathering she organized for last November at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium drew 2,000.

And the tea party rally she led this past February at Century II drew 2,500.

At that gathering, she said, it was clear from talking to people that most of them were fiscal and social conservatives, but few of them think alike. Some were Democrats upset at their own party, she said.

Much of this took off spontaneously, she said. People locally have done all this on their own time, and on their own dime, doing it with small contributions from individuals, plus raffles and such.

"We have received zero corporate money," Tyler said.

She never thought when she started organizing people before last August that so many would show such vigorous interest.

"I never set out to change the world," she said with a grin. "But all of a sudden I had all these volunteers."

She wants to keep this movement going. There may be more rallies before the coming elections, but right now there are no plans for another rally, except that the Wichita tea partiers will probably help their counterparts from Hutchinson at an event planned there April 15.

Nobody is bossing tea party members around, she said, least of all her. There is a democratic spirit among them that she likes a lot.

"I love these tea party events," she said. "They've galvanized many people to think about politics for the first time in their lives, and that's a great thing. I have always been amazed by how so many people do not pay attention to government. It's like they don't care.

"These people care."

Channeling anger

There is a lot of anger among the tea partiers, she said. Most of it doesn't worry her. Some of it bothers her, and bothers other tea party devotees.

She and others also hear some ideas they consider kooky, though the vast majority of tea party members don't agree with those ideas.

"There are a very few people, for example, who are 'birthers,' believing Obama is not a citizen of the U.S.," said Heflin, the laid-off aviation employee.

There are others, Heflin said, who openly suspect that the U.S. government was somehow involved in the 9/11 attacks. These ideas, Heflin said, are far away from common sense.

"If they want to defy gravity, so be it," he said.

The majority of local tea partiers do not subscribe to these ideas, he said.

"All of us are really upset at the way the government has spent us into eternal debt and most of us feel like we didn't get to have any say in this," he said.

That anger, he said, is deep and hot. Tyler understands the anger.

"Barack Obama got elected president by making false promises that everyone wanted to hear," she said.

But she tells tea partiers that the vicious denunciations of the Democrats that she sometimes hears from talk radio, from right-leaning cable TV commentators and from some tea partiers themselves sometimes makes her cringe. Heflin and Townson said that kind of talk makes them cringe, too.

Not only is some of it corrosive and harmful to the country, Tyler said, but it weakens the very movement the angry people are embracing.

"We have a huge variety of groups here today," she told the 2,500 who met in February in Wichita. "We will not agree with every one of them, but someone else may.

"So I ask you all to be courteous and don't argue over nonsense; we are here to find our common grounds so we can move our country forward and embrace our commonality as Americans."

Her guide in openly opposing some tea party anger, she said, is that three teenagers in her house, good kids who sometimes do stupid things.

"I'd rather teach them how to solve the problems rather than throw emotions around," she said.

"I understand where the anger at Obama is coming from, but when you get as angry at him as some people do, when you get that exasperated, you are allowing someone else to have control over you."

Her personal goal for the local tea party is to energize people not only to vote and to campaign for good candidates but to run for office themselves.

She said she might even run for City Council herself someday.

"So here we are," she told the February gathering. "Republicans, Independents, Libertarians and Democrats all in one room together. All pulling together for better government and the salvation of the United States. This time has not existed in 10 generations.

"Relish this time and know that you are part of history."

Reach Roy Wenzl at 316-268-6219 or rwenzl@wichitaeagle.com.

© 2010 Wichita Eagle and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved. she has http://www.kansas.com

Read more: http://www.kansas.com/2010/03/05/v-print/1210581/movements-local-leader-surprised.html#ixzz0ijgd2M7t

 

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Posted on Sat, Feb. 20, 2010

Tea party event draws candidates, voters

BY DEB GRUVER
The Wichita Eagle

Barry Cole is 30 years old and says he's never voted because he's never found a candidate in whom he could believe.

He came to Saturday's "Winter Rally 2010," sponsored by Kansans for Liberty, to try to change that, he said.

As supporters of the tea party milled about Century II's Exhibition Hall, Cole stood with some friends and took it all in.

His political beliefs, he said, come down to five words: "Less government equals more freedom."

Cole said he has attended other tea parties and supports the movement because "unlike Obama, it's time for some real change."

The tea party was part political pep rally and part candidate forum.

"Every single person is here because we know our country is in trouble," organizer Lynda Tyler told the crowd, many of whom dressed in political T-shirts with messages such as "Tyranny Response Team."

Those running to fill Rep. Todd Tiahrt's seat in Congress set up booths inside Century II, hoping to sway voters to their side. Tiahrt, a Republican from Goddard, and Rep. Jerry Moran, a Republican from Hays, both of whom are vying for a seat in the Senate, made brief presentations during the event.

Robert Londerholm, who served as Kansas attorney general from 1965-69 and later as a member and chairman of the Kansas racing commission, also is running in the GOP primary but did not speak at the event.

Earlier in the day, Moran and Tiahrt appeared together on Gene Countryman's show on KNSS, 1330 AM, where Moran touted foregoing a move to Washington, D.C., to live in Kansas and Tiahrt embraced his decision to keep his family together in the nation's capital.

Tiahrt took the stage first and said he wants a "limited Constitutional form of government, and I'm willing to fight for it."

He said government bailouts should end, leading a "no more bailouts" chant with the crowd.

"When you get a tax rebate, do you consider that a bailout?" he asked the crowd, answering, "No, that's you're own money."

Moran said everyone should be worried about the nation's future.

"Who wouldn't have a concern about our nation's capital?" he asked. "Our country is bankrupt. Politicians ought to admit it."

He advocated for the Fair Tax, a plan that would do away with federal income taxes and replace the system with a national sales tax.

He also noted he supports term limits.

Steve and Vienna Taylor of Wichita attended the rally to "get the Democrats out," Steve Taylor said.

They said they are particularly concerned about the possibility of government-sponsored health care.

"We want them to defeat the health care bill because they're going to take everything away from us," Vienna Taylor said.

Reach Deb Gruver at 316-268-6400 or dgruver@wichitaeagle.com.

© 2010 Wichita Eagle and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved. http://www.kansas.com

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Conservative ‘tea party’ movement to move inside Century II for winter political rally

posted December 23, 2009 on the Wichita Eagle’s Blog

A conservative group has announced plans for a February “tea party” political rally at the Century II Convention Center, which will be Wichita’s fifth such event and its first to be held indoors.

Kansans for Liberty has booked the Exhibition Hall at the Century II Convention Center for its “Winter Rally 2010,” said Lynda Tyler, who organized the political group earlier this year.

The agenda is still being worked out, but planners are expecting to have a forum or debate for candidates in 4th Congressional District race. That will be held in conjunction with Independence Caucus, a national group that advocates for limited government, tax reform, political ethics and government transparency, Tyler said.

Andrew Gray, chairman of the Kansas Libertarian Party, is expected to speak. Smart Girl Politics, a conservative women’s group, will staff a voter-registration table, Tyler said.

The tea party movement draws its name from the Boston Tea Party of 1773, a protest raid on British merchant ships that helped solidify support for American independence.

The modern tea party movement has been widely promoted by Fox News and other conservative-oriented media.

Wichita’s first large-scale tea party rally was held near the Mid-Continent Airport Post Office on April 15, the deadline day for mailing income tax filings.

Subsequent tea parties have been held outside the Sedgwick County Courthouse, in Sedgwick County Park and in the parking lot at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium.

The most recent two tea parties were organized by Kansans for Liberty, an umbrella group Tyler started to keep the movement’s momentum going.

In addition to Independence Caucus and Smart Girl Politics, Kansans for Liberty includes representatives from Young Americans for Liberty, the John Birch Society, Oathkeepers, Tea Party Patriots and the 9/12 organization started by Fox News commentator Glenn Beck.

Tyler said weather was the dominant factor in deciding to hold the next tea party at an indoor venue. It is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. on Feb. 20.

Organizers are planning for the event to be open to the public for free, as the other tea parties have been. But they are leaving open the option of charging for admission if they bring in a nationally known speaker, Tyler said.

• By Dion Lefler

• Posted Wednesday at 10:34 a.m.

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Thursday, Nov. 5, 2009

Posted on Thu, Nov. 05, 2009

Crowd greets Tea Party bus

BY FRED MANN
The Wichita Eagle

WICHITA — They came dressed as Betsy Ross, Patrick Henry and Death.

One rode a horse; another rode a unicycle.

But nearly everybody who attended Wichita's fourth tea party carried signs.

"We Want Our Country Back," "Wake Up America" and "Nobama Death Care," some of them said.

The signs — as well as blue skies, warm weather and a large midday crowd — greeted the national Tea Party Express II bus tour in the parking lot of Lawrence-Dumont Stadium on Wednesday.

Titled "Countdown to Judgment Day," the tour is on a 19-day, 7,000-mile journey across America with stops at rallies in 38 cities.

Members of the tour entertained the crowd with songs and speeches calling for change in Washington D.C.: less government spending, less government intrusion, an end to bailouts, an end to Democrat leadership in the House and Senate, and an end to President Obama's health care reform plans.

Organizers estimated the crowd at 1,500 to 1,700. Police at the scene estimated it at 2,000.

Fifteen people showed up to protest the tea party.

Tiffiny Ruegner, field coordinator for the tour from Sacramento, compared the size of the crowd in Wichita to one the tour drew in Denver on Tuesday night.

"Because this is at one o'clock on a Wednesday in the middle of the workweek, this is huge," she said.

When the caravan pulled into the stadium parking lot with a 30-motorcycle escort, Shara McMichael of Wichita was among those who moved forward to get a better look, snap photos and cheer.

She said she attended the event "just because I'm tired of sitting around my living room with my family talking about what changes need to be made and what's going on. We can't sit around and talk about it anymore. We've got to do something,"

"One voice does make a difference, and when you have several hundred or 2,000, it's going to be heard," she said.

Deborah Johns, co-chair of the tour, introduced herself as the angry mom of a Marine who is serving his third term in Iraq. Her anger was aimed at the Obama administration, she told the crowd.

"We have a president who came dressed as Little Red Riding Hood who turned out to be the big bad wolf that is doing nothing but dismantling this country from the inside out," Johns said.

"It's time politicians in Washington get the message. The constitution begins, 'We the people', not 'We the politicians.' "

She also told the people they were making history.

"You've got the politicians in Washington bamboozled. They can't figure you out," she said.

The tour vice chairman, Mark Williams, a freelance radio talk show host from Boston, urged the crowd to work hard for political candidates who "stand up for working people" and want to return America to "the country it was meant to be."

The anti-tea party protesters held signs of their own, such as "Tea Party for Injustice" and "Congressional Health Care for All."

One of the protesters, Janice Bradley of Wichita, said tea parties are large corporate-funded efforts that are trying to turn people against their own interests.

"They're creating fabrications about government-run health care, all kinds of lies about death panels. The death panels are the insurance companies right now," Bradley said.

The event ended with tributes to American soldiers and veterans, chants of U-S-A, and patriotic songs.

Lynda Tyler of Kansans for Liberty, who helped organize the event, said she was thrilled with the turnout on a midweek afternoon.

"For every person out here, there's probably at least 10 or 20 who couldn't get off work and be here," she said.

Reach Fred Mann at 316-268-6310 or fmann@wichitaeagle.com.

© 2009 Wichita Eagle and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved. http://www.kansas.com

Read more: http://www.kansas.com/news/v-print/story/1041597.html#ixzz0W0jucguO

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This link is to video posted by the Wichita Eagle.

 

Here is the link too.  They posted video from some of the other parties. We are a "top story".  http://www.kansas.com/topstories/story/1033639.HTML           Friday, Oct. 30, 2009 Posted on Fri, Oct. 30, 2009 Local tea party event to feature national speakers BY DION LEFLER The Wichita Eagle Wichita's Tea Party IV will be a much more national affair than the first three, according to organizers who have released the speaking and music lineup. Instead of the local political figures who have addressed the gatherings in the past, the event scheduled at 1 p.m. Wednesday in the Lawrence-Dumont Stadium parking lot will feature leaders of national political action committees and a man who claims to have been beaten outside a town hall meeting in Missouri for his opposition to national health care. The event will center on a visit by the "Tea Party Express II," a bus tour titled "Countdown to Judgment Day." The tour started in San Diego and is proceeding north to Washington state before cutting a roughly diagonal path across the country and ending up in Orlando, Fla. The tone will be much different than the last tea party at Sedgwick County Park, which featured food booths, vendors and inflatables for children to jump on, said Lynda Tyler of Kansans for Liberty, which is organizing the event with the 9-12 Group, the Wichita branch of an organization started by Fox News commentator Glenn Beck. "They (Tea Party Express II) have a two-hour presentation; we get 10 minutes out of the two hours," Tyler said. The groups are being allowed to use the city-owned lot free of charge because of the political nature of the event, but would have had to pay if they brought in vendors or rented out booths, Tyler said. She said it's not exactly optimum timing for a tea party. "It's November, it's outside and it's at one o'clock on a Wednesday," she said. "Hopefully, we'll have a decent turnout." The lineup of speakers starts with Lew Uhler, chairman of the National Tax Limitation PAC. He'll be followed by Deborah Johns and Mark Williams, vice chairs of the Our Country Deserves Better PAC; and blogger and tea party coordinator Amy Kremer. One speaker is Kenneth Gladney, who alleges he was the victim in a video-recorded scuffle that took place Aug. 6 outside a town hall meeting in St. Louis held by Rep. Russ Carnahan, D-Mo. Gladney claims that he was beaten by members of the Service Employees International Union as he tried to pass out "Don't tread on me" flags. The union says it was their minister, the Rev. Elston McCowan, who was pushed to the ground in the flap, and that Gladney faked being injured for the publicity it brought his cause. The video, grainy and poorly lit, does show a scuffle but is inconclusive as to what exactly happened. Three musical performances are scheduled: Lloyd Marcus performing the "American Tea Party Anthem"; Linda Nagy performing "Where Freedom Lies"; and the husband-and-wife duo Rivoli Revue performing "A Bailout Song." Reach Dion Lefler at 316-268-6527 or dlefler@wichitaeagle.com. © 2009 Wichita Eagle and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved. http://www.kansas.com Read more: http://www.kansas.com/topstories/v-print/story/1033639.html#ixzz0VQNW6m4k

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday, August 31, 2009

Posted on Mon, Aug. 31, 2009

Tea party organizers: We paid for event

BY DION LEFLER
The Wichita Eagle

WICHITA — Organizers of an anti-tax tea party held last week are taking exception to a comment by a state representative who implied that taxes helped pay for their event.

Rep. Dale Swenson, D-Wichita, noted in Sunday's Eagle that the party was held in the publicly owned Sedgwick County Park and said, "We need taxes to support their protests."

That drew an quick response from Lynda Tyler of Kansans for Liberty, the group that organized and sponsored the event.

"I have received a lot of these comments and they are totally ridiculous," she said.

Tyler said the group paid more than $1,800 to use the park for the five-hour event, which drew about 700 to 800 people.

Among the costs: $310 rent, $682 for liability insurance, $580 for trash service and portable toilets and $240 for off-duty sheriff's deputies to provide security, she said.

"I even paid $72 to rent a generator, because there isn't enough power out there to run two hair dryers, and the (inflatable) slide people brought their own generator," she said. "So what exactly did the tea party cost Sedgwick County?"

Of his comment, Swenson said, "I was just being funny. People can have their protest wherever they want to have them."

But he didn't retract the comment.

"I'm curious to what level they (the tea party protesters) would bring the taxes down," Swenson said. "It may not be fair to the people paying taxes to trash the system that built the park.

"The park is maintained by county-funded employees, and the fees they collect (from users) aren't enough to run the park."

Tyler said the tea party cost the public a lot less than a similar-sized street protest would have.

Such demonstrations usually are done without permits, and may trigger a police response and result in arrests and trials for disturbing the peace and blocking traffic — all of which cost the government money, she said.

"They (the county) may not get everything back, but it's a lot different than the traditional protest," Tyler said.

Friday's tea party was the third in Wichita since the movement began early this year with calls to send tea bags to Washington to protest taxes.

The movement draws its name from the Boston Tea Party of 1773, a raid to destroy a tea shipment that stirred opposition to British taxation and helped crystallize support for the American Revolution.

Reach Dion Lefler at 316-268-6527.

© 2009 Wichita Eagle and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved. http://www.kansas.com

 

 

 

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Voice For Liberty in Wichita

Individual liberty, limited government, and free markets in Wichita and Kansas

Wichita tea party paid its expenses

by Bob Weeks on August 30, 2009

in Politics

After Friday’s American Tea Party in Wichita, complaints rolled in. The Wichita Eagle article reporting on the event drew over 200 comments, many complaining about one or another aspect of over 700 people gathering for a peaceful event.

In particular, the squawking of one member of the Kansas House of Representatives only revealed the ignorance of the speaker in his attempt at finding irony. As reported on the Wichita Eagle’s editorial blog: “‘We need taxes to support their protests.’ — Rep. Dale Swenson, D-Wichita, about how Friday’s anti-tax tea party was held at the county-owned and taxpayer-supported Sedgwick County Park.”

As reported in the following submission by event organizer Lynda Tyler, the tea party paid quite a sum in order to use the park.

Those who came to the TEA party had an enjoyable evening. The compliments were 10 to 1 over complaints and frankly those were all valid complaints that could only have been fixed with more resources.

What gets me are those who like to hide behind their computer and nip at the ankles of those who are actually getting off their buttocks and doing something. Even if that something is waving a flag and socializing with like minded individuals. But there are two reoccurring comments that are really getting to me and I would like to address them.

One is the criticisms is the “irony” of holding the event at a public park. They claim that the “taxpayers paid for our protest.” Taxpayers paid for our protest about as much as they pay for any other event held out there. We were charged a large event rental of the property of $310. Since we were following the laws and contracts we had to pay for our own $500,000 liability insurance policy to protect the public lands against damage. That policy cost $682. Then instead of depending on tax paid facilities our contract with the county required we supply our own portable restrooms, trash bins and trash pickup of $580. The county sheriff’s department required that we hire two off duty officers for $240. During setup we discovered that there is barely enough power there to run a hair dryer so we had to rent a generator to run the food vendors for another $72. So all in all our “public park” cost us $1,884 to use. Did any of you pay that for your kids’ birthday party or to walk your dog out there?

Now had we done this the way most liberal protests we have seen over the years, we would have gone downtown (without permits), walked down the middle of the street during rush hour (blocking traffic), assaulted those in opposition (like the police), turned over and set fire to any cars that got in the way (destroyed property), thrown rocks through business windows (destroying property without insurance), and the county (tax payer) would not only have to pay for the clean up but for the police who had to use riot gear to stop the protest and then the expenses of arresting some protesters, pay for their public defender attorney and possibly pay for their room and board while the protester was in jail.

None of that happened at our TEA Party. All were welcome and nobody got hurt, arrested, or assaulted. There was very little trash to pick up after it was over and the vendors and groups were all very happy. We had people of opposing views there and they were treated with respect and welcomed to participate.

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Saturday, August 29, 2009

Third tea party draws hundreds

By Dion Lefler
The Wichita Eagle

Tea Party III was part politics, part street theater, part socializing against socialism.

About 700 to 800 people came to Sedgwick County Park on Friday for an evening of speeches and rallying.

The crowd ranged from button-down Reagan Republicans to costumed demonstrators advocating for a second American Revolution.

Men in black T-shirts reading "911 was an inside job," circulated through the crowd passing out leaflets.

Among the most visible presences was "Paula Revere," actually Cheryl Green of eastern Butler County, who observed the proceedings from astride her horse and was dressed in Revolutionary War garb.

She said she was there mainly to protest federal bailouts of industries and the economic stimulus bill, which she thinks are steps toward socialism.

"I don't think our government's listening, really," she said. "I think it's taking our people for granted.

She carried a yellow "Don't tread on me" flag, a popular banner that significantly outnumbered the stars and stripes in the crowd.

Four Republican congressional candidates addressed the group.

State Sen. Dick Kelsey, R-Goddard, drew cheers when he told the crowd that he had been working against abortion in Kansas for 22 years.

Republican National Committeeman Mike Pompeo got about the same reaction when he said the government should stop investigating CIA agents for potentially abusing prisoners in the war on terrorism. And candidate Jim Anderson's applause line was that he is neither a politician nor lobbyist, but an ordinary businessman.

The clapping in the heavily conservative crowd was polite, but restrained, for Sen. Jean Schodorf, the most moderate of the candidates. She spoke about fighting for Kansas business and economic recovery.

Even Sweden will be reading about the Tea Party.

Journalist Mikael Tornwall, the U.S. correspondent for the Swedish business publication Dagens Industri, traveled to Wichita to work on a story about opposition to Obama and Democrats who control Congress.

He said Wichita's event showed a side of the opposition that's a lot more orderly than the shouters who have dominated recent cable TV coverage.

"You don't get the angry mob if you go to something like this," he said.

There were comedic moments, such as when Wendy Aylworth, dressed as the Grim Reaper, addressed the crowd on behalf of Morticians for Healthcare   Reform, a tongue-in-cheek anti-Obama group that set up a miniature graveyard in its exhibit space.

"We will soon be the only growth industry left in the United States," she said from the stage.

"That and government," interjected audience member Floyd Jaggers.

Scott Auchterlonie of Wichita spent the evening carrying a sign bearing Thomas Jefferson quotes about liberty.

When the party was over, he said he liked the socializing but thought the message sent should be stronger.

"It's important that people who feel this way get together and support each other," he said. "But I heard very few calls to action."

Turnout fell between the huge group that gathered for the first Wichita tea party on April 15 and the far smaller group that attended the follow-up event July 4.

Lynda Tyler of Kansans for Liberty, the group sponsoring Friday's event, said she thought it succeeded.

"It was fun and there were enough people to make it worthwhile," she said. "I'm pleased."

Reach Dion Lefler at 316-268-6527.

© 2009 Wichita Eagle and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved. http://www.kansas.com

 

 

 

Video of first tea party at this link.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted on Mon, Aug. 17, 2009

This time: more partying, less tea

BY DION LEFLER
The Wichita Eagle

Wichita political activists are looking to put a little more party into the "tea party" movement.

 

The next Wichita tea party, scheduled for Aug. 28, will feature more family fun and entertainment than the first two events, which were heavy on the anti-tax protests that gave birth to the movement, said organizer Lynda Tyler.

 

"The whole idea is to make it more of a fair or festival type of event," said Tyler, vice president of the Republican Wichita Pachyderm Club.

 

Organizers are planning children's activities and trying to arrange to bring in inflatable bouncers for kids to jump on while their parents practice politics nearby.

 

The gathering was originally planned for Sept. 11, but announcements on conservative-oriented Web sites drew comments from people who felt it would be inappropriate on the anniversary of the terrorist attacks.

 

Tyler said the group had been planning to include an observance of the anniversary during the tea party, but decided to move it to another day because of the complaints and scheduling conflicts.

 

"My fear was it (the 9/11 observance) would get lost in translation," she said.

While it is a political event and Republicans are the main organizing force, Tyler said people of all political stripes are welcome to attend or rent a booth.

 

"People can come out and support or oppose anything they want to," Tyler said. "They can bring their petitions, they can bring their banners, bring their materials... they can get acquainted with people who are like-minded."

 

The tea party movement — which draws its name from the Boston Tea Party that helped launch the American Revolution — began early this year with calls to mail teabags to Washington politicians to protest President Obama's economic stimulus plan.

 

Heavy promotion by conservative talk radio hosts, Fox News Channel commentators and political action committees brought out tens of thousands of people nationwide to protest on April 15, the due date for federal tax returns.

 

Wichita's first tea party, sponsored by Americans for Prosperity, drew more than 1,000 people to a vacant lot near Mid-Continent Airport.

 

There, they vented their taxation frustration and listened to political speakers including Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan.

 

A July 4 follow-up event, which was less heavily promoted, drew a much smaller crowd to the steps of the Sedgwick County Courthouse.

 

Tea party three is being designed to go beyond protest, to celebrate and give people an opportunity to get together and influence government, organizers said.

 

"There's so much going on in the country, you've got to get involved," said Diane Jones, vice president of Sedgwick County Republican Women United. "If you don't get involved, you're just on the sidelines and you're going to get what you're going to get."

 

Tyler said at least two 4th District congressional candidates — GOP National Committeeman Mike Pompeo and businessman Jim Anderson — have confirmed they will speak at the event. State Sen. Dick Kelsey, also running for the seat, said he plans to participate.

 

The tea party is scheduled for 6 to 9 p.m. Aug. 28 at Sedgwick County Park, west of the I-235 bypass at Zoo Boulevard.

 

Reach Dion Lefler at 316-268-6527.

© 2009 Wichita Eagle and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved. http://www.kansas.com