Teacher Uses School District Email System To Launch Anti-Tea Party Campaign
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An e-mail sent out by a Rochester public school teacher calling on others to protest the Rochester Tea Party Patriots’ rally on Thursday is drawing sharp criticism from Tea Party members.
The e-mail was sent out to all teachers in the school district and states that “if you are interested in combating the lies and ignorance of the Tea Party movement” to meet for a counter-rally at 5:30 p.m. at Soldiers Field. The teacher who sent out the e-mail says he will have an air horn and some signs. Rochester Tea Party Patriot Chairwoman Cindy Maves contacted School Board Chairman Jim Pittenger to protest the teacher’s use of district e-mail for the political message.
“I am not surprised that there would be a counter-protest. I am just surprised they used the district e-mail,” Maves said.
In an e-mail sent to Maves, Pittenger said that the e-mail might be a violation of district policy, and Superintendent Romain Dallemand plans to investigate the matter. Rochester Public Schools’ spokeswoman Rachel Hicks could not be reached this morning for comment on the matter.
The Rochester Tea Party Patriots are planning their second annual tax day rally scheduled to run from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Soldiers Field in Rochester. Last year’s rally, as a part of rallies held nationwide, led to the birth of the local tea party movement. This year, a key focus of the rally will be to get conservative candidates elected to office who will support reduced government spending and less government control.
“We want (elected officials) to stop spending money we don’t have,” Maves said. “The debt is just escalating unbelievably, and we are just scared to death for our country.”
As a result, Maves said several candidates are expected to be at the rally representing the Constitution Party, Independence Party and the Republican Party. Several speakers are expected to address the crowd at 6 p.m. They include KROC conservative radio host Tom Ostrom, Republican Secretary of State candidate Dan Severson and former Republican 1st District Rep. Gil Gutknecht.
Gutknetcht’s speech is aimed at firing up the crowd to get conservative candidates elected. He said that while he has not been involved in the Tea Party movement, he said he has been impressed by how passionate members are about politics.
“I will say that in terms of intensity, this is as strong as I have seen in my adult lifetime,” Gutknecht said.
He added that he believes that Democrats failed to realize that the process used to push the health care reform bill has really angered voters.
“If you go back and just look at the headlines at how this thing was handled, the Louisiana Purchase, the Cornhusker Kickback, I don’t think the congressional leaders really understood how bad that looked in Middle America,” he said.
This year’s event will also feature food provided by the Ye Olde Butcher Shop with a portion of the proceeds donated back to the Tea Party group. There will be 20 candidate and organization tables and also kids activities, including patriotic face painting.
“We really want to make it a family event,” Maves said. “We really want to try and get away from this stereotype that people have that we are this angry bunch of people.”
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