More than 500 attend Fort Smith ‘Tea Party’

Attendance at the Tax Day Tea Party held Wednesday (April 15) in Pendergraft Park in downtown Fort Smith exceeded the expectations of co-organizer Greg White.

The event, held 4 to 7 p.m. in the park, was one of more than 760 held around the country. The Associated Press reported that possibly hundreds of thousands of people around the country participated in the events.

The crowd size in Fort Smith was estimated to be between 150 and 200 as of 4:30 p.m. By around 5 p.m., before the work crowd arrived, the crowd easily topped 500, according to The City Wire estimate.

“All I can say is, ‘Wow,’” White a little after 4 p.m. “This is unbelievable. There was a crowd here before I got here.”

By 5:15, White said the crowd was “more than we thought it would be at this time. It just keeps growing.”

“Tax Day Tea Party” is the group pushing the April 15 gatherings. It is a Chicago-based volunteer organization funded by “average Americans” and not corporations or political interests, said spokeswoman Julie Johnson. And tax day is just the first step, Johnson said, with “new projects” to be launched after April 15 to keep the momentum going.

Many attendees at the Fort Smith event carried signs like “TEA: Taxed Enough Already,” and “No More Bailouts.” Speakers at the event included Fort Smith Mayor Ray Baker, former Sebastian County Judge W.R. “Bud” Harper and J.R. Dallas, former commander of the 188th Fighter Wing based in Fort Smith.

“I am so pleased to see this many people attend this event,” Mayor Baker said.

Baker said the event is something the Founding Fathers would have recognized. He said they fought against taxation without representation, and citizens today are “fighting taxation with representation.”

“The Congress does not listen to the wishes of the people. … But the voice of the people need to be heard,” he said.

Dallas, who introduced himself accurately as the only non-politician to speak at the Fort Smith event, said when he was commissioned an officer in the U.S. Air Force, he swore to protect the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

“Now we see why the Founding Fathers put that (domestic) in the Constitution,” Dallas told the crowd.

He also said elected officials in Washington, D.C. have “forgotten who the customers are.”