July 4, 2009: Tea Party in New Mexico Shares Day with Muddy “Rainbow Gathering”

~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL

Even though New Mexico is in the southern part of the country, its range of elevations means the state has all seven life zones within its boundaries.

Yesterday on July 4, there was an interesting contrast in “life zones” as Tea Parties and the Rainbow Family gathering shared the day.

The Albuquerque Tea party keeps rolling along:

Sunday, July 05, 2009

Albuquerque Tea Party Rally Attracts Thousands in Protest Against Increased Government Spending

The Albuquerque Tea Party keeps flexing its muscles, drawing thousands to demonstrate against government spending at an Independence Day rally near Balloon Fiesta Park.

People lined Alameda Boulevard NE with signs with slogans such as “Washington would have formed another army by now,” “What would Stalin do?” and “Honk if I’m not paying your mortgage.”

Organizers had hoped to double the size of the Albuquerque Tea Party’s last rally, held on tax-filing day, which drew several thousand people. Tea Party officials estimated 7,000 turned out for the April 15 demonstration.

Tina Carson, a founding member of Albuquerque Tea Party, said the event Saturday drew similar numbers.

Organizers plan to transform the group into a non-profit organization:

The event had booths set up to register voters and let people sign up for updates from the Albuquerque Tea Party.
Carson said the group is going to incorporate as a nonprofit and use its network to become a force against free-spending politicians.
“Our representatives truly don’t realize that their constituents are about to throw them out of office,” Carson said.

In an earlier article Carson commented:

Saturday, July 04, 2009

Tea Party Activists Let Jabs Roll Off

snip

Tina Carson, one of the original Albuquerque Tea Party organizers, lets the slams slide off her back.
While others are trying to pigeonhole her group, she said, Tea Party organizers are quietly creating what they believe will become a major political force.

They really have no idea how big we really are,” Carson said.

While the Tea Party crowd was demonstrating, over in the hamlet of Cuba, the 2009 Annual Rainbow Gathering of the Living Light (July 1-7) was turning into a mudfest a la Woodstock…

Rainbow Gathering Turns Into Mudfest

CUBA — Robbie Gordon has been attending Rainbow Family gatherings for 29 years. He is 63 years old and needs a wheelchair to get around.

Wheelchair access is no minor thing at a Rainbow gathering, particularly in the rainy, muddy area near Cuba where this year’s participants are camped out. But Gordon has a plan. His wheelchair is equipped with PVC piping that can be pulled like a rickshaw. When he needs to move around, other Rainbow participants just pull him wherever he needs to go, even if that is through the mud and over tree roots. “It takes five or six people to get me back to the road,” Gordon said Saturday.

July 4 was a sacred day for the Rainbow Family, a loosely organized group of people who gather by the thousands in a different site every year to pray for world peace and celebrate unity. This year’s gathering is at the Parque Venado area in the Santa Fe National Forest near Cuba. Many participants observed complete silence during the morning of July 4 and sat in a circle praying silently for world peace. The silence ended about noon when a parade of all the children at the gathering broke the circle, causing the group to start cheering and celebrating.

While gatherings are sometimes marked by drug use and other disturbances, Forest Service spokeswoman Denise Ottaviano said this year’s has gone smoothly.

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Imagine…you could protest against government spending in the morning then head over to the reincarnation of Woodstock later in the day…only in New Mexico!