Hartford Tea Party Video – Jim Vicevich Speech

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeQPxjcsJko]

Transcript:

We do this in front of a tree because this is a… It is a mighty tree indeed is it not?

It is indeed.

Let’s make this speech because I think we’re making  our state… But we like our state police officers very much.

So ladies and gentlemen you read the constitution. That is one job they should be fully funding. That is their job.

They keep us safe.

But you’ll notice they don’t have to keep anyone safe around us because we’re well behaved.

We know our constitutional rights.
We know the law.
We behave.
We behave and we follow the rule of law.
Now we are asking our legislators to follow the rule of law.
We’re asking them to read the constitution.
Here we are in front of this mighty tree and it is a mighty tree indeed.
It started out like this [Jim demonstrates with his hand].
That is how it started out.
This takes us back some 300 years and when Sam did it he was drunk.

I understand now why he drank.

Perhaps I should have had something to drink.
I can assure you this and I can assure them this [pointing to the Capitol and LOB] this is just the beginning.

And I mean it from the bottom of my heart. It is not your money.

There will be people who will walk by and they will not understand what I’m about to say.
But your very personal freedom and the liberty that young 15 and 16 and 17 year old boys fought for in 1776 and died for in 1776 is absolutely at stake.
They put their lives on the line.
They put down their pitchforks and they picked up their guns for the name of liberty because they knew what it meant.
They crossed the ocean in the smallest of ships with their babies and their children because they knew America was the last best hope of freedom and liberty.

When you give them all of your… the earnings  of all of your hard work you turn over your freedom and liberty to them [pointing to the capitol].
They will tell you they are here to help you.
They will tell you you don’t have daycare we’ll give you daycare.
You don’t have  a job we’ll give you a job.
You don’t have college we’ll give you college.
You don’t have retirement we’ll give you retirement.
And you don’t have health care we will give you health care.

But when you give them your money,
when you give them your liberty,
when you let them give to you what you’ve already earned
they then tell you what day care center you will go to and when.
They then tell you what schools you will go to and when.
They then tell you what and when and where and how you’ll retire and how much you’ll retire on.
And finally they will decide what doctors you see, what diseases they’ll  treat and which members of your family will get treated.
Make no mistake it starts small so you have to decide which will grow bigger.
Your fervor and your zeal to stop this now and grow this into a big tree or are you going to let a government which is already this size grow even bigger.
So when Rick says to you if you understand what the stakes are,
if you understand that it’s your money,
if you understand that that is not their title [pointing at the capitol] that we vote them into that office then you will get out and you will do what they do.
Except getting your dead relatives to vote.

Don’t. Do not. I have asked my father, not the other father, the father that lived here [pointing to the ground]. I have asked my father who has now been dead for 30 years if he could just please if he would just vote one more time and he said Jim that would be unethical. That is what the other side does.
I can tell you you can learn from it and here’s what you can learn.
2010 is fast approaching.
They are already lining up their candidates.
And they are already sweating bullets because they know what’s coming.
Now they think those seats belong to them.
They think it’s a blue state.
They think that they can’t possibly ever leave office.

Demonstrations are great.
What’s better is what’s coming in 2010.

Rick… Rick said it. You are the beginning of the movement.
This is how it started in Boston on a town green. There weren’t much more than 40 or 50 people there when Sam Adams would give his speeches but people heard and they listened and he came back over and over and over again.
Now you have to each one of you be a Sam Adams.
Minus the beer.
You need to go out.
You need to go out and you need to talk to your neighbors and you need to no longer be afraid to talk about the things you believe in inside a blue state.

And so when someone tells you that well you don’t care about the poor you tell them that not only do I care but I want them to be as rich and as great as they can be.
And they tell you that well you don’t care because they don’t have health care you say we think they would get much better health care if they had the ability to pick it themselves instead of having it chosen for them.
You tell them you do care about kids who have an education.
An education system that is locally based and not run from Washington D.C..
You do care that teachers are paid well because they’re teaching your kids.
But not paid well for just going through the motions.
You tell them that you do care and that you do have a plan and that you’re not a party of no because we are not…
we are not…
we are not…
we are not a group of people.
We are not the party of help me.
We are the party of can do.
So let’s do it.
Do it.
Go out and talk.
For the next year and a half you go out and talk and you talk and you talk and you talk to your friends and you convert them and you bring them over to the party of liberty.
You bring them over to the tea party.
And you tell them that in November of 2010 you will send a message that will indeed be heard around the world.

Thank you all for coming out.

Now go do it.
Go do it.
Go do it.
Don’t just walk away.
Go do it.