THE SQUARE NAIL: PARTYING on the SQUARE

What a gorgeous day in NW Arkansas for a tea party. It's 75 degrees with a nice breeze.

Mike and I approached the square and it looked like a normal Thursday with the Farmers Market going on.

But as we headed around to the Town Center...

Actually the Town Center was not this active when we arrived because we were an hour early. This picture was made as we left.

One paper put the crowd at 1,000; another put the number at 400. Quite a disparity, eh? Mike said it could have been a thousand. He set up our sharechair on the front row and we were unable to see behind us accurately.

My sign won the contest for Best Sign on the Front Row.

I wondered if there were any troublemakers in the crowd, so we swapped chairtime and I went wandering through the participants earlyon.

I didn't know this lady, but she epitomized the enthusiastic spirit of the crowd. Plus she won for Best Headdress.

Another lady went by with a button that said "Bitter Clinger".

Now this guy had the real talent. He won for Best Signage Coming and Going.

This is what he said on one side...

This is what he said on the other.

Remember you can click on the picture if you'd like to make it larger.

This lady went through the crowd offering buttercreme mints wrapped in red/white/blue. Look at that cute little bow in her hair.

The pregnant anchorlady in purple waited to catch the special speaker.

Someone started singing "God Bless America" as we waited. And the introduction contained a real

prayer.

Dick Morris did a great job speaking. I wondered if they might bring him in through the building behind him. Nope. He came straight through the crowd to the front.

The man in the straw hat is the organizer of the Washington County Tea Party. The young lady on the right introduced Dick Morris. She was DYNOMITE. I wish everyone could have heard her speak. She was a Fayettevillian mom/wife and works with Americans for Prosperity. Seriously, Morris should put her on TV.

One of my take-aways from the talk was about socialism. Dick Morris says that the word is not a title, but a statistic. He said when President Obama took office, the percentage of money under government's control was 28%. In just a year and four months, it is now 36%...and when the full effects of healthcare kick in it will be 41%. That would put us in a tie with England, two less than France at 43%, and on and on until Sweden has the highest percentage at 54%.

And so I'm thinking...hmmm...each of my dimes they spend...are dimes I don't get to spend or to say how they are spent. I can be assured by history that they won't be spent as a good steward or even effectively (as I look back at how the War on Poverty came out). One part of my liberty is to be able to give according to my heart's direction.

These are the candidates for Congress running in the Republican primary. This morning they all promised not to raise taxes if elected.

Mr. Morris finishes and walks past us to make his way through the crowd. I left my finger in the picture so it was obvious I hadn't cropped him to make him look close.

Allison, do you see your Daddy in the picture?