Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

Ah, poor whiner. Give that women a Kleenex. Geesh. A nice little harrassment complaint from Tavares might be a nice thing to see. At least she should be help liable for his cell phone charges.

please...a 4th of July parade is no place to disseminate your political agenda

you tea partyers may be cloaked behind the Constitution and some sort of twisted idea of rebellion and revolution from having to pay taxes ... but we see you for what you are: just another right-wing front group.

the real revolutionaries were fighting for their lives and freedoms. you're fighting for your right to be greedy.

and real classy job bombarding tavares with angry phone calls instead of handling it in a respectful manner.

this is blatent agenda pushing by the bristol parade committee. All sorts of things are handed out by the folks on the parade route, and they have not been banned for life from the parade for such frivolous things. I will be sure to hang some "No constitutions allowed" signs on the parade route next year, just so other parade groups dont make the same mistake and bring such blasphemous materials to this event.

So reading more about this on the RI tea party website...

Basically, they acknowledge that the folks were with them, but justify it with "Well others were doing it too...and we are being picked on" Grow up! This is a patriotic parade and a celebration, and should not be used by ANYONE as a political platform. Save that for the Statehouse please.

The Tea Party, like the Cool Moose Party, have good intentions and could have gathered supporters, but they are just too short on common sense to be taken seriously.

Haven't the Tea Party "activists" realized that nobody cares about their "cause"? This pseudo-revolution will go down as the laughingstock that it is. Pathetic.

My God, what did these pamphlets say? I wasn't at the parade but did watch it on TV. The Boston Tea Party is part of our heritage so I can't imagine why all the hoopla. Obviously, I am missing a major problem with this group. Could someone fill me in please?

How the hell is handing out copies of the Constitution on the 4th of July equated to disseminating a political agenda?

The Bristol Fourth of July Committee and Mr. Jim Tavares have caved in to politics-as-usual in Rhode Island. Their discriminatory behavior toward a group of taxpayers peacefully getting their message out about being over- taxed on a parade float is counter productive to the whole reason behind the celebration and parade in general.
Mr. Tavares and the Parade Committee should be ashamed of themselves for their actions. We need to hear from the Committee and Mr. Tavares in particular. What was the real reason for his angry protest against the Tea Party members?
Citizens who support the Tea Party Project decided to pass out copies of the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights to the public. This date and place were absolutely the correct time to remind us what the 4th of July is all about. Since when can we citizens not promote the documents that made us free? Last I heard, Bristol, which was fired on and occupied during the Revolutionary War, was part of the USA.
No patriotic music was allowed on the float. The Tea Party members on the float complied with all parade rules, and additional ones imposed on them arbitrarily by those in charge. Flyers were not distributed from the float. These rules did not apply to other groups such as the Munroe Dairy, David Caprio, candidate for Governor of RI and the roller blade group. Their members handed out written material to the parade viewers.
These tactics against peaceful citizens of this country are un-American and have cast a deep dark shadow on free speech and have sullied the patriotism associated with Bristol in years past.

This is NOT a right-wing group - there are democrats, republicans, independents, non-affiliated voters that are a part of this group. And Mr. MDC, WE ARE fighting for our liberties and trying to do it peacefully. Unfortunately those before us lost their lives and blood was spilled for our ability to freely do so. Where is the greed in saying that the middle class - who are the ones who continue to be taxed seemingly ad infinitum - will not be able to support their families? Liberals always love to spend everyone else's money...do the words STIMULUS PACKAGE mean anything to you. It's a miserable failure. It's stimulating nothing but continuing to fund the bankers and mortgage companies and poorly run automobile industry that got us into this mess in the first place. WHERE DID THE MONEY GO????? Unemployment is inching up to 10% nationally! That's 30 million jobs!
People have to start waking up and speak their minds about bringing manufacturing back to the US and stop trying to employ others all around the world when our own are suffering and depending on government handouts for their livelihood!!
Handing out the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, etc. is a patriotic action that supports the founding of this country and absolutely belongs as part of a celebration of the 233 years that we have existed as a country!

I too overreacted to the RI Tea party email and left a phone message I regret. I called back and apologized to Mr. Taveres for the call, and my stupidity. Mr. Traveres was correct that the Tea Party was in violation of the rules for having handouts on the float. Those could have been given to anyone along the route by someone in the crowd, but not from the Float. Children have been killed by floats in parades and the rule is one for public safety. I do not think publishing a person's personal cell phone in a mass email is conscionable. Again, I apologize to Mr. Traveres and hope all this settles down. I hope people will not withhold support for the parade next year. I will be contributing to it as much as I personally can.

Wow!
So the facts are in. The Tea Party float fully complied with all the rules set forth by the parade committee, but one individual, who just happened to be wearing a yellow tee shirt, was passing out free copies of the Declaration of Independence to those who wanted it. All day long, and from the sidewalk - with his 11 year old son. On Independence Day no less! This kind of subversive heresy cannot be tolerated! The Bristol Parade Committee is right to ban the Declaration of Independence from its' 4th of July event. Hopefully they will also be able to remove all copies from the Bristol Library as well. I suspect that many Bristol residents also have copies at home. Clearly we must have a house to house search to seize all other copies and burn them as well. The Town of Bristol is no place for such radical and subversive literature! Thank you Mr. Tavares and the Bristol Parade Committee for your vigilance and protection.

If the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights do not belong at a *4th of July* celebration, where on Earth do they belong? This is not "pressing a political agenda", this is celebrating history.

The 4th of July is not about roller derby, milk delivery, and glad-handing your constituents, except in the oblique fashion that the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights are the historical documents, brought about by incredible and powerful events, that enable free and sovereign Americans to engage in them. Without those historical events, and the documents that secured and celebrate them, we would not be free today. There would be no parades on the 4th of July.

We might be celebrating when something auspicious happened in Buckingham Palace, but that's about it. We'd be celebrating when Covington won the FA cup, and George Washington would be that dirty traitor who dared try to rebel against the Crown.

It's easy to look at the TEA Party people and say "I don't agree with their politics" and denigrate them. It's a simple thing to cobble up some silly reason to deny them a place in the parade. But then, it's always been easy to be a bully and a bigot. The difficult thing is to listen when you don't agree, to discuss, and to persuade.

Try unhooking your mouths from your gonads for a change and hook them to the overdeveloped ganglia between your ears and see if something besides emotional, knee-jerked bile spews forth.