Party? Not so much...

My Patriot group had a Tea Party yesterday in our town.

We made a lot of mistakes. And got a lot of complaints.

Sigh.

Our events up until now have been, on the whole, successful. This time we allowed others to have too much control of our event...silly us, we never saw it coming.

Our idea was to have a Tea Party that was the sort with a stage, and speakers and music...a focal point, rather than our typical gathering of patriots lining an intersection of a major thoroughfare interacting with the passersby...enjoying the honks and waves and "thumbs up" of approval of the people in cars as they drive by.

This time we invited several local leaders to speak, and asked them to keep their remarks to 10 minutes.

The first woman for whom I normally have great respect...at least as a fellow traveler and colleague, so disregarded our requested time limit, I'm tempted to say she spoke for 30 minutes!

The reason I can't say for sure, because it was only after much time had passed and she showed no sign of slowing down or concluding that I thought to try to figure out how long she'd monopolized the microphone.

And she was the model for every single speaker after her.

And can I say something here? My particular idea was to have "ordinary people who are doing extraordinary things"....the real heroes of the Tea Party...speak. There is one problem...it turns out ordinary people—even those doing great things— aren't necessarily good public speakers.

Nor, apparently, can they tell time.

It was a hard thing to learn in real time...as your hard-earned crowd gets restless, grumpy and then gets gone in a steady trickle until there is not much more than a handful left for the last speaker.

And did I mention that Tea Party people are not reticent with their criticism? (Sometimes everyone knowing who you are is not such a great thing.) My very favorite helpful critique was the blunt assessment of a woman who was actually mad at me:  "This is the worst Tea Party event I've ever been to, " she all but shouted.

Sigh.

I'm so glad we had that big banner made and hung it up over the stage so that EVERYONE knew exactly who was responsible for our man-made disaster.

So...

We learned a lot. And it was that painful sort of lesson that assures one will never forget.

Next one: a big random, protest event where people in my town do what they like to do best...stand along public roadways annoying drivers...with a "program" at the end...with one inspiring speaker with a short speech, a lot of music, food and socializing, other "after event party activities".

I get it.

Hell of a way to break your nose though...falling flat on your face...in public...with a big sign over your head telling everyone who you are.

Ouch.

The Gunslinger
(Zombie Killer, Vampire Hunter; Wolf Pack, and yet...second rate Party Planner)