It's an American thing...

5:35AM. The view from the bedroom window was bleak.  Is that snow?  It was a morning that, if not for promises made, I would have succumbed to the urge to drift back to sleep.  Not today. Today we were going arm in arm with our fellow citizens to make our collective voices heard. 

"It's not a Republican thing... It's not a Democrat thing.  It's an American thing."  Partisan attacks were nowhere to be seen on this day.  We gathered... young, old, black, white, business owners, retirees and the recently unemployed... out of a growing anger that our representatives seem to have forgotten this great nation belongs to us all. 

By noon more than 400 patriots gathered, armed only with homemade cardboard signs and flags to protest wasteful spending, government bailouts, and special interests winning out over folks on Main Street. 

A young mother holding a flag and pushing a stroller with her youngest tucked inside asks, "When money is tight, I have to watch my pennies.  Why won't they?"

Perched on a busy intersection near downtown Fairbanks, we watched as car after car drove past with horns blaring and drivers waving in support.  More than a few stopped to offer boxes of tea.  One not-so-clued-in fellow stopped ten feet or so behind me, spooled the passenger window down and yelled out to anyone within earshot, "What hell are you people celebrating?" 

American citizenship, my friend.  The right to not only question our government, but to demand accountability from it.

A short walk later found us at the steps of the Federal Building.  Flags were unfurled as Lee Greenwood's God Bless the USA was heard for at least six city blocks amid chants of "Enough is enough" and "Stop spending my money."

Toward the end of the event a group of folks collected the tea bags and carried them to the office of US Senator Mark Begich. No violence, no arrests... just a group of citizens exercising our right to be heard.