A voice suffering from Government Tyranny – simply for being TEA Party – Part 2 - Granite Grok

A voice suffering from Government Tyranny – simply for being TEA Party – Part 2

“I think the IRS needs to fix its labeling machine: we’re the San Fernando Valley TEA Party not Occupy Oakland”

In addition to Becky Gerritson, another TEA Party founder by the name of Dr. Karen Kenny  of the San Fernando Valley TEA Party testified to the Congressional committee on the targeting that they received from the IRS (emphasis mine):

Thank you Mr. Chairman.  John Adams knew that facts are stubborn things. In this district, facts are hidden under the mantle of office.  They get used as tools or weapons but they wait for us. We must seek them with the Lamp of Truth and put them into words.

But you and I speak languages in this Republic. You speak the language of Power, of pen, purse, and gavel. I speak American grassroots, the language of Liberty, through Providence, Property, and Civic Virtue.

We seldom speak together about The Rule of Law unless it is ignored or violated; now is such a time. I have a story that bridges the distance between my State of California and this Capital.  What I say here must be said here.

The Pilgrims brought to this continent a lamp of Liberty guided here by the pursuit of life within the words of Moses and Christ. They persevered through righteous freedom.  We sit here in the shadows of Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln.  We visit here memorials to those who fell in service to this Country. They persevered for righeous power.  The spirit of the Patriots living and dead grants me the right to be here.  It is my duty as an American Citizen to speak here today.

In October 2010 the San Fernando Valley Patriots, a not-for-profit corporation in California, applied with the IRS for a 501(C4) status as a tax exempt social welfare organization. We were then and remain today, a TEA Party group affiliated with the national TEA Party Patriots.  We heard nothing until February 2012 when I received a packet from the IRS exempt organizations office in Cincinnati, OH which included a questionnaire with 35 items divided into 87 points of inquiry. a cover letter indicated that we had 20 days to comply without penalty including penalties of perjury for failure to answer all questions with facts that are true, correct, and complete. Generally the questions were demanded read like a chilling words from the 1950s: “Are you now or have you ever been…”

The IRS sought documentation of our meetings, rallies, events, or candidate forums. That included video and audio transcriptions, notes, copies of all handouts, the political parties of speakers, and issues list.  The IRS sought identifying information on employees, data on volunteers and members plus employer identification numbers on businesses with which we associate – these are our donors.  They have names, Mike the printer who gave us a discount on handbills and Dee the beauty consultant who donated posters for our tax day rallies and Greg the electrician who made a stand for our 9/11 banner out of pipes and wires.

The IRS sought EINs and details on our association with tax exempt organizations.  These are our teachers, they have names: The Heritage foundation, FreedomWorks, the National center for Constitutional Studies where we learn American History.  The TEA Party Patriots where we learn grassroots skills and the West Valley Food Pantry (our charity).

The IRS sought out details of communications with our legislators; even in Southern California that is protected Free Speech.  My personal favorite was Question Number 33 which, in relation to protests, asks for a listing of our “committed violations of local ordinances, breaches of public order, or arrests” the requested details on how we conduct or promote illegal activities.

I think the IRS needs to fix its labeling machine: we’re the San Fernando Valley TEA Party not Occupy Oakland.

I stopped the costly and exhausting IRS process in July 2012.  We survive on my credit card and donations in our cake till like Patriots before us – we persevere.

The voice of the Republic resides in our Citizens and not in the tongue of Government. More must grasp that self-evident truth.  This dialogue is about the jack-boot of tyranny upon the field of our Founding Documents.  To whisper the letters “I.R.S.” strikes a shrill note on Main Street USA but when this behemoth tramples upon America’s grassroots, few hear the snappings sounds. Now, more people listen but few who know the truth speak.

This moment reflects the reality of Governance in America. This time we came to you and in time, you will come home to us.  This time we came for truth, in time the lies will fall.

Vox Populi Dei – the voice of the people is the Voice of God is irresistible but different in America.  Our voice belongs to the free Individual, not to the Collective mob. Our voice is best heard when Power kneels and then whispers to Liberty’s strength and when Liberty stands under Heaven, it shouts to Power: FREEDOM!

Once again, we see Government trodding where it shouldn’t, assuming Powers that no one but itself has given to it.  Liberals and Progressives pooh-pooh the idea that the US Government can act in any fashion other than what it permitted – such an example this is.  Their only defense has been “stupidity or too large to manage” – and either drives a silver stake through their primary mantra that only Government is inherently good or intelligently to manage the rest of us.  Stupidity means that Progressives, for all of their bloviating,  are incapable of using the levers of power now resident in our overgrown Government (er, not even dog catcher?).  Too large means an admission that what they have built, they have lost control of.  As a past and voracious reader of science fiction, destruction often comes from our technology – this just shows that Man can be just as destructive and Men desirous of Power (more than the Capitalist for the Dollar) is even more to be feared.

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