Published: April 18, 2009 12:00 am      

Protesters to gather today for city’s tea party

Johnstown’s version of the Boston Tea Party will be held at 1 p.m. today in Central Park for what organizers say will be a protest against big government and tax increases.

The organizers – a group of about a dozen people headed by Michele Trevorrow of Southmont – don’t know how many people will show up, but they’re hoping for a good turnout, she said.

Scores of the “tea parties” were held nationwide Wednesday in protests over government spending and bailouts.

Some of the events drew thousands of participants.

Trevorrow, a stay-at-home mother, said that she, like many other people, got the idea for the “tea party” after - by chance - seeing an on-air rant on Feb. 19 by Rick Santelli of CNBC, who complained that the Obama administration’s bailout of mortgage defaulters “rewarded bad behavior.”

With traders at the Chicago Board of Trade cheering him in the background, Santelli said it was time for a new Tea Party, a reference to the tax protest in 1773 by American colonists, who threw chests of tea cargo from ships into the Boston harbor.

Trevorrow said that she began floating the idea of a Johnstown party on the Internet, and from the response, the 11-member group emerged.

“This was as grassroots as it gets. It’s a mix of Republicans and Democrats,” she said.

Speakers will include an Iraqi War veteran, a German immigrant who became a U.S. citizen and a retired steelworker. The veteran will speak about the U.S. Constitution and the immigrant will discuss freedoms in America.

Rather than dumping tea bags in the park, the organizers have asked persons attending to bring nonperishable food items that will be donated to local food banks, Trevorrow said. Participants also are urged to bring along signs voicing their concerns, she said.