Thank you to everyone that attended yesterday's Tea Party rally!

We had a couple hundred in attendance which was great considering the weather and considering we moved locations earlier in the day to avoid the fury of Mother Nature.

The speakers this year were fantastic to say the least!  Carl Rhodes led off giving a fiery sermon of conservatism, followed by the always entertaining, always informative, and always poignant Dr. Joe Hartmann.  Due to the weather, several of the speakers were arriving as the rally progressed.  Patrick Hughes, Dan Proft, and Adam Andzrejewski all came from the northern reaches of Illinois fighting hell and high water (and high wind) to be in Effingham to address the crowd.  All the speakers did a fantastic job of informing the crowd, not just rehashing what we already know!  Thank you to them!

A special thank you goes out to Stephanie Rieman who, as Effingham Tea Party co-coordinator, acted more as sole coordinator this year since I was unable to really contribute much to setting up and organizing as I would have liked to have this year due to student teaching, running (and winning) for public office, and work.  If people only knew what she does behind the scenes both for the Tea Party and the Republican Party, they would build a statue in her honor.  Stephanie is the model that all Precinct Committeemen and politically active citizens should strive to be!

Stephanie did have help though!  Late last year, we formed a Effingham Tea Party Steering Committee consisting of Tea Partiers that have consistently stepped up to help during the elections and other times.  Without their help, we would have been struggling to get everything done.

Finally, at the end of the rally yesterday, there was the showing of Atlas Shrugged at the RMC Cinemas at the Village Square Mall.  Effingham was one of a hundred or so cities (and one of the smallest) that the movie opened in yesterday.  Dr. Joe Hartmann, Bob Schultz and others were vital in convincing the distributors of Atlas Shrugged to bring the movie to Effingham. 

We made the 10pm show of Atlas Shrugged last night.  Having read Ayn Rand's book by the same name, I was very pleased with the movie.  The movie doesn't have the action, explosions, or gratuitous profanity we have come to expect from Hollywood.  Instead, we are treated to a film that delves into the issues we face today - despite Ayn Rand writing about them in 1957.  We see a government bent on destroying personal individual achievement and business innovation.  While Rome begins to burn, heads of industry and talented business executives come up missing, with nobody being able to find them.  Despite the increased pressure from government and its aligned business interests, a few individuals attempt to persevere only to meet one challenge after another, facing each head on - all the while using the power of the individual to over come each obstacle.  The movie is only Part 1 with Parts 2 and 3 coming in consecutive years, each to be released on April 15th.

Thank you again for yesterday!  Atlas Shrugged will be playing all week, so take the time to go see the film, it is well worth it.  You will see many, many issues that we face today in the film...and remember, Ayn Rand wrote this book over 50 years ago!