Mar 31, 2009 11:23 pm US/Eastern
South Floridians Plan Tax Day "Tea Party" Protests
FORT LAUDERDALE (CBS4) ―
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A modern day "Tea Party" is being organized online for April 15th. In Miami one will be held at Bayfront Park.
CBS
Nine-month-old Brody O'Brien is more interested in eating crayons then using them as tools of protest. Three-year-old Austin O'Brien is still learning about the United States and its symbols. But these kids are the main reason their mom Lauren is organizing a big protest in Fort Lauderdale, joining more than 300 other cities around the country, demanding an end to stimulus spending and corporate bailouts.
"To think of how much my daughter's going to have to pay at three-years-old. We have nothing and we're paying for people who didn't make the best decisions," said O'Brien.
O'Brien's protest is part of the nationwide Tax Day Tea Party. They are protesting taxation without representation, like the Boston original.
O'Brien says she Americans are not being properly represented. "We have our Congressmen in there, we have our Senators. No one's listening to us."
Using the Internet, more than 20-thousand strangers nationwide have promised to attend local Tea Party protests.
Before protest day, thousands of families like Lauren's are sending the President and Congress tea bag labels, a symbol of grassroots dissent of which Lauren is proud.
"It just gives you goose bumps to see that many thousands of people out there, that really care. I thought that part of America was lost someplace, but I guess we found it again."
The Fort Lauderdale Tax Day Tea Party Protest will be held outside the Federal Courthouse from 5:00 to 8:00PM.
The Miami version will take place at Bayfront Park from 6:00 to 8:00PM.
Both events take place on Tax Day: Wednesday, April 15.
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