“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”   A rhetorical question, for sure, however, this question comes to mind when I think of the recent weekend spent in Washington, D.C.  A small group from Central Florida, including several OCREC members (Jason Hoyt, Linda O’Keefe, Barbara Seidenberg, Kelli McNair-Lee and Peter Lee), made the trip up the weekend that Congress was voting on healthcare reform.  Yes, we knew the odds were not in our favor, as a scheduled vote meant that the votes were there to pass it.  Nonetheless, each of us felt that not only was it our civic duty to stand up against this federal intrusion into our lives, but, at the end of the day, we wanted to be able to say, with all certainty, that we did everything within our power to affect the outcome of this vote.  We owe future generations no less!

 

Well, we all know how the vote turned out, which made the trip back home all the more longer, but, was the trip worth the effort and expense?  What was gained from this endeavor?  On the Saturday before the vote, approximately 40,000 ‘concerned’ Americans gathered, with just 3 days notice, from all across the country, to voice their opposition to the actions being considered by our so called ‘representatives’.  After the rally, many of these same patriots went to the Congressional Office Buildings to lobby the legislators.  Jason Hoyt, Barbara Seidenberg (Babs) and I went back to our hotel to do our weekly radio show, Tea Party Patriots LIVE (WORL 660 AM).  Our plan was to return to the Capitol grounds for the second hour of our show, which we did. 

 

As we approached the Capitol, I saw a site that stunned me to my very core, a site that has only been rivaled once in my life, which was witnessing the birth of my first child.  Upon witnessing my daughters birth, it reinforced, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the idea that God does indeed exist.  Upon witnessing thousands of American citizens standing shoulder to shoulder, many holding hands, as they literally and figuratively surrounded the U.S. Capitol in it’s entirety, in a futile attempt to get those inside to respect the will of the people, well…it reinforced my belief in the citizens of this country, in the American spirit and the future of this great nation!  So was the trip worth it?  You betcha!  It could only have been a better experience had more of my fellow citizens made the decision to go…

 

Which brings me back to my opening question…did it even happen?  I saw no media presence at the time, have seen precious few mentions of it in the press, since, and little discussion on it.  So, if a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

 

Tom Tillison