PLYMOUTH – When Playboy magazine named Plymouth State the number nine party school in America, they probably didn’t have this in mind. The downtown common was buzzing Friday afternoon as a group of student activists, Students for Sanity, engaged in protesting the tea-party rally.
The Students for Sanity group was founded by PSU student Elyse Sedgley with the intention of redirecting national priorities for the youth back towards the youth. The PSU group protested down in Concord earlier in the day against conservatives who gathered to rally on “Tax Freedom Day.”
PSU Freshman, Angelica Rosenthal, spoke of the students protest down in Concord saying they went peacefully to Concord and were told to close their “dirty hippie mouths” and “buy their own condoms,” by Tea Partiers down in Concord. Rosenthal also felt it was offensive for them to be rallying in a college town, due to the education cuts which are allegedly looming on the horizon.
Sedgley mentioned that they learned earlier, from the protest in Concord, that the Tea Party was “misinformed, very angry, and will do anything not to pay the price for being in society.”
At approximately four in the afternoon, SAS members were back in Plymouth and engaged the Tea Party rally on the Plymouth common in protest, wearing their neon-green anti tea-party shirts while holding signs high above their heads.
A Franconia resident, Russell Cumbee, was in full support of the tea-party rally and arrived in full Patriot garb proudly flying a “Don’t tread on me” flag. Cumbee mentioned he was at the tea party rally because the “constitution has been abused.”
Cumbee shared his thoughts and desires to “reform a political system” that he believes is inherently corrupt, saying there is too many professional politicians in both parties who calculate behavior just to get themselves re-elected. He also spoke of the latest budget, saying it was an insult because the 2011 fiscal budget was higher than 2010, and cited the 14-trillion dollar debt the country faces. “This madness has got to stop,” Cumbee said about the spending, “you can’t do things that way.”
The tea-party is “not in favor of cutting education,” Cumbee said acknowledging the PSU protestors, but feels that “nobody will be safe from the pain” financially and “realistically people will have cuts.” The cuts do in fact have to come from somewhere, which Cumbee understands is the ugly part about the budget, because everybody thinks they should be protected.
PSU Senior and SAS member, Quinn Walker, was protesting the tea-partiers rally. “They’re trying to cut deficit, reduce Medicare and Social Security,” Walker said, mentioning how the war in Afghanistan is the longest in United States history and nobody is talking about cutting the Defense Budget.
Bob Giuda, who served three consecutive terms in the House of Representatives from 2001-2006, spoke at the rally in support of the tea-partiers. Giuda mentioned afterwards the Tea Party was here because they had an “obligation as citizens to take an active role in the governance of our community, state, and nation.”
“Out of control government spending is destroying our economic future. Out of control over-regulation is destroying our personal liberties,” Giuda said.
Later in the rally a speaker at the podium said the Tea Party is “here for you Plymouth,” and went on to discuss how controlling government spending is what is best for the youth of America in the long run.
The Students for Sanity group disagrees. Sedgley feels that the cuts to the Pell Grant, Americorp, Teach for America and the Environmental Protection Agency would be “impulsive actions and selfish program cuts,” that would set the younger American generation up for failure down the road.
The two sides continue to disagree, but look for updates throughout the week right here at theclockonline.com and on the Clock’s Facebook page where more pictures of the rally can be found.