By MATTHEW WHITE April 4, 2009 By TOM GIAMBRONI Staff Writer LISBON — They’ve had enough. That’s why Duke and Christy Bennett are helping organize a modern-day Boston Tea Party to be held at noon April 15 in the village square and everyone is invited. The purpose of the protest is to get the attention of elected officials and let them know everyone isn’t happy with what’s been going on in Washington of late. “We’re not a bunch of radical and crazy conservatives, and we have some Democrats and liberals, too, who are just sick of how things are going,” said Mr. Bennett, who lives with his wife on Oak Grove Road, Wellsville. The Tea Party idea is a grassroots movement that has spread to every state, organized by Americans concerned about events that began occurring last fall and accelerated in the three months since President Barack Obama took office. So-called tea parties have been occurring across the country, promoted on the Internet and by some conservative radio talk show programs. An event held last month in Cincinnati drew an estimated crowd of 5,000. Mr. Bennett doesn’t expect those numbers at their event, but he believes their Tea Party will draw more than 100 attendees. “There’s a whole bunch of people who are upset with the direction of this country,” he said. The Bennetts and others believe the policies and laws enacted by Obama and Congress are ruinous, from the trillions of dollars being added to the national debt to actions and laws they believe are unconstitutional and will only erode the nation’s individual and economic liberty. “They are taking away our liberties and moving toward socialism at break-neck speed, and that’s not what this country is about,” he said. What Mr. Bennett finds particularly irritating is how the majority in Congress is ignoring the people’s wishes in passing laws and gigantic spending bills without the revenue to pay for them. “When we call up and say this bill is bad they still vote for it,” he said. The Tea Party was adopted for its obvious symbolism. The Boston Tea Party of 1773 was undertaken by America colonialists upset with the British tax on imported tea. Colonists dressed as Indians boarded British ships in Boston Harbor at night and dumped the tea overboard in protest, becoming one of the prominent events leading up to the American Revolution. Mr. Bennett said the Tea Party emphasizes the need for the government to get back to the ideals of the Founding Fathers and the U.S. Constitution, and they hope protest events such as this will help convince them to do so. “There’s got to be real change in Washington, not a change toward socialism but back to what was started by our Founding Fathers,” he said. April 15 was also chosen for symbolic reasons by the Tea Party organizers because it is the filing deadline for income tax returns. Some of the organizations adopted the acronym TEA Party, for Taxed Enough Already Party. The featured speaker is Tim Ginter, who ran for state senator last year as a Republican. Bennett, a minister currently without a church, is sure opponents and the national news media eventually will attempt to “demonize” the movement by portraying the organizations as hate groups or anti-government extremists. He said nothing could be further from the truth. “We aren’t full of hate. We just want to see that they follow the Constitution,” he said. “Our Founding Fathers set up a country that turned out to be the greatest in the history of the world ... and in a few years they want to tear all of that down,” Mr. Bennett said. “It’s the same thing that happened with Rome. It died from the inside.” tgiambroni@mojonews.com