The Rug is Pulled Out From Under the Atlanta Tea Party

The Atlanta Tea Party organizers had all the t's crossed and the i's dotted for their Independence Day tea party. That is, until a bully with a big pencil eraser showed up. On Thursday, with just two weeks left before July 4th, they learned that the owner of the property where they were planning their protest had revoked his permission.

The planned site of the tea party, the parking lot of an old Macy's building, is adjacent to Gwinnet Place Mall, owned by Simon Properties (http://www.simon.com/). Simon Properties pressured the owner of the Macy's building to disallow the Atlanta Tea Party from holding their protest in the parking lot. Although Simon Properties does not own the parking lot, they were able to assert authority on the matter due to recipricol property easement agreements.

Fellow Tea Party Patriots have done a little research and discovered that Simon Properties has made financial contributions to several Democrat members of Congress, as well as the Democratic National Committee. This probably comes as no surprise.

In case you are interested (and I know you are) Simon Properties has several holdings in the Cleveland area:

• Summit Mall in Akron
• Southern Park Mall in Youngstown
• Aurora Farms Premium Outlets
• Richmond Town Square
• Great Lakes Plaza
• Great Lakes Mall

You and I, my fellow Tea Party Patriot, are in an uphill battle. It appears we are opposed by large companies with deep pockets and even deeper ignorance. Ignorance of what they are doing to their own futures by supporting the march to socialism. Wealth and ignorance is a combination that is very difficult to fight, but fight we must. We can win this battle if we remember a simple fact: corporate decisions are not made by corporations, but by people. Ignorant and stubborn people, perhaps, but people none the less. Maybe your neighbor is one of these corporate decision makers. Maybe your influence can be the beginning of a change; a small change, but all we need is many many small changes.

We also need to let the store owners who lease space from Simon Properties know just what their landlord is doing to them. (Store owners are people, too, don't forget.) It would be hard to calculate the revenue the merchants in Atlanta's Gwinnet Place Mall will lose because their landlord decreed there will be no large crowd of people there on July 4th. They need to know that their landlord is working to create an economic circumstance that will make it increasingly difficult for them to survive, much less thrive and grow. Maybe the city leaders in Aurora need to know that the owner of their sparkling jewel, Aurora Farms, is working hard to hasten the day that business goes out of business. We need to tell them this.

The official press release is at the Atlanta Tea Party website (http://www.atlantateaparty.net/).