The Tea Party Express, featuring former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, rolls into Boston Commons Wednesday on its way to Washington D.C., after having visited 45 other cities since March 27.
Palin and the other special guests at the event, including “Boston Talks” talk show host Michael Graham, WRKO talk show host Todd Feinburg, 60-Plus Association Associate Chairman Jim Martin, former “Saturday Night Live” cast member Victoria Jackson and “Home Improvement” actor Jim Labriola, are expected to be met by both supporters and protesters throughout Boston.
A group of four Boston University students prepared for the protest by creating signs in the Women’s Center in the George Sherman Union on Tuesday evening.
The signs read messages such as “I voted for health care,” and “Make coffee, not war.”
Students planned on meeting at 9 a.m. at Marsh Plaza and then walking over to the Boston Commons as a group.
Nick Geron, a College of Arts and Sciences sophomore, came up with the idea for the protest after the D.C. Tea Party events
“It was that weekend that the Tea Party was protesting and camping out in Washington,” he said. “I was getting angry about that and getting pumped up about health care. I found out that Sarah Palin was coming here and so I wanted to get BU involved in some way.”
“Sarah Palin unified the progressive movement in its total dislike of everything she stands for, so it was pretty easy to get people riled up about it,” he said.
CAS sophomore Maggie Green, a member of the on-campus organization BU for Barack, was one of the many who planned on protesting Palin and the Tea Party.
“I campaigned last year for Barack Obama . . .and I just wanted to get the message out there that there are people out there with opposing views to Sarah Palin,” she said.
Green said her goal for the protest was to show “an intelligent point of view.”
“You don’t need to use hate and foul language to get your point across,” she said. “Maybe the government is not doing such horrible things, that this nation hasn’t become a socialist state but that it’s actually OK and that maybe some people are blowing things out of proportion.”
Geron said he was hopeful that at the rally, members of the protesting group would be able to peacefully talk to constituents of the Tea Party Movement.
“I hope to just engage a group of people that we at BU never really get to talk to because there aren’t really that many Republicans around, or they’re not that vocal about being Republican,” he said. “They’re mostly fiscally conservative Republicans which I know is what the Tea Party is, but especially because Sarah Palin is going.”
Abby Cote, a CAS freshman, was excited for the rally because she was looking forward to getting involved.
“I think this’ll be a good opportunity to submerge myself in political excitement,” Cote said. “I want to show that there is a force of people who are opposed to this.”
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