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POSTED: Saturday, Jul. 04, 2009

Hundreds gather in Bellingham anti-tax protest

For Sedro-Woolley residents Roger and Dana Dillard, the federal government's love affair with large budget deficits has gone on long enough.

So, alongside hundreds of like-minded people, the Dillards took to Meridian Street in Bellingham on Saturday, July 4, to protest.

Saturday was the second Taxed Enough Already Party of the year, and the event attracted crowds of flag-waving people who lined both sides of Meridian Street from East Bellis Fair Parkway to East Bakerview Road.

The event kicked off at noon, and an about 700 people had gathered by 1 p.m., according to an unofficial count by The Bellingham Herald.

Many protesters carried signs with slogans such as, "Give me liberty, not debt" and "Born free, taxed to death." Passing motorists expressed their enthusiasm by honking their horns.

Roger Dillard, who identified himself as politically independent and a past supporter of presidential candidates Ross Perot and Joe Lieberman, said he has been advocating balancing the federal budget since the 1970s.

Dana Dillard, Roger's wife, said the event was their first political protest.

"We've always been a horn-honker," Dana Dillard said. "We decided to stop. I'm tired of working 50 to 55 hours a week and being taxed more and more."

Roger Dillard said the experience was a rewarding one, and may inspire further political activism on his part.

"It's exhilarating, to tell the truth, to see this many people come out, to hear the cars honking," Roger Dillard said. "This is not the country that we want. This is not the country we were raised in."

Custer resident Gordon Bennett helped organize both TEA Party protests in Bellingham, and said Saturday's event was intended to get people to call their elected representatives in the U.S. Congress and express their displeasure at the federal government's size.

He said he was pleased with the turnout, which was smaller than the first protest in April.

"I just want to do it for my kids and my grandkids, because they're going to be the ones paying for all this," Bennett said. "That's our main message."