Rick Radecki, California organizer

Rick Radecki is a Tea Party organizer who is helping build April 15 Tea Party events in California. It brought a smile to my lips when I saw that Rick’s first foray into political organizing was with the Gray Davis recall back in 2003. That’s the spirit!

This is the tenth in our series of e-interviews with local Tax Day Tea Party organizers. (There are links to the previous nine interviews at the end of this post.)

Rick, when did you decide to get involved?

Recently, as I was getting dressed for work (early in the morning), my wife–as she usually does first thing every weekday morning–turned on the FOX News Channel and there was a story highlighing the “Tax Day Tea Party” movement–in particular, the official “ballad” being written and sung by some conservative activist (as I am married to a Black-Conservative-Republican, it was refreshing to see another such individual getting involved with a protest movement like this one). I immediately headed on into the office–following my daily 50-mile commute to Glendora from our home in Victorville (High Desert)–and signed up at the national web site. Right away, Mr. Meckler contacted me, and–as they say–”the rest is history.” I’ve been running ragged–but with a smile–ever since them in a whirlwind of activism.

Do you have any advice for other local organizers?

Yes! By all means, if you could at all do so, join forces with an many like-minded individuals as you possibly can. Don’t EVER try to do anything like this by yourself–you’ll most certainly burn out, get discourage and simply give up before you even get started. I was fortunate enough early on to hook up with the High Desert’s “setting-wrong-right-freedom-fighter,” the one and only Ms. Barb Stanton. She’s a firecracker of ideas and energy, and it’s a pleasure to work with such a community activist for all the right reasons. Just being around her, you can’t help but share her passion and vision for what we, as a people, can and should do if we set our minds to it!

Have you done anything like this before?

Yes. I was fortunate enough to have staged the Victor Valley’s own “Recall Gray Davis” rally sometime back, as well as being involved (and taking an active role in, as well) in a “Citizenship Rally,” both election campaigns for the Bush/Cheney ticket, and, currently, I’m the founder/president of a community-based campaign, called, “Save Our Grass,” whose aim is to better the playing conditions of our own professional baseball team, the High Desert Mavericks. We were even featured on KNBC-TV Channel 4 after some local dee-jays (the “Frogmen in the Morning” at KFRG-Radio out of Colton) got a hold of our front-page (Daily Press) story and pumped the web site (www.saveourgrass.com) in a way that brought in more broad community support for our campaign than we could have imagined.

What has been easy and what has been hard about putting together this rally?

The easy part–especially with folks out there feeling as if they’re being ignored in Washington, D.C. and in Sacramento–is getting folks to agree to attend our rallies. The hard–or challenging, I might say, instead–part is coordinating media contacts and making sure thay they (the local and regional/state media) do NOT paint us as a bunch of “out-of-control yahoos” that only represent a small, insignificant minority of the populace. But, even this can be overcome with patience and constantly staying on top (without barraging them too much) of media sources/contacts and present our plans and our ideas as coherently and with as much common sense as possible. Easier said than done, I know, but it can and should be done.

What’s at stake in the Tea Party movement?

What’s at stake is we, the people, knowing and truly believing that we DO have a voice and that our elected representatives no longer take us for granted. That’s big! That’s very big, indeed! Otherwise, we might as well crawl into a cave somewhere and wait for the end to come. If we don’t stand up collectively today, there may not be another opportunity where people will even feel compelled to come out, take a stand, and have a sense of power in what they do when we all protest a federal and state government that must constantly be reminded that WE are the government–not the other way around!

What are the main things you are doing to get the word out?

Phone calls, e-mails (especially the services of “Constant Contact”), contact cards, word-of-mouth, contact with newspapers, radio stations, TV stations, and the like. Tee-shirts and bumper stickers can also be designed to get people around you to at least be talking about the “Tax Day Tea Party” movement and affiliated protests around the state and the nation. “Facebook” and “Twitter” are great contact resources, too, and should be used to the fullest extent. Letters to the editor is another great way to inform the public about what we’re attemtping to do here, but doesn’t end there–there are a myriad of methods to getting the word out in plenty of time before April 15.

• Interview with Nathan Sather (California)
• Interview with Keli Carender (Washington)
• Interview with Matthew Givens (Alabama)
• Interview with Elaine Barnett (West Virginia)
• Interview with Melodye Aben (North Carolina)
• Interview with Christie Carden (Alabama)
• Interview with Laura Boatright (California).
• Interview with Pam Fowler (Connecticut).
• Interview with Felicia Cravens (Houston).