I know there are a lot of disappointed people about the Dartmouth not going to DC this year and I truly apologize for any inconvenience. I was told (by Freedomworks) that Freedomworks was making necessary arrangements but aparenty that was a lie. There is a history to this that you should know from last year, and that I should have paid more attention to before committing to taking the Dartmouth. If it were not for risking having the Dartmouth impounded and not having it availble for our event on the 18th I would go anyway.

912 -2009 when trying to get the Dartmouth into the 912 March, we were graciously given some runaround tasks and then finaly told by Brendan Steinhouser that the DC police would not allow the Dartmouth to participate. This turned out to be a bald faced lie and after consulting with the DC police, we confronted (by email) Freedomworks president Matt Kibbie with this fact. His response given in an email from Brendan; “we raised the million dollars to put on this event and we will do it our way”. (Never mind that the money came from the Tea Party donors)

It was only after being confronted face to face and threatened to make the cash cow Tea Party aware of what had happened Mr. Kibbie relented and allowed the Dartmouth in at the eleventh hour.

Since no arrangements had been made for staging the Dartmouth, I placed it in an unused parking area adjacent to the park where the March was to begin. We set up the masts and decorations and then soon all the trouble started.

Some DC police decided they didn’t like the March and we were harassed and made to move several times, requests for help in staging fell on deaf ears. I was threatened with arrest and having the Dartmouth impounded several times. I made a tape of some of the officers who all quickly lowered the level of the conversation when the camera came out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jahn27oF8Lc We eventually had the Dartmouth surounded by hundreds of people to prevent it being moved again.

This year I thought Freedomworks would be more cooperative and I asked that parking for staging the Dartmouth be arranged ahead of time. Once again I was given a runaround task and told Freedomworks would follow up and get this arranged. I didn’t find out that the event had been moved from Freedom Plaza until the general email came out. No arrangements for parking the Dartmouth have been made and my emails are not even acknowledged.

Freedomworks is good at seeming to work with you while in reality giving you the runaround. In reality they won’t brand their event as anything but Freedomworks and having an icon of the movement too involved takes that branding away. I offered to help with providing a stage and sound for the beginning of the event at no cost and Freedomworks wasn’t interested.

There is an old saying; fool me once shame on you and twice shame on me. Well shame on me and again I apologize for any inconveinence. I urge you to go to the event if you made plans as it is not just about Freedomworks. There will be millions of others there and it will be an exciting event even without the Dartmouth.