May 2009

Mellanie Morgan

Melanie Morgan was awarded the "Conservative of the Year" award said "We will not back down - our battle cry is 'freedom'."

Our guest speaker for our May meeting - Melanie Morgan - was greeted with a standing ovation from the standing room only crowd of more than 250 people. As the emcee for the San Jose Tea Party, Melanie's early comments reiterated that citizens of all political persuasions agree that we have had "enough big government."

Despite the overwhelming grassroots nature of the tea parties, the media never gave them their due. Melanie told the audience that we would never win over the mainstream media. Rather than somehow think that will change, we must learn to accept that fact. She proudly proclaimed to the very large audience that she had been chosen by Keith Olbermann as the "worst person in the world" three times.

Melanie voiced serious concerns about the direction the country is headed. She pointed out that socialists do not believe in freedom; and we are seeing that in the first few months of the new administration. At the same time, she was heartened by the tea parties where 80% of the attendees had never been at a protest rally in their lives.

She laughed at the charge that the tea parties were the product of the Republican Party, indicating that the GOP "could not put together a tea party for two." She told the enthusiastic crowd that "We will not back down, and our battle cry is 'freedom'." Despite her concerns, Melanie felt that we will overcome "Obama's cult of ideology."

Now that many who have never been "activists" before have now participated actively in the process, we must keep it going. Melanie told the very receptive audience that "we cannot just be against things; we must be for something." She said we must "stay up to the plate." One of the questions posed was "Where is the plate?" The plate can be Move America Forward, The Conservative Forum, and the tea parties. We must stay active, and become more and more involved.

Melanie took 35-40 minutes of Q&A before we surprised her by presenting her with our second annual "Conservative of the Year" Award. The first recipient was Ward Connerly. She was very gracious, and very much enjoyed her visit to The Conservative Forum of Silicon Valley. She encouraged people to check out her website at www.melaniemorgan.com.  It was a great night for The Conservative Forum.

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