Tea Party Celebration

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Duration: 10 minutes

Country: United States

Language: English

License: CC Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike

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Posted by: lawson.bj on Dec 19, 2007

B.J. Lawson announces his Congressional candidacy at the the Ron Paul Tea Party Celebration.

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[Applause]
I have to tell you that this group, this movement, this excitement, has been unbelievable.
leaving surgery to start a software company, and having a lot of fun along the way, but I've never been involved
in politics. Politics always seemed so "out there", politicians are all bought and paid for,
it's all run by special and corporate interests, and I just wanted to be left alone to try and create value
as a free human being. It wasn't until I realized that we actually had one true statesman left,
there was actually one person who, unbeknownst to me, had been laboring tirelessly
in Washington for the past 30 years saying, "Hey, you know what? When we founded this country,
it wasn't just a bunch of guys getting around a table and saying 'Majority rules',
there was actually the Rule of Law involved, and there's this thing called the Constitution,
and if you listen to it, and if you follow what it says, it sets out what is the appropriate scope
and scale of the federal government, and let's leave all this other stuff, all the tough decisions,
all the hard work, let's leave that to the states and the local people.
Because they're closest to the action, and that's where the government can be the most responsive,
and it can allow us to have the most amount of freedom, and the most amount of liberty,
to pursue what is in our best interest as free Americans."
And boy, does that sound revolutionary, or what? [Applause]
I've had this splinter in my brain for years, thinking that something's not right,
and when I left surgery residency to start this software company, all of a sudden
I was in the process of creating jobs, of building a business, raising money, allocating capital,
building teams, trying to serve the market, and it was hard work.
Does anyone in here own their own business? Any business owners? That's good!
We NEED more owners in this country! We need to have folks who are not going to necessarily
get a job, but people who are going to create jobs. When I look at the experience that I had,
in getting out of a path towards a profession, i.e. medicine, and actually starting a company,
trying to create value in the marketplace, you begin to realize that things when you're actually trying
to create value for customers, and convince people to GIVE you money,
NOT to take money from people, but to convince people to GIVE you money,
boy, that's a big challenge! That's a big responsibility. And what would it be like
if our citizens, if everyone in this room, looked at a job application from the perspective of
"Yeah, I could get that job, I could take that job, or I could do my own thing over here"?
If you try to go out on your own, if you try to "be your own boss" and start your own business,
or to grow a small or family business, what are you dealing with?
You're dealing with IRS, EIN, SEC, you name it, there are tons of 3- and 4- letter bureaucracies
that you've got to navigate just to create value for yourself and your community as a free individual.
And I'm really pleased and thrilled to be out here this evening with such a great group of people,
I've really enjoyed getting involved in the Ron Paul movement because I think that the essence of it
is this idea that liberty and freedom as the ideals on which our country was founded
really get down to economic freedom, as well. And that's the thing that I find so exciting
and so empowering and I'm really excited to be able to share with us tonight.
We've got some great sponsors for the evening, the good folks at Ninth Street Bakery
gave us some fantastic baked goods, [Applause]
I was talking to Frank, the guy who owns Ninth Street Bakery, the cost of his organic whole wheat flour
is up 67 percent! Wow, go figure that one out. So, clearly, they're not getting a lot of corporate welfare
to help build their business, and they're not being paid say, NOT, to make bread, while we have
industrial agriculture being paid not to grow corn or wheat. How do I sign up for that job, right?
But here are small businesses trying to do a good job in their community, and are dealing with all these challenges.
I'd also like to recognize our sushi chef in the back corner, [Applause]
Now that is a craft, that is a skill! I can't do that! And it's just amazing to me that I can walk into a room,
part with a five dollar Federal Reserve Note, and get some REALLY good sushi. That's just fantastic!
Is this a great country, or what? We need more of that. We need more of that initiative,
we need more of that entrepreneurship, and in the way, way back I want to recognize
M.K. and Morgan... show of hands... now this is a startup business.
Ok, so we're talking about Carolina Biofuels and Greenway Transit.
So Carolina Biofuels has literally recycled an old Exxon oil terminal here in downtown Durham,
and they are taking waste vegetable oil and trap grease and stuff from restaurants.
Restaurants in the past had to PAY to get taken out of their fryers and hauled away and disposed of.
Well, you can actually create a business out of recycling that waste into fuel that will
get you around in a diesel car, or heat your home. How's that? That's a pretty good deal! [Applause]
but they're not getting a lot of corporate welfare, there aren't any tax breaks for their "exploration costs",
they don't have the U.S. taxpayer and military at their beck and call to secure their pipelines and so forth,
what they're doing is just taking advantage of an economic opportunity and making something happen.
What's so exciting about what we're doing here, and what we're seeing here
is that people who previously thought that our federal government was out of reach
are beginning to realize that no, in fact, it's not. And it can't be. And it shouldn't be.
Because if we do not want to completely lose our freedom to a government whose interests
are no longer distinguishable from corporate interests, now is the time to act.
I got into this not because I wanted to be a politician, but because I have three kids, and an amazing wife,
and I am really concerned about the nation and the direction it's going and what kind of world
my kids are going to inherit. [Applause]
It's been an extreme pleasure and extreme privilege... I see some kids waving up there, there we go...
It's been an extreme privilege working with such a fantastic group of patriots, and frankly folks that I
never previously knew existed. But I think that the amazing thing is that people are waking up.
And the problem is that folks are so BUSY. We're all busy, but people who are "middle class",
such that the middle class even exists any more, two income families, working two jobs,
it's all you can do to put food on the table, put the kids to bed, lather, rinse, repeat, and
So it is up to us, it's up to the people who have the inclination to get involved, to be involved,
to spread the word, and get our neighbors involved as well, because this is the time to act.
And our nation is being galvanized around the candidacy of one gifted and courageous individual
who has stood on principle for 30 years, and we're celebrating that tonight. We're also celebrating
the fact that lots of other people are getting involved too. We're about to hear from Mike Munger,
we've just heard from Bob Orr, we have people who are putting their voices into the debate,
and I hope, I sincerely hope, that many, many, many more of the people in this room
will stand up and say, "I want to run for office." Because until we get to the point where we get back
to a government that's of the people, by the people, BY the people, and for the people,
we're going to be moving in the wrong direction. There aren't any easy answers, there's no silver bullet,
we're in a bad position right now, but while we can't change our POSITION immediately,
we CAN change our DIRECTION immediately. And all we have to do is change the direction.
And that's what's so exciting.
Just for a quick money check, we have the Internet back up, what's the money bomb doing?
[Dana]: $16.3 [B.J.]: So we're at $16.3 million for the quarter, [Applause]
I imagine folks thought Ron Paul was kind of crazy when he said he'd raise $12 million for the quarter.
So $16.3 is pretty good. And I am really excited to introduce a good friend and courageous colleague.
I am going to be shortly giving up, well, shortly i.e., immediately giving up my leadership
of the Triangle Meetup, not because it's not one of the most amazing and rewarding experiences
I've had in my adult life, but because I'm in the process of launching my own candidacy for U.S. Congress
here in North Carolina. [Applause]
And again, I'm not a politician. If you ask me a question, you're going to get what I think at this moment in time,
we'll discuss it, we'll debate it, and we'll go to the mat because I'm just not good at talking around things.
Given our position as a country, it's too important for us to be talking around the issues.
We need to be talking about the issues.

Tea Party Celebration

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