RIPLEY - The shelter house was full of people Saturday afternoon at the Ripley village park where a crowd gathered to protest current government policies, just hours after Congress passed the Cap and Trade bill that, if passed by the Senate, will put a tax on carbon emissions.

The two-hour long event featured four speakers including State Representative Danny Bubp, former Congressman Bob McEwen, local attorney Bill Flax, and former East German resident Harald Zieger.

Zieger, who was born in Austria, gave his unique perspective on socialism and government control. He said he has become very concerned with the direction our government is heading and drew several parallels between current government policies and the formation of the East German socialist government.

“When I saw the Homeland Security memo listing dangerous people it made me recall my experience with the East German Stasi (secret police) because they had the same paper,” Zieger said. “When I read it I was worried maybe some of the former Stasi members had infiltrated the DHS because they sounded so similar.”

Zieger said he was raised a communist in East Germany because that was all the schools taught. After marrying his wife and becoming a Christian he left East Germany and returned to Austria in 1985.

“But Austria had a socialist government and they were not free either,” Zieger said. “I knew then that we had to get to the only free country on Earth, the United States.”

The Austrian immigrant warned of what he called the dangers of socialism. He said the recent government bailout of Chrysler and General Motors was against the U.S. Constitution and warned that it may only be the beginning.

“In the 1970s the communists of East Germany erased more than 5,000 small companies,” Zieger said. “They didn’t want to have them because they couldn’t control them. Now our government has only taken over giants, but who says it stops there.”

Zieger said the silent majority has sat back for too long and allowed progressives to defy the U.S. Constitution. He said too few have stood against them before now because of the “irresistible desire for the absence of pain.” It is easier to be complacent, he explained.

“To understand the Constitutional principals the President is ignoring you need to understand history,” Attorney Bill Flax said. “The original colonists were self-reliant, adventuresome, and intelligent. What they learned by building their communities from the ground up was priceless.”

Flax said local government has a greater understanding of the needs of the people in their community and therefore the Federal government should limit itself to only doing what is absolutely necessary for the survival of the country.

“Government is a compact among men to exercise their God given rights,” Flax said. “It’s not some mystical power you turn to whenever you’re in need.”

He went on to discuss numerous problems with the nation’s educational systems and specifically bureaucratic control of those systems.

“School lessons are ignoring the things that make America unique,” Flax said. “They want to change America so it can be more easily merged into one world order. It’s surrender by subterfuge.”

Flax stressed the importance of studying the Constitution and other documents from the founding of our nation in the context they were written.

Former Congressman Bob McEwen spoke on poverty in the U.S. He said that while many claim the gap between the rich in the poor is widening in America, it is important to look at the U.S. in comparison to the rest of the world.

The state of Louisiana, which McEwen said is often looked at as having a high poverty level, especially after Hurricane Katrina, still today has a higher Gross Domestic Product than the entire country of Indonesia. McEwen said even a world leader like Russia has a smaller GDP than the state of New Jersey.

“The greatest hope of all time is freedom,” McEwen said, “and freedom is having choices. Because Americans have greater freedom than any other nation, we are the wealthiest nation on earth. With greater freedom comes greater wealth and with greater government comes greater poverty.”

McEwen used Korea as an example. He quoted a figure that 2.5 million people starved in North Korea last year while South Korea is one of the 10 wealthiest nations on Earth. He said that with their similar geography, climate, and culture, the only difference was their government. North Korea’s communist dictatorship has taken citizens’ choices away and led to poverty while South Korea’s democracy has allowed citizens to choose a life for themselves and many have become wealthy through their own hard work.

McEwen said America continues to be the world leader in innovation because Americans can choose what to do with their lives.

Colonel Danny Bubp said as he was driving down to Ripley he passed people pulling boats and campers, and others who were in convertibles or on motorcycles just out for a drive.

“People are out there enjoying life,” Bubp said, “but there’s a storm brewing and people are not paying attention. Last night Congress passed ‘Cap and Tax’ and Steve Dreihaus voted for it.”

Bubp said the Cap and Trade bill would be one of the largest tax increases in U.S. history and would come at a time when Americans cannot endure an increased tax burden.

He also said Zieger’s firsthand experience with socialism was a very important lesson for everyone.

Zieger said the goal of the tea party movement is to educate Americans, and especially American youth about the Founding Fathers and the U.S. Constitution. He said the rallies are a chance for people to form grass roots groups in their hometowns to begin to make their voices heard.

“We want to get people educated about their rights and what they can do to protect those rights in a legal way,” Zieger said. “When you start this kind of movement these rallies are little straw fires. They quickly burn bright then die down. We need to organize before they disappear.”

“There needs to be a flame that’s fanned and spread all across the country,” Bubp said.

The crowd that gathered was not limited to Ripley residents. There were politicians such as Ripley Village Council member Scott Eagan and State School Board member Jeff Hardin. There were also residents from Clermont County and northern Brown County.

Ripley resident Dotty Prevost came to join the rally.

“I came because I love my country and I’m concerned about where we’re headed,” Prevost said. “It’s like a steamroller. The government keeps pushing forward with its agenda and people don’t seem to notice.”

Lee and Cathy Brink drove down from Bethel before the announcement was made that a tea party will be held at the Bethel Community Center on July 6.

“We don’t like the direction the country is going,” Lee Brink said. “Politicians completely ignore the Constitution and the President has been destroying the country. I just wish the rest of the world would wake up to what the guy is doing.”

Larry Steimle, of Sardinia, has watched several tea party rallies on TV and was looking for the chance to attend one himself.

“We need a change in our country,” Steimle said. “We’re going the wrong way and the government has too much control.”

Tom Crush was one of the organizers of the event and he thanked everyone for coming.

“If nothing else, this has let all of us know we’re not alone,” Crush said.