UPDATE: Hwy. K & N protests continue
The K&N Patriots is an undulating group of area residents who gather each Saturday from noon until 2 p.m. on the east side of Hwy. K at the Hwy. N intersection. They gather to rally around ideas in protest of the current liberal policies that appear to be gaining traction in the federal government.
The ranks swell then shrink, pulling back momentarily in order to propel forward and spread out – very much an organic movement determined to resist becoming engulfed by one of the two political parties. And, while opposition to government-run healthcare prompted a number of individuals to join the ranks, the goals have expanded beyond a single issue.
Janet Allquist, of O’Fallon, the group’s founder, summed up, “…K & N Patriots are determined to take back our country in the 2010 elections. We have just begun to fight and we are in this for as long as it takes to achieve our objectives of defeating the emerging socialist legislation, supporting conservative issues and the U.S. Constitution, and electing conservative candidates for national, state and local offices in 2010.”
While the K&N Patriots make appearances at related events such as the recent Tea Party in St. Charles, other groups with similar sentiments frequently join the K&N crowd on Saturdays to demonstrate solidarity with founding principles.
“It’s interesting,” said Cindy McGee, one of the organizers of ShowMePatriots.com. “There are separate groups, each one with a little different slant or a different approach, a different purpose. But we’re united on the basics and it’s working.
“It’s truly grassroots,” she said. “It came right up out of the ground – we all want to preserve liberty and restore what’s been lost from that amazing document our founding fathers presented us with 236 years ago. The Constitution was ratified by the people. Not the states. The people aren’t any dumber today than they were back then but they don’t understand the freedoms that come with personal responsibility instead of enslavement to government programs.”
McGee can literally go on for hours both exhorting like-minded individuals to join in this movement while simultaneously educating herself and her compatriots on political history and political activism.
Touting a lecture series held regularly at Pillar in the Valley, Chesterfield, hosted by ShowMePatriots and IHeardthePeopleSay.com, McGee said common, ordinary people are learning how to affect change on the political scene.
The stay-at-home, home schooling mother of five and grandmother to 21 has always been all about education. Now, it’s taking on a different flavor.
McGee has learned one thing and is advocating for it: “We want citizen representatives in Washington. Not career politicians who only want to get reelected. That’s what’s causing us to lose our country – all the deal making and ‘you scratch my back.’ We’ve forgotten out founding principles.”
Some think that a third party could deliver those citizen representatives and an effort is underway to get a conservative party started in St. Charles County.
McGee shies away from that theory, as does Bob McCarty, of St. Peters, who is a fulltime blogger at bobmccartywrites.com.
“I’m not big on or in favor of a third party,” McCarty said. “While I support the ideology and a return to the Constitution, third parties never turn out well.”
McCarty is a “born conservative” and veteran of both the Air Force and Oklahoma congressional politics.
His public relations and communication abilities are displayed on his blog which he has operated fulltime for three years, currently ranked in the top 200,000 blogs of the 12 million online.
McCarty’s role is getting out the word about the K&N Patriots, tea parties, rallies and town hall meetings at his Web site where he also shares information and his observations of politics on the national scene.
“We must unite behind those with conservative values,” McCarty said. “It’s conservatives at K&N, the tea parties who are getting involved to reshape the country, get back to the Constitution. …if we don’t we’ll have four more years of Barack Obama and this Congress.
“But there’s no magic pill,” McCarty said. “It’s going to take a lot of people who are motivated.”
McGee, of ShowMePatriots.com, is optimistic about the numbers of motivated people she’s meeting on a daily basis now.
“Back in the ‘80s there was the Reagan Revolution,” McGee said. “This is a revolution too – not the scary kind – but a peaceful one. There’s one difference. This time, there are more of us. That’s good too, because if we fail, we’ll lose our country and it will be our fault.”
The patriot movement is often faulted with being an unruly mob driven by racist sentiments. Local organizers are determined not to let their groups become labeled with those charges by a being guilty of rude behavior.
Allquist is dedicated to the peaceful-yet-determined aspect of the movement. A recent cautionary e-mail prompted the K&N followers to maintain their dignity and act respectfully.
With a willing media anxious to make anti-left protestors look bad, Allquist urged: “I’d like to see us holding our composure, not losing our cool and not giving the other side an opportunity to infiltrate one of their own into our crowd and then setting us up to look bad…”
With 40,000 motorists traversing the busy intersection daily, the situation became ripe for the inevitable counter protest from the southwest corner of the intersection. An occasional bullhorn taunt is aimed at the southeast corner.
“We don’t have to respond to anything they say from across the street,” Allquist suggests. However, those who would like to take up a station on the northwest corner are welcome to. “Just be careful crossing the street,” she advises, sounding very much like the grandmother she is.
You are very confused and
You are very confused and mis-representing the facts.
You know nothing about the K & N folks and your post proves it.
In your last edition, you had
In your last edition, you had an article on the K&N Patriots, I think a better title for the group would be the K&N Self-serving Hypocrites. What you have is a small group of very loud, very well off people who have secured a nice position in our society and are now kicking the ladder out from under the ones who have not made it yet. They offer no solutions, but stand on the corner spouting the slogans and lies that the corporate lobbyists and the Demigods have fed them. What they don’t know is that we the people, the majority of average Americans are getting sick and tired of their nonsense.
O’Fallon Missouri is the perfect place for these hypocrites, who are willing to draw Social Security and who use or will use Medicare, to assemble and cry Socialism. O’Fallon’s median household income is around $60,000 while the state of Missouri’s is $45,000 and St. Louis city’s is $29,000. Most if not all of the “protestors” probably have a household income of more than $60,000, maybe closer to $100,000, which would be more than twice the average Joe’s family in Missouri and three times what a family in St. Louis lives on. They have the best healthcare possible, while denying a chance for the best healthcare to half of US families and children who are either underinsured or uninsured.
Millions of people are only one illness or accident away from bankruptcy. Health insurance premiums are going up by 30% a year. Younger and healthier people are dropping insurance and taking a chance causing the health insurance companies to lose those premiums that would pay for the older and needier people’s services. Costs are rising for us who have to scrimp and save to pay our premiums, while they stand on the sidelines and cry wolf.
Something needs to be done! I am not a fan of Nancy Pelosi and have been a Christian and social conservative for more than 15 years. If even a small group of Republicans would have worked with the Democrats, they would have had input and could have influenced the way the present bill looks. But the Republicans were influenced by a small group of loud and ignorant self-serving individuals who don’t really understand the problem.
This “grassroots” group needs to pull their heads above the soil and see the light of day. This country’s political system is Democracy, which is of the people, by the people and for the people and it is there to preserve and protect our general welfare and serve the common good. Our economy is based on Capitalism which is governed by self interest. When the self interest of a few people or a few companies or corporations threaten the general welfare of the people, the people have the right to legislate and provide rules, regulations and laws that protect them.
I only wish that the Republicans had served the people’s interest as well as the Democrats. The House bill is a good bill that gets people insured at a price we can afford now and in the future.