Tonight for the Orem Tea Party meeting we discussed what type of content we wanted to present on our Facebook page. Many people will use their Facebook as their public forum rather than a web page. The nice thing about us being a relatively young organization is that we can determine right from the beginning what we want to accomplish.

Unfortunately many national media resources that don’t condone highly conservative opinions (small government) have slandered organizations who hold beliefs they don’t agree with. For example: One Tea Party was accused of calling Nancy Pelosi names when she walked through the crowd holding her gavel. Yet the accusers weren’t able to provide proof; even when a reward was offered.

I have a specific example of where I logically and non-emotionally presented some concerns about the Obama Health care. I referenced specific quotes and pages of the bill. Certain individuals who were pro Obama Health care responded by name calling. That seemed like an illogical means to win a discussion.

The theme of the Orem Tea Party (OTP) is ‘A rising tide lifts all boats’. We want to promote and preserve the good of America.

Here are some of our key objectives:
1. We want to be a source of legitimate information. We think this could be achieved by providing a link pointing to an area of information we want to share. Many links would point to a mix of left or right leaning media sources.
2. It is our hope to hold back the tide of bad ethics and behavior of local and national government.
3. Provide resources to learn the constitution and correct history of America without a propaganda slant.
There will be some unhappy news we’ll share and some upbeat news. Each time individual members post something to the OTP Facebook; we hope to provide a link where we found the information. Various members will post things they learn throughout the week that will cover a rich variety of topics.

Here are some of the sad things, we plan to post:
1. References to local or national corruption with links to left and right media sources. This would not be limited to any specific political party. If the rag is dirty, the rag is dirty.
2. References to the misuse of tax payer money.

Some positive things we want to share on our Facebook page.
1. Stories of patriotism, heroism and acts of compassion (Example: acts of valor during 911)
2. Acts of integrity or talented people who present the best of man/womankind.
3. Local events we feel would be useful to our readers.
4. Sources to learn more about the US constitution (Hillsdale College) or the correct history of the United States (void of propaganda.
5. If we see a good act taking place, locally or nationally, we want to promote it. We have started a discussion of doing a car wash where the payment is a bag of food we’ll clean your car and then we can donate that food to a food bank. This will be a win/win combo clean car/ food bank.

Some General info that should be of interest:
1. Links to city minutes of various Utah county cities that touch upon events that could affect all of us.
2. Voting records of various politicians to see if they practice what they preach.
3. Status of events in the state that keeps the readership informed (such as Utopia or the bridge across Utah Lake or the convention center in Pleasant Grove.)
4. Various links that would enable our followers to be more informed citizens.
5. If a member attends a political meeting or city meeting and they take notes of that meeting, they are invited to share those minutes with the rest of the group. The advantage of this is we start becoming the eyes and ears for one another when we all can’t be everywhere.
6. Links to articles of current hot topics that are being discussed or voted on, both nationally or locally

Those are just a few things we hope to accomplish with our OTP Facebook page.