How this all came about...
Floridians Unite happened by chance. In late February Lisa Feroli, inspired by reading about Stimulus Act protests in Seattle, Arizona and Denver, wrote in to local radio host Bud Hedinger asking if he knew of any local protests in response to the never ending government spending. When Bud told her that he was unaware of any protests, Lisa set up an email account under the name Floridians Unite and asked people to email her if they would be interested in uniting for a rally. Bud announced it on his show and the emails flooded in. Lisa received hundreds in the first few days with most responses excited to have an "Orlando Tea Party", and the next thing she knew, she was in charge of a protest. The same afternoon that Lisa sent that email to Bud, Rick Santelli made his infamous rant coining the "Tea Party" title and that inspired the national movement!
Lisa enlisted the help of her friend, Shelly Ferguson, father, Ron Tubman and sisters, Lindsay Gold and Christy Edney. With public contributions, local volunteers and promotion from Bud Hedinger and other local talk radio programs, they organized an event allowing Floridians to unite to show their disgust and anger over the wasteful Washington spending and the massive growth of government. The event was a huge success, uniting over 5000 people. On April 15th, Orlando held it's second Tea Party with hundreds of other cities across the country and helped to further energize the silent majority who want to protect the principles America was founded on.
The patriotism, unity and desire to hold onto our freedom we witnessed at all the Tea Parties has inspired us to continue the fight to reel in a government that has grown much too large and continues growing. The Floridians Unite crew are all ordinary citizens with full-time jobs, families and responsibilities. We realize that it is difficult to keep up with the convoluted bureaucracy that our government has evolved into. We hope to use this site as an information "hub" where people can quickly learn about pressing legislation and to stay vigilante in between the Tea Parties and marches. We can use this site not only to keep up with the next round of Tea Parties but also as a place where we can unite our voices with mass phone and email campaigns and organize rallies to inform our legislators know what the no longer silent majority wants and accepts.
We CAN stop legislation we don't approve of! If we stay UNITED, and we CAN vote out the politicians who don't have America's best interests at heart. With this site we hope to provide a community where people of all walks of life can overlook subtle differences and stand shoulder to shoulder in defense of our founding principles and our freedoms.
Floridians Unite, Inc.
P.O. Box 950674, Lake Mary, FL 32795
[email protected]