Moms Organize Tax Protest 'Tea Party'

This is a rush transcript from "Glenn Beck," March 24, 2009. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GLENN BECK, HOST: Don't — Geez, it's a militia flag. I've seen those people.

This video from tea parties from all over the country for the past month, people fed up with their government forgetting, you know, the principles and values, et cetera.

You know, could we come up — that's the problem with people who are libertarian or conservative. They're all, like, "USA." We need better slogans. We need to be a little more creative, I'm just saying.

With me now are two of the organizers of Saturday's tea party in Orlando, Florida, Lisa Feroli and Shelly Ferguson. Hi, Ladies. How are you?

• Video: Watch Beck's interview

LISA FEROLI, ORGANIZER OF TEA PARTY IN ORLANDO, FLORIDA: Hi, Glenn.

SHELLY FERGUSON, ORGANIZER OF TEA PARTY IN ORLANDO, FLORIDA: Hi, Glenn.

BECK: Do either one of you work for ACORN or a union? Or were you paid to set this rally up?

FEROLI: No. Not at all.

BECK: OK. You're actually just two moms. And Lisa, you were the one who came up with the idea for the rally. Why and how did it happen?

FEROLI: It just came out of frustration after the stimulus bill passed and seeing the push towards — just the growth of government that has been going on. And everyone around me was just expressing anger and sadness about what is going on and felt they couldn't do anything about it.

So I thought I'd take a shot at it and see if I can maybe get some action.

BECK: And Shelly, you got involved when you got an e-mail. And you guys are — did it make you feel better? Do you feel you have accomplished anything?

FERGUSON: Absolutely. Standing there looking out over all those people was amazing and seeing all those people come together and the unity and how warm everybody was. And everybody really wanted to make a difference.

I had to go out into the crowd several times. And everybody was just so passionate about it that, yes, I really feel like we made a difference.

BECK: You know, I was in Orlando this weekend and I really wanted to attend. And I just couldn't work it out because of my kids. I needed to put my kids as a priority this weekend, so I'm sorry I missed it.

But I have heard a lot of people and this is one of the reasons why I started the 912Project.com is so people could meet and talk and organize and, you know, just share ideas and learn from each other.

But the one thing that I have heard from people is they say, "You know, I don't know. I'm not an activist. I'm not somebody that does this. I mean, am I going to be surrounded by freaks or people like me?"

What did you find? Did you find you were surrounded more by people like you? Or, you know, was there any time that you were like, "I'm kind of afraid of what I might meet there?"

FEROLI: No. Not at all. The e-mails that came pouring in after we were on the radio show were so supportive, just regular people reaching out just wanting to do something and not knowing what to do but just glad somebody was reaching out to them and trying to give them an outlet to have their voices heard.

BECK: All right. We have another break, right? OK. I want to come back here in a second and I want to ask you because I saw some of the signs in the rally. And I want to talk to you about what these tea parties are and what they've turned into. What is the message here? We'll do that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: We're back again with Lisa Feroli and Shelly Ferguson who organized Saturday's tea party in Orlando, Florida which drew more than 5,000 people. And they are happening all over the country. You can read more about them at the "912Project.com."

But let me ask you this. Ladies, when I saw the coverage — by the way, there were 5,000 or 6,000 people there. And I saw the local coverage and they said there were hundreds of people there.

When I saw the coverage, I did see some signs that looked like they were anti-Obama. And I just don’t think that that's what these rallies are about. Did you notice that? Or did you fear that going in, that people might make this an anti-Obama thing?

FEROLI: We stressed that from the very beginning that it was non- partisan. We are, you know, upset with both sides of the political spectrum. And people are expressing their free speech. And we really didn't want to say, "You can do this or you can't do that" ...

BECK: Sure.

FEROLI: ... because, you know — but we focused specifically on constitutional rights and people were educating themselves.

BECK: I was very impressed with your lineup. And you took the idea of let's talk about the Constitution. But then, you did a grievance scroll. What was that?

FERGUSON: That was a scroll that Bud Hedinger, the radio host ...

BECK: Yes. WFLA, by the way.

FERGUSON: ... helped us spearhead this.

BECK: Yes.

FERGUSON: Yes. That was his idea. He took a list of grievances on air, and took out the best ones, put them on a scroll. It was written in the same form as the Declaration of Independence. And it had a list of grievances, the best ones that he got on the air.

And people came up and signed it, and we had over 2,000 signatures. It was 40 feet long. And even now, people are calling in, desperate to get their signature on that thing.

BECK: Well, ladies, are you done now? Or are there other things that you are planning in the future? Have you just begun?

FEROLI: We feel like we have to keep it going now. We have so much momentum. We have so much support from everybody in Florida and beyond, actually. So we feel like we have to keep going.

BECK: Ladies, two moms from Florida, doing good. Thank you very much.

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