news-record.com

Counterpoint:

By Tom Green

As the organizer of the Aug. 14. Restore the Constitution Rally in Greensboro’s Guilford Courthouse National Military Park, I give credit for the success of the rally to the National Park Service rangers and the Greensboro police. Their help in managing the traffic and getting all the rally participants in and out of the park made the event run very smoothly. 

The only real incident we had was from the unexpected behavior of one of the guest speakers, Dr. Dan Eichenbaum from Asheville.  During Eichenbaum’s speech, he made the mistake of unholstering his sidearm and, while holding it over his head, proclaimed some major point of his speech.

This was a serious mistake, as it was a clearly stated rule for the rally that all sidearms were to remain securely holstered at all times, and the last person I expected to break that rule would be one of the guest speakers, especially one who had been running for a North Carolina congressional seat. You can’t be at a rally protesting others not adhering to the laws of the land, while breaking them yourself.

I know this was his first time speaking at a Restore the Constitution rally and he’s used to speaking at tea party rallies, so maybe it was a combination of excitement and the August heat that made him forget those rules. However, that’s still breaking the rules and his little mistake should have given the park rangers a reason to shut down the rally and tell us all to go home. Since I’m responsible for the actions of the speakers I invited for the rally, I want to publicly apologize for Eichenbaum’s actions to the rangers, the police officers and to the other speakers and those in attendance, from 11 different states, who managed not to break the rules at the rally. 

His actions were definitely not part of what these rallies are about. We’re in the early stages of putting together two more rallies, one in October and another in November, and I’m pretty sure he won’t be speaking at either. 

The writer lives in Burlington.