Hundreds of local people had a message to send to political leaders in Washington, D. C. Wednesday: ‘You have run out of our money.’

Taking part in one of thousands of Tea Parties across the country, the overflow crowd in Laurel met in front of the Jones County District 2 Courthouse. However, so many people showed up to protest high taxes that people were packed on not only the courthouse lawn, but also across the street. At one time, there were people packed onto 5th Avenue, blocking traffic.

“Higher taxes — to protest higher taxes and the socialization of our country,” Joan Martin of Laurel said. “This is nonpartisan. It’s just people that want to take our country back. We want to preserve our constitution.”

Allen Hill, one of the local coordinators, gave a list of taxes people pay, including a new tax that Mississippians may face this summer.

“And I’ve got more good news. Come July 1st, according to our state legislature, it appears that when you go get your tag for your car, your taxes are going to double! Isn’t that wonderful!” Hill exclaimed to a jeering crowd.

Speaking about another movement, the 912 Project, Richard Conrad said Wednesday’s Tea Party was just the beginning in a grassroots movement to counter Washington spending. He spoke with several values and ideas the 912 Project holds, saying current politicians in Washington, D. C. should go — all of them. He said all incumbents should be voted out of office.

“We’re going to use these values to get our government back in the values of the constitution,” Conrad said. “We need to get statesmen up there to return our country back to the founding principles and get them out of your pocket and out of your life.

“It’s not un-American for me to disagree with authority or to share my personal opinions. The government works for me. I do not answer to them, they answer to me.”

Noting that people taking part in the Tea Party may receive some backlash from people opposing ideas, Sen. Chris McDaniel (R-Ellisville) said he personally likes the movement against status quo.

“Hello, fellow radicals!” McDaniel said. “I don’t see radicals. I don’t see terrorists; Homeland Security might disagree. What I see are statesmen and I see patriots and I see perhaps the most important strand of our DNA and that is the longing for liberty.”

McDaniel, the keynote speaker at both the Laurel Tea Party and a main speaker at the statewide Tea Party in Jackson Wednesday, said it’s time Americans stop feeling like strangers in their own nation.

“Right now it seems like millions of us feel like strangers in our own land,” McDaniel said. “We’re become two countries, two people. Our older Americans seem to be passing away and a newer America is coming to rise in its place. It’s a government out of control. It’s a government that’s become oppressive.”

Maintaining the fact that the Tea Party movement is not Republican or Democrat, McDaniel pointed out what he called outrageous spending from both current President Barack Obama and past President George W. Bush. He said two executive departments have been created during the past eight years, the first entitlement program in more than a generation was signed by President Bush, and the nation has seen the fastest growth of spending. He said the national budget hit both two trillion and three trillion dollars under Bush, and the budget is “magnified” now under President Obama.

“There is no such thing as a big government conservative,” McDaniel said. “We will turn this car around. We are not going to live in conditions of bondage, conditions of slavery because we know just like President Reagan knew that all forms of collectivism ultimately and logically lead to one place and that is tyranny.”

McDaniel also said he, along with many of the people cheering in the crowd, is tired of paying bills for other people.

“We are not going to pay for your mortgage payments,” McDaniel said. “We are not going to pay for your car payments and if General Motors can’t make it on its own, then let it fail.”