Imagine this:

10,000 people gather downtown on the steps of the Rath Building to protest the mismanagement of County Government. Each brings between $1.00 and $5.00 worth of pennies and casts them on the steps of county hall with a shout of "I'm doing my part to help, Joel!"

Facts:
  • 100 pennies ($1 worth) weighs more than half a pound.
  • Times 10,000 people is 1,000,000 pennies weighing almost 3 tons in a pile 30 feet wide and 4 feet high.
  • Times 5 ($5 worth) is 5,000,000 pennies weighing nearly 14.7 tons in a pile 50 feet wide and 7 feet high.


The time for closed-door meetings and politics-as-usual is over. It's time to rise up, people of Western New York!

The founding fathers didn't wait for things to play out from the top. They took matters into their own hands in Boston Harbor when the British Crown taxed their tea through the roof. It went down in history as the Boston Tea Party.

Would it be worth $5.00 out of your own pocket to watch them squirm in shock, awe and amazement at the discontent they've unleashed? Would you pack your own lunch for a day to gain that satisfaction?

It's time we as a community showed the same demonstrative clout we showed when the Bills went to 4 Superbowls, when we showed support for those who died on 9/11 and the support for our troops - by gathering on a massive scale, and using the symbol of our government mismanagement and waste - the penny - to put our elected officials on notice that the time for politics is over, and to make them choke on their own foolishness.

Tell them to cut the pork! Kill the patronage - ALL of it! Have county workers use their own cars and drive themselves! Trim services reasonably and responsibly and force them to tell us what they will do without, before asking us...for "just one more penny!"

Enough is enough. And let's organize the Buffalo Penny Party!