“We peacefully assemble. We petition our government. We exercise the right to free speech. And we don’t understand why the government tried to stop us.

I’m not here at as a serf or a vassal. I’m not begging my lords for mercy. I’m a born-free American woman, wife, mother and citizen.

And I’m telling my government that you’ve forgotten your place. It’s not your responsibility to look out for my well-being and to monitor my speech. It’s not your right to assert an agenda. Your post, the post that you occupy exists to preserve American liberty. You’ve sworn to perform that duty. And you have faltered.”

— Wetumpka, Alabama Tea Party President Becky Gerritson before the House Ways and Means Committee, June 4, 2013.