GOSHEN — It's a throw back to the Boston Tea Party in colonial times. People are using the symbolic tea again. This time, they aren't protesting a tea tax, instead taxes and irresponsible spending in Washington.

Across the country, people are pouring tea into rivers and lakes. Now, economic conditions in our area having people planning to do something similar. It was prompted by rising unemployment and the failure of the RV industry.

"We sort of feel like the epicenter of this thing because Obama came here, Huckabee came here, we have high unemployment because of various policies that have been enacted recently," said Elkhart County organizer Bob Moore.

That's why Moore and a local group are making posters and trying to get people from all parties to take action.

"Our initial agenda is we're concerned about this. Our second agenda is we're watching how you vote. If you say one thing at home and do something else when you're voting, we'll know that," he said.

Moore says some of the protest is politically motivated, but most of it is not. He says it's about fiscal issues and spending. The effort is crossing generational lines.

"This spending is going to affect not only my generation, but the generations to follow. That's their future and they should be interested in how much they're going to have to pay," said organizer Andrew Beacham.

Beacham says they're hoping to send that message home by targeting local post offices with their protests on the day most people will be filing their income tax returns.

"To not only people who are showing up to mail their taxes, to say 'Hey we're here for you people, we're supporting the small businesses. We're supporting the individual freedom by doing this,'" he said.

Even though Tea Party protests like this are gaining popularity around the country, political experts say their impact may not be felt for a little while.

"I think it's a way to build up at the local level and then the national level... Then, maybe in next year's 2010 midterm elections, (they'll be able to draw) greater and greater public criticism of and opposition to Obama and the Democrats taxing and spending plans," said Saint Mary's College Political Science Professor Sean Savage.

He says that strategy has worked with other issues in the past. In the 1960s, there were protests over inflation that started out as a campaign aimed at housewives and their grocery bills.

Savage says the protests were directed against the Johnson administration and Democrats in Congress. It quickly became more of a national movement and had an impact on the mid-term elections in 1966.

Local organizers say that impact would be great, but they'll be happy for now if people see there are problems like Elkhart County is experiencing everywhere.

"I'm seeing that it's Orlando, in Fort Myers, in Colorado Springs and San Diego. And they all think it's a local issue and it isn't," Moore said.

The proof of that may lie in the fact that there are so many of these events already taking place. One of the local organizers told me they may not appear to be very well organized nationally, but the events are being organized quickly and they're all working toward a common goal.

The organizers told me that these events are not about rebellion, but about restoring government.

Rallies are planned for April 11 at the Elkhart County Courthouse in Goshen from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Two other rallies are planned outside the Goshen Post Office on U.S. 33 and the downtown Elkhart Post Office April 15 from 6-9 p.m.

There is also a planning session on March 28 from 4-5:30 p.m. at 115 E. Lincoln Avenue in Goshen.