By Sean Patterson

Political conservatives in Central Kentucky gathered Saturday at Applebee’s Park for “Bluegrass Tax Liberation Day” festivities.

The event included booths for local conservative causes, face painting for kids, a “left-leaning” car that participants could hit with a sledgehammer, and an air cannon that fired tennis balls at blocks spelling out the words “taxes” and “debt.”

The event also featured speakers including Gatewood Galbraith and Leland Conway, a local talk show host on Lexington’s WLAP.

“We’re trying to get students to understand the Constitution and the economy,” said Lance Wheeler, vice president of UK Students for Liberty.The event was a continuation of the tea party movement that was held nationwide on April 15 to protest tax law and government-spending policy said Michael Otis, president of UK Students for Liberty.

“Bluegrass Tax Liberation Day” was organized by the Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions, a free-market think tank, said Jim Waters, director of policy and communications at the institute. Tax week was an appropriate time for people to express concern about the amount they are being taxed and what that money is being used for.

“The government was created for the people, not for the people to work for,” Waters said.

“The power to create money has been abused 100 percent of the time in history,” said Ginny Saville, a Richmond, Ky., citizen and member of Ron Paul’s Campaign for Liberty. The Campaign for Liberty let participants sign their bus and drew support for a bill they dubbed The Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009.

“The freedom of information act doesn’t apply to (the federal reserve) because they are a private bank,” Saville said.

Waters said the Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions is also working for more government transparency.

“A transparent government is a smaller government, less costly and more responsive to the people,” Waters said.

Jim Drake of Lexington manned a booth representing the weeks-old 9-12 Project that promotes nine principles and 12 values  supporters say will help them take back the country.

The project aims to bring back the sense of unity felt by Americans on Sept. 12, 2001 — the day after the World Trade Center and Pentagon terrorist attacks.

There are no officers and no hierarchy within the 9-12 Project, said Eric Wilson of Georgetown.

“It’s truly ‘We the people,’ ” Wilson said. “It’s like-minded people coming together.”

Participants at the liberation day event were quick to point out that the event was not limited to one party or the other.

“It’s not just republicans trying to redefine themselves,” Otis said. “Most of us have been fighting this for years.”

Waters said it was not about political parties. One party exploited fears about terrorism to restrict civil liberties, while the other exploited economic fears.

He said participants of Saturday’s event are working toward “restoring our freedom and revitalizing the principles that made us great in the first place.”