Tea Party Group Steps Up to Help Ferguson's Burned Businesses

Christmas is on the way, and just prior to Thanksgiving, many in Ferguson, MO have little to be thankful for and Christmas looks bleak. Rioters burned their businesses and destroyed their jobs, over a story that has turned out to be a lie.

Those burned businesses represent lost income for the city’s working residents, lost tax revenue for the city, and lost confidence in law and order that could take decades to rebuild.

But according to the Daily Signal, a local Tea Party group is stepping up to help out.

That’s where Bill Hennessy, a founder of the St. Louis Tea Party Coalition, hopes to help.

Hennessy drafted a list of eight ideas to save Christmas in Ferguson and help DuBose and other business owners and employees.

“Who got hurt last night?” he wrote on his blog Tuesday. “1. People who own businesses. people who work at businesses. 3. People who rely on businesses.” He continued:

Time is short. The people affected by last night’s riots need help rebuilding and jobs right now. While I don’t have complete plans, I can throw out eight ideas. Please make one of these come to life.

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“We cannot rely on government — government is the problem, not the solution,” he wrote. “We have to rely on ourselves.”

So he tossed out some ideas, and people are responding. 

“The goal is to let everyone in the area know that those places are open and to generate commerce in the area,” he said. “A lot of them are very small. … The little shops are left on their own.”

More than 40 residents affiliated with the St. Louis Tea Party Coalition shopped in Ferguson during the buycott.

Natalie Dubose, the black entrepreneur whose cake shop burned in the riot, has been crowdfunded by people from all over the country with enough funds to rebuild her shop and with it, her dreams.

Given the amount of damage it’s not a lot, but it’s a start, and it’s a million times more positive than anything Al Sharpton has ever done. While he stokes the flames of conflict, it’s the villified Tea Party that is doing something good. Which, for anyone familiar with either Sharpton or the Tea Party, is no surprise at all.

h/t Instapundit