Thanks to All who joined us as one of the 2,100 activists who converged on Washington October 2-3 for the National Town Hall Meeting on Capitol Hill and the 3rd Annual Defending the American Dream Summit.

We have been on the road pretty much since we returned from the Summit. We have been fighting the Government takeover of our health care, and increased taxes in Lee county. The Patients First health care bus also made a return trip to NC! We attended the NASCAR races in Charlotte, and then the NC State Fair. While at these events we collected around 12,000 more petitions telling Congress and the President to keep their hands off our health care.

Steve Moore of the Wall Street Journal told us in his speech never to believe that we don’t make a difference by coming to DC for rallies and summits and conducting tea parties and protests back home. He said Congress and the media are definitely paying attention to the outpouring of concerns from people back home in the Districts.

We are certain that Senator Kay Hagan got the message loud and clear when she came back to her office to find thousands of petitions demanding Congress to keep their hands off our health care. We know that Senator Burr’s staffers told the Senator that North Carolinians were in DC – 450 strong – to tell him we want a strong voice against more government controlled health care, cap-and-trade, and out-of-control deficit spending and oversized government.

And we were in good company. AFP activists from other states visited Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana, Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and the list goes on and on. There were activists from 41 states attending the summit and the Senators and Congressmen of those states all received the same message about government run amok.

Not only did we deliver a message to Congress, we also received important media attention. C-Span covered the Saturday morning session several times and as viewers watched the excitement of the activists and speakers in that Marriott ballroom, they also went online to sign up to be an AFP member themselves. That means thousands more activists will be sending online messages to their Congressmen and receiving our alerts to get involved locally and at the state and national level to help shape public policy.

It is our hope that you came back home inspired by the speakers and the knowledge that there are people just like you across this country that are fed up with a government that thinks it is the answer to every little problem people face. Fed up with a lack of personal responsibility, a trouncing of our individual economic freedoms and the constitution. It is our hope that you will continue the fight to get our government under control.

We welcome your feedback. We have already heard from some of you and want to hear from the rest of you. Tell us what you liked and what you didn’t. Write us a letter, send an email or click here to fill out a survey. We hope that overall your experience was a good one and that together, we can make it even better next time around.

Thanks for being part of our Defending the American Dream Summit. Let’s continue to work together in a loud, unified voice to affect public policy in our cities and counties, our great state, and our nation

Here are some photos of the events http://www.flickr.com/photos/afpnc/sets/72157622558696199/