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Edited on Sat Mar-20-04 04:42 PM by Neo Progressive
Due to lack of sleep, this may not be the most eloquent thread on the board, but I'll try my best. This morning/afternoon Dolo Amber, Ranbowgrrl, and I met and attended the anti Iraq War rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina, home of Fort Bragg. We arrived kind of late, but still marched along side 900+ other protesters from the train station to a park near Fort Bragg (according to a sign). Of course we encountered the anti-anti-war crowd, many with the same tired slogans of "WE REALLY LOVE OUR TROOPS" and some people whose support of the troops is even more vehement, because they underlined the sentence, or added several exclamation points.
The walk was an enjoyable one, with people maintaining a sense of humor throughout. After we passed the first group of right wingers, a man in a Mazda Miata drove by and told us that we're "all sick." I wanted to know what "a man was doing driving a Miata?" The Policeman making sure we didn't try to take Havana laughed and said his wife tells him the same thing. When we arrived at our target destination, we were told to get our bags ready, if we had any, so the police could search for alcohol, guns, or weapons of mass destruction. He didn't immediately realize he made a joke, but it was funny nonetheless. As we entered the park, we encountered another group of right wingers... or so we thought. Yes there were other people than the first group Dolo Amber, Rainbowgrrl, and I encountered, but the vast majority of them were the same people. They drove themselves to the "next spot." More on these people soon.
Though the three of us have heard or read much of what was being said at the rally, it was still enjoyable. There was a Hispanic man who gave his speech in Spanish, and I immediatly thought that this guy could have been a revolutionary like Che Guevara in another time. There were musicians, and conceptual artists, and a lot of soldiers.
The soldiers received especially hostile reactions from the right wingers, who took to using their own microphone and speaker to "inform" us of their opinion. We didn't know it was a microphone at first, but just some really stupid person who can't use a bullhorn correctly. One could see the anger in the right's faces when a soldier, who had served in either Vietnam, the Persian Gulf War, or even this present one, got up to speak.
These right wingers seemed to come straight from Free Republic.com. When they spoke, and we could understand what the hell they were saying, it made no sense. There was mention of 1985, though neither of us knew why. There was discussion about communism, though what it centered on was lost in the speaker's inability to use a microphone properly. Then a couple stupid things were said. The totally inept mic user said something about the Iraqi fighters being "anti-colonialists." A little after, we finally heard one phrase in its entirety, and this summed up why the right can't be trusted:
Sure we may be imperialists, but at least we're good at it.
It was our favorite thing we had heard all day. The unbelievable arrogance of that statement is appalling. The fact we've lost 400+ people trying to colonize Iraq shows we're not too good at this. Being an imperialist is not something one brags about either.
Talking to some people around the protest, we had heard that the right wingers were calling people "fags," and one woman was ready to throw something at a group of people who walked out. Among the right winger's group was a bunch of bikers, who love freedom of speech so much, they revved up their bikes to drown out whatever was being said by the speakers at the rally. Eventually they left, and by the time the three of us left, maybe twenty of the fifty or so right wing nuts were still shreiking, or taunting speakers with chants of what sounded like "air ball."
All in all this was good fun, and I hope to continue going to rallies like this one. These are unbelievably important in keeping this country free, and the messages that come from these rallies are just as important.
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