many years ago President Reagan flew into an Air Force base near where I live. At that time there were a bunch of ill mannered and freakish looking communists who showed up everywhere Reagan went who were “protesting” our involvement in Central America. I didn’t know anything about it ahead of time, but when I found out I quickly made a huge sign that said “Tacoma Loves You Mr. President” and called up several of my friends to help me hold it up.
When we got out to the Air Force Base we went to the gate where all the protestors were and set up our sign. We were outnumbered by over a hundred to one, but other than a few obscenities and dirty looks none of them bothered us. President Reagan wisely chose to leave the base from another gate. The “protestors” and us then all proceeded to Federal Way at the Weyerhaeuser corporate headquarters where Reagan was going to a meeting.
We set our sign up outside of Weyerhaeuser and the hundreds of “protestors” all avoided us once again and a group of decent looking folks joined us. Before Reagan left the meeting, we were interviewed by the news media. The next morning our group and the people who gathered with us along with the giant sign I made was on the front page of the Seattle Times and with three paragraphs of quotes the hundreds of protestors were in the back of the A section with a tiny picture and no coherent non-profanity laced quotes.
Once again Reagan’s motorcade wisely left the facility from a different location from where we were gathered. They had no intention of driving through a crowd of motley looking communists. But a week later I received a package from the Whitehouse with a letter on fancy stationary with Reagan’s signature thanking us for our support at the event.
Cool.