Posted on 08/03/2002 11:01:56 PM PDT by fivetoes
It was a great day on the North East corner of Mulberry and College in Ft. Collins. Freepers in attendance this week were:
RMRattlesnake and family
Trteamer
Softengine and her two sons
fivetoes
There were several members of the VFW Post 1781, Joe and Jim and several others.
Paul and Roy from the Fife and Drum Corps, along with their newest drummer, son of RMRattlesnake.
One candidate for Larimer County Treasurer
One more time the opposition showed up a ten minutes late. We thought we were going to win by forfeit. I am convinced this battle of ideology is going to be won by perserverance. Paul and Roy from the Fife and Drum Corps showed up looking as casual as I have ever seen them, but their music was as sweet as ever. They recruited a little drummer boy, sounds like a Christmas carol.
Trteamer showed up with a new batch of signs and took up a post diagonally across the street from us. He was motivated by research done in this thread Operation Infinite Freep: Know your Enemy. He printed out several web pages of the antis and brought them to the VFW post. It made the veterans quite upset, to say the least. It was their first time seeing proof that these were not a local band of yahoos from CSU, but rather a well organized group of radicals. One of their web pages even brags about the fact that some of them spit on returning Vietnam Vets.
There was one idiot across the street that kept dancing and blowing kisses to everyone. He was getting on Softengime's nerves. I told her that was their objective to get on our nerves so that we would get frustrated and go away. I used the power of amplified voice to ask the younger crowd across the street if their parents knew they were hanging out with communists on the weekends.
We had our ceremonial saying of the Pledge, again asking them to join us and just hum along if they did not know the words. Near the end of the hour Yvonne, a long time activist, asked me if I had any pocket Constitutions with me and I reached into my little bag of tricks and produced a dozen. She then walked over to the antis and presented each of them with a copy.
One thing I have noticed is that there is much more enthusiasm on our part than theirs. They seem almost ashamed to be there. Yes, this war will be won by resentless pursuit of our ideals of freedom and liberty.
After ward we headed over to the airconditioned sanctuary of the VFW hall for some enlightening conversation and to get to now each other a little better.
Once again the Fife and Drum Corps led us to battle with the sounds of Yankee Doodle, The Marine Corps Hymn and countless other melodies. 
Here's our shot of our side of the street. 
No Infinite Freep is complete without a shot of our favorite sign. 
The ever faithful Freedom Gals from the VFW 
Once again we were joined by a candidate for Larimer County Treasurer, Steve Miller. This time he brought along his campaign manager Tyler
This honorable veteran has no trouble doing his math.
Softengine continually pointed to her watch indicating time was up, but 'they' didn't get it.
Trteamer took up his post on the SouthWest corner. We had them surrounded! He gets my vote for pre-freep work by creating several signs that he rotated throught the hour. He needs some support over there. 
Previous reports with comments are on FreeRepublic here:
6/08/02
6/22/02
6/29/02
7/6/02
7/13/02
7/20/02
7/27/02
Taking the grass roots to the max .
Wonderful pictures and the write up , well I feel like I got to be there too.
Thank you so much for all you do!!!!
Great Freep Report!
Great Pictures!
Great Signs!
I REALLY liked the one:
"Enjoying your Freedom of Speech Today?.......THANK A VET!"
Thanks for sharing!!
Actually it was the other way around. The local VFW, Post 1781 took it upon themselves to stand up to these people since last October. I do not believe that anyone at the VFW had heard of Free Republic until freeper CardCarryingMember.VastRightWC showed up and even then I do not think they realized the size and scope of what FR was.
After months of watching Operation Infinite Freep, Fresno reports scroll by I started putting two and two together and realized there were two unafiliated, completely separate groups standing on the streets fighting the same enemy. Rather than reinvent the wheel we decided to join them. So Amy the short answer is that this was their gig from the get go.
So from what I have gathered the VFW and FR are natural allies in this particular battle. Just as any major conflict we will need allies. The best way that I can think of to enlist other organizations is to inform them of what is going on in their neighborhood. Go here Operation Infinite Freep: Know your Enemy , follow the links, print out the anti war activities that are happening in your area and present it to your local VFW post.
I am constantly amazed at how little most people know about what is going on in the own back yard, but once enlightened the spring into action.
We here at FR have a pool of resources that can enlighten the whole country IF we decide to get off of our little behinds, stop preaching to the choir, and inform folks of what is going on.
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