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Posted on 10/07/2001 7:21:05 PM PDT by jrherreid

Heard about the "Peace" rallies that were being planned here in San Francisco this morning after coming back from morning Mass. The report was that it was to start at Powell and Market and head down to the Embarcadero.

I got there a bit late (the rally was to start at 5:00, and I arrived there at 5:30) but was cheered to find that a young Hispanic man was there across the street from the protestors waving a flag and holding a sign that read "God Bless Our Military". I asked if I might join him, and he handed me his sign (he had prepared several) and we began chanting "USA! USA! USA!"

Across the street from us was an ugly group of dried-up hippies, young hippie wannabies, pierced-and-leather type homosexuals, and anarchists. While some were simply holding peace signs, many were holding up signs that incited violence against America. One read "God Bless Afghanistan--We Don't Need This F--king War". Another example of idiotic thinking was a young man holding up a sign that read "Timothy McVeigh was a White Christian--If We All Thought Like Bush, We Would Kill All White Christians". Morons.

Our chants of "USA!" brought cheers from pedestrians. One older man stopped by and thanked us sincerely. "These people are terrorists," he said, pointing at the angry mob across the street. "George Bush was right--if they're not with us, they're against us."

Pretty soon a reporter from the Examiner stopped by and interviewed my companion. He explained that he had been on his way to dinner at a friend's house when he saw the protest and felt that he had to do something. "I ran into Walgreens and got some cardboard, markers, and a flag. You know, today I am an un-hyphenated American. Usually I would call myself Mexican-American or Hispanic-American or Latino-American. But today I am just an American." The reporterette was a little stunned at this, then turned to me and got my name and age. She was a little suprised that we were both so young--him 27 and me at 23. I also mentioned FreeRepublic--she nodded and said "There's another one of you guys across the street." Wonder who that was. Anyway, we'll see if that appears in the paper or not!

Most of the folks giving us the "thumbs-up" seemed to be in my generation. Perhaps the older people in my area are too used to liberalism to wake up even for a moment. We got thumbs up from people of all races, cheers from taxi drivers, and curses from a few old sixties relics. "F--k the USA, you bastards!" hissed one old coot, as he passed out copies of the Communist Party leaflets.

Pretty soon the march got on the move, and they began heading down Market, not towards the Embarcadero, but towards 24th Street. We followed along, but were cautioned by a police officer to maintain our distance from the protestors. "Just as a precaution," he said. We began chanting again and were joined by some other young men and a persistent Brit who kept asking me if I thought that "there was more going on than it seems". He seemed to be a conspiracy type, and left after a while. We kept on chanting, getting more cheers than boos from the people on the sidewalk. Several men were livid with anger at the anarchist slogans being chanted, and one almost lost his cool when he saw the "God Bless Afghanistan" one. He began bellowing "USA! USA! USA!" along with us.

We disbanded at the Burger King behind the SF Public Library--not all of us had the time to continue all the way down to 24th. So I packed it in and headed back home. And you know what? Even though this city is a hell-hole of backward thinking, I still felt proud of the citizens and policemen who supported us. Freep on, San Francisco!

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