Posted on 01/08/2006 1:51:19 PM PST by Do not dub me shapka broham
We arrived at Washington Square Park at 2:30pm to find two old hippies standing by the arch with a white (appropriate choice of colors) flag with a "Veterans for Peace" emblem. About ten minutes later, a few more old hippies had gathered. But the guy "with the plan" had missed his ferry from Staten Island, so they waited until after 3 to start constructing the coffins and gather their total crowd of twenty, average age 60. This counter recruitment action was organized by the Youth and Countermilitarism Program of the War Resisters' League. The design of their web site makes it obvious, with its graffiti style fonts and graphics, that they want to influence people below the legal drinking age. Not only did nobody under 30 show up, none of the young people milling around the Park on Saturday afternoon showed the slightest interest in those silly old lefties.
Finally, the cardboard coffins arrived and were lovingly assembled. Some of the marchers donned bibs, which were decorated with the faces of American soldiers or Iraqi children and mock blood, to promote their sophistry about America's guilt. The marchers then set out, with the obligatory dull thud drummers, on their walk.
The guy with the white flag and the Veterans for Peace cap, with his silly grin and his hand paralyzed into a permanent Peace sign, brought to mind how topsy-turvy the world is for pacifists. The V for Victory sign was popularized by Winston Churchill as a symbol he could flash to the public in the darkest days of WWII. It was a time when many, many people believed there was no way Hitler was not going to prevail. Churchill himself was uncertain. He knew he was the leader of democracy's last chance. Either prevail or be snuffed out by totalitarianism. In the Vietnam War era this symbol was later perverted to symbolize surrender in the face of the worst forms of totalitarianism, perhaps due to a combination of an appalling lack of historical insight, leftist wackology, and psychedelics.
On the twenty minute march up 6th Ave, pedestrians did not react. In Greenwich Village one would expect a modicum of support for this antiwar stunt. The exception was one man who got right in a PWer's face, screaming "You're fascists. Bush and every one of those Republicans should be put up against the wall and shot." Although this man was well groomed and well dressed, he went on to rant that America is the worst country in the world, and that anything that happens to this country is well deserved, including nuclear annihilation. The chaperoning NYPD officer observed this from the side for about a block, but finally had to warn the man to stand back from the Protest Warriors, so he went on his way.
Two of us were waiting in front of the Army recruiting office on 22nd Street, the destination of the march. We were ready with a large banner reading "Complete the Mission First...THEN Bring Them Home" , and a huge flagpole with Support Our Troops, as well as U.S. and Iraqi flags. When the moonbat parade rounded the corner they were completely disheartened. Their proud stand in front of the recruiting office turned into a confusing hodgepodge, with our large banner and signs getting most of the attention. We were all mixed in together. One of the old hippies kindly offered to help hold up our heavy banner. One dedicated moonbat retained her focus, shouting up at the Army office, "Imagine Peace! Imagine Peace" but the rest of the group was too addled to join in or to start any other chants. Within 15 minutes they abandoned their plans, and left. The street theater coffin walk was a tragicomedy: tragic for them, pretty funny for us.
Good work.
MORE PEACE, LESS PEACENIKS!
That's my motto.
:)
It was really a collaborative effort.
Our photographer came all the way from Alberta, Canada to take part.
Not really though.
:-)
I salute you as a great New Yorker.
Si vis pacem, para bellum.
Thanks for the ping Shapka!
Well Done!
Did you get any pictures of your banner?
Just click on the off-site link below the title of the thread.
Amazing photos , and a terrific FReep!
Proud to be your FRiend.
:-)
I love leisurely strolling through Washington Square Park on the weekend.
The rancid hippies with the fetid smell of defeat hovering over them, open-air hashish dealers, oblivious college students who think Fidel Castro's chief executioner was a fashion plate; it's that sort of ambiance that makes this city such a coveted tourist destination.
:0)
That being said, it was still fun to see how fast the peaceniks retreated.
Not that I expected these folks to put up much of a fight, but the alacrity with which they accepted defeat was nothing short of French-like.
-good times, G.J.P. (Jr.)
Unfortunately, this state has cities that are comprised almost exclusively of people who fit that description.
Florida has no shortage of those types either, and some of them are NYers who move down here.
Apparently Long Island isn't satisfied with having four members of Congress.
*eye roll*
Nice job!
I enjoyed myself.
:)
ping
The pics are wonderful. Of course, you had to start 'em out with the drum bangers. It just set me laughing.. in the SF Bay Area the liberal men's movement started a drum-beating ceremony in the early 90s.
They were against circumcision. And they wanted their foreskins back.
And here they were.. again, beating a tired old... drum.
One of the main attributes of these people, and a distinctive marker of any genuine group of moonbats, is their seeming inability to comprehend irony of any sort.
This was a purported "peace" march where one of the participants was wearing a makeshift sash with a photo of that noted pacifist Sheik Ahmed Yassin prominently displayed on its front.
To say nothing of the other idiots who were baning on a bodhran, i.e. an Irish WAR drum, during their mock funereal procession.
The habitual stupidity of the left never ceases to amaze-or for that matter, amuse-me.
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