Posted on 03/20/2005 3:19:15 AM PST by AmericanArchConservative
After unseasonably sunny and nice weather for 20 days of the past 25, typical Northwest late winter/early spring conditions returned with a vengeance in time for this weekend. The forecast called for as much as 1.25" of rain, but the clouds held back their deluge from 12:30 when the W. Oregon PW's met in Portland's Pioneer Square, until all was over and done at 3:40.
In between, we let the left-wing loony folk who run rampant in the streets of Liberalville know that they would not go unconfronted when spouting their hateful nonsense.
Our small, spirited group met peacefully on the Southwest corner of the square, where we unfurled our American flags and stood casually in a small circle talking amongst ourselves getting acquainted since this was the first scheduled Portland "Op" in many months.
Soon we had inquiring passers-by wanting to know if we were the beginning point for the "anti-war protest march". We warmly informed them that we were there to support the troops. Some said "Oh well yeah I support the troops: I think we should bring them home. That's how we should support them, is by saving their lives from this illegal, unjust war!"
We looked those misguided souls straight in the face and told them that the troops understood and believed wholeheartedly in their mission, and wanted to see it through to completion, therefore if they did not support the mission, they could not falsely claim to 'support' our troops. Several of them were overcome by truly pained, contorted, and morally conflicted expressions on their faces...somewhat like a painful brain cramp resulting from trying to process an inconsistent, oxymoronic viewpoint (or maybe it was just gas?).
One of our warriors, "docmike" flipped around his sign which read "The American Left: on the wrong side of history since 1945" on one side, and (sarcasm/irony tag) "No war in Iraq - Give Tyranny a chance" on the other side. He had correctly figured that would draw people in with questions and comments. Most pedestrians walking by responded positively, telling us they were glad we were out there, they admired our guts and so on...
But there were the street urchins, bums and druggies along with the typical downtown detritus of hippie holdovers from decades ago who had their input as well. Our first vociferous critic/antagonist was a young man of about 25, who unrolled a red plastic banner with black painted lettering, reading "Capitalism oppresses people and causes poverty"!
His sign was bracketed at each end by the signature anarchist capital 'A' symbol in a black circle. It made almost no sense, but we soon found out why as he made even less sense.
He started shouting epithets, personal insults, and "F-bombs" at us and was mostly unable to carry on a dialogue without shouting at us in an effort to make his point. Brain-burp boy claimed that it was because of "W" spending money to invade Iraq (illegally, of course) that he was getting his pell grants cut and would be unable to attend college for free - which he was entitled to, after all.
I asked him why he couldn't work and earn money to put himself through school and take out student loans. He looked at me as if I was crazy for making the suggestion and informed us that he was an unjustly underpaid pizza artist being oppressed by the capitalist system - then he jumped off onto a rant about having no health care (a basic human right guaranteed by the Constitution?) - which was also "Chimpy" McBusHitler's sole responsibility as well.
He only divorced himself further from reality after that. His best friend was killed in Iraq a few weeks ago (he claimed...ask me if I believe it...) which was also W's fault, because his buddy was "forced" to join because he was poor and the recruiters lied to him and made all these false promises about scholarships and health care, and so on.
You have all heard different verses of the same old song - his was nothing new, really. I had to ask him, after listening to the litany of things he was against, whether or not he was actually "for" anything constructive at all. If he eschewed communism, capitalism, totalitarianism, etc...then what was his solution to the "problem" of the "injustices" of capitalism?
When he said "anarchy" would be the best thing in the short term, I had to ask him if he could give me a correct working definition of anarchy. He was unable to do so when prompted a few times, so I kindly provided one for the two dozen or so people who were gathered around, listening.
Some laughed at him being shown up, others wandered away. I asked him why people living in other countries were clamoring to enter the US, if capitalism was so oppressive of people's freedoms. No answer to that one either.
Apparently he thought that not only were we not Christians (whereas he was -"Liberation theology, man!"), but that as well, Jesus was an anarchist and all the poor people starving to death on the streets and sidewalks were our fault, because we were so selfish that we ignored them as we went about living our callously unjust, oppressive, fat-cat, rich capitalist lives to the detriment of the poor...I asked him what his Ph.D. was in...
A girl (about 20 years old) standing close by called me and my group "F-ing Nazi fascist something-or-anothers!" (the insults all blur together after awhile) and told me "Shut the f*ck up and just leave him alone! He has freedom of speech, dude - why don't you just get out of here - go away, leave!" as if we had somehow wrestled him to the ground and gagged him.
So I told her, "We aren't going anywhere, because we got here first, and guess what? We have freedom of speech, too! None of us are making him stop or telling him to get out of here, so what's your problem?"
Logic and reason, however, are wasted on the brainless, and she simply didn't "get it". After a few more minutes she gave up and left. When most of his "audience" disappeared, so did anarchist "brain burp" boy, strangely enough!
They were however quickly replaced by a few young black men who kept trying to call us racists for supporting George W's war which was only killing the poor and minorities of the US military. Another of our Warriors asked that young man when the draft had been reinstated; he then asked how an all volunteer military could be racist or economically oppressive.
I responded to the racist accusations by flatly stating my support for Israel, and total lack of emnity towards african american people, and then followed by asking if he could tell me why Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood was such a supporter and admirer of Hitler, and a semi-closeted racist herself (she advocated staunchly for controlling undesirable "minority", i.e. black populations in the US via abortion...) - making sure to tell him not to just take my word for it, but to look it up through the internet or in a library.
Out of that exchange, came one very constructive dialogue with a young man from Cuba, who actually talked in reasonable tones, asked questions, listened to my answers, and was overall quite respectful.
When he talked about receiving a free education in Cuba, I asked him "Which is worth more to you: something that is given to you for free and costs nothing, or something you have to work hard and sacrifice for? Which one will you struggle for the sake of, and fight the hardest to keep and make something out of?" Once he admitted the truth, a connection via common sense was established and the basic direction of his thinking altered...
He won't come all the way over to a "right" way of thinking at once, but good seeds were sown, and he was left questioning some of his previous paradigms and thinking very hard about his own stereotypes about "right wing extremists" as a result of the respect with which he was treated. You can hardly ask for more than that kind of golden opportunity, in my opinion.
After an hour's wait, the "freak parade" of Code Pinkos4Peace/Industrial Workers of the World/International A.N.S.W.E.R., and other anarchist castoffs started down Broadway and came alongside Pioneer square, where we stood with our flags unfurled and at the ready.
Since this was a different sort of PW "Op", oriented around troop support more than anything else, We did not bring the usual assortment of signs with us. Instead I opted to have Warriors bring their American flags, the method to my madness being that nothing enrages a Moonbat Liberal lunatic quite like the American flag. It is simply a symbol they absolutely hate nowadays - so far removed from rationality are they.
Signs with sayings and slogans on them, the Libs can simply ignore or chuckle about.
People - they can scorn or heave insults and swear words at them - or flip them the ol' middle finger (we also saw a lot of that today!)
The flag, however, tells them that you are serious. Seriously American. Patriotic. It simply galls them, provokes them, and evokes their visceral hatred. It is a wondrous thing to watch at work, as they very literally lose all self-control and become rabid, foaming-at-the-mouth, psychotically anti-everything-American.
The marchers in the circus parade - (oops! nevermind - don't want to insult the circuses of the world) were playing loose with facts as usual. Their signs procaliming everything from "Bush is a war criminal", to citing outrageously inaccurate numbers of dead and wounded resulting from the Iraq war. Most frequently on display was the "100,000" figure, wildly thrown around late in 2004 by British medical journal "Lancet" - a number which was quickly debunked, but still maintains an aura of unquestioned authority and invincibility among the Indymedia trolls.
One marcher, and one only, had the actual correct and current figures of 1,550 US dead, and 15,600 Iraqi dead on his sign (although it should be noted the 15,600 is total civilian and Iraqi military casualties, inclusive of all homicide bombing and kidnap/decap activities).
"Codepinkwomen4peace" went with the highest numbers on their signs, predictably.
Also a given - most of those innocuous little old frosty-haired, middle-aged women were the rudest and most vile creatures, flipping the middle finger at us, their eyes full of rage and hatred
One of our intrepid PW's had brought a trumpet at my request, and played "Reveille", "America the Beautiful", "Battle Hymn of the Republic", and "The Star Spangled Banner" in honor of our troops, and "Taps" in special honor of those who gave the ultimate sacrifice.
It was inspiring to us, anaethema to the lefties, and did a good job of drowning out the noise of moonbats beating on 5 gallon plastic bucket "drums".
We PW's can be honest about our group's small numbers on a rainy winter Saturday afternoon. The parade of Libs probably numbered between 400 and 600, but I do not expect them to be honest in giving their own accounting of their ranks. Likely they will exaggerate and claim something north of 2,500 to 3,000
To finish up, it is well worth noting that local television station and CBS affiliate KOIN 6 news had a reporter on the scene covering the antiwar coalition. We chose our position early on, and did not stray from it in order to seek out publicity/photo opportunities.
The reporter came walking straight up to us, and after identifying himself and his station to me, explained that he wanted to do a balanced report in his coverage of the events and asked if we would like to be interviewed and offer our comments and points of view.
We willingly did so, and I am happy to say that we came out if it looking very good by comparison as well as the fact that we literally got "equal time" with our ten people to their 400-600.
Folks, attention is what the other side really craves, because they somehow imagine it will cause actual change and give them strength and credibility, and we are beating them at their own stupid game without even trying, all while putting a decidedly better foot forward, winning the hearts and minds of passers-by.
That's a great outcome! Kudos once again to all those in my PW chapter who showed up, including fellow FReeper, "momfirst", and her 8 year old daughter - who showed she could wave a flag with the best of us, and behave like a young lady should!
Already under discussion is a joint PW Op/Freep Action on Memorial Day, so put it on your May calendar if you are in Oregon, or Southwest Washington.
Troop support PW Op ping!
Give your self some credit though, you got equal time because you were there. Thank You !!!!!
Great job,Thank-you!
Ping!
the american flag scares a lot of leftists!
Great writeup, Thanks for the FReep! Outstanding!
Thanks for the report! The American flag is indeed inspiring. You guys are great!
Keeping your cool while being verbally assaulted by incoherent leftists is admirable. The "free speech supporter" effectively telling you to shut up and go away was priceless. I am normally a very rational being, but when faced with such idiocy I would find it hard to keep from responding in kind.
-His best friend was killed in Iraq a few weeks ago...-
Oh, I'm SO sure. I know plenty of libs who make such claims; another claim is that a "friend" died on 9/11. They wouldn't give a soldier the time of day much less make friends with them.
Libs lie about everything. It's their inability to face life that does it.
Great AAR! Portland OR. The Arkansas of the West.
Planned and Phased MoonBat watching expeditions (Videotaped) might just be some really good NEWS.. Logging their talking points to arrive at the most devastating answers to them to cause them to puff up to display full Moonbat plumage could be a plan..
The point is there is some serious humor in them Bats.. They are not Loons or Turkeys they are real MOONBATS.. Moonbats are real creatures not imaginary ones.. Edited "conversations" with them might even salable.. To wit: The answer to the moonbat explosion could just be CAPITALISM... Maybe even a pBS special could be garnered.. The pBS moonbats are under the allusion that they are not moonbats at all..
I'm not kidding.. Moonbat fits them exactly thats why the term "sticks".. This should be video taped and edited to include the most "batty" interchanges.. and responses of course.. A fully plumed moonbat is entertainment incarnate.. and an example of what lurks in the shadows of left coast streets.. and is the result of what left coast colleges are putting out.. These moonbats have leaders like Cornel West, Noah Chomsky, Churchill.. etc..
At least this morning thats what I'm thinking.. MAYBE making a MOVIE.. a counter culture movie.. with video excepts and running dialog.. and a super hero like the Moonbat Destroyer.. with an assortment of moonbat traps all displayed with instructions for proper usage...
Cause one thing is certain.. there are things called Moonbats.. The people need to know.. One of them could be living right in your own home..
Nah! theres got to be a way to make a buck off this Moonbat thing.. and serve the public too.. Them bats are Funny, NO, hilarious.. A proper mocking has never been done.. The entertainment value of what goes through a moonbats mind is begging for display.. There should be a new Free Republic RULE.. thats these exchanges not be WASTED ever again but that a video recorder is mandatory.. Verbage is better than nothin but a video tape, especially an edited video tape is what is needed.. even digital pictures don't display the full impact of a Moonbat encounter.. You need a video..
(Going into my makeshift Moonbat Destroyer cave to design a uniform and consider this further..)
Thanks for the ping!
I was thinking of you yesterday as we conducted our own PW/FReeper op--and grow teary eyed with pride as we read report after report here on FR of counter rallies to the American hating hordes.
AAC, you are so right about the middle age, frosty haired librarian looking ladies being the rudest, most abusive.
I was holding an American and an Israeli flag in each hand yesterday, and one of these older "ladies" came within 1/2 inch of my face and snarled, "you should die of shame for bringing THAT flag to a rally for PEACE!", and spittle flew from her lips onto my face, as she gestured to the Israeli flag. One of New Paltz finest was close by and intervened; after getting spittle sprayed by an anti-war harpie who needs a better acquaintance with her toothbrush, this was good timing. I was quite close to breaking one of the PW rules at that point!
Good work AAC--would have loved to have been there!
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