Posted on 05/30/2006 8:24:56 PM PDT by kristinn
Honor Roll: 3D-Joy; Uncle Hambone; Nicolio9175; OBone; W04Man; Jimmy Valentine's brother; trooprally, Tolerance Sucks Rocks; concretebob; Gunsareok; Just A Nobody; Christopher Lincoln; Gate2Wire; Cindy_True_Supporter; Trueblackman; Lurker Bill; two of 3d-Joy's daughters; and kristinn. TgslTakoma was there in spirit with the MOAB she created. We were also joined for an hour by a couple visiting Arlington.
It was a warm, sunny late Spring day in our nation's capital yesterday. The best Memorial Day weekend weather in a long time in these parts.
Cars were lined up early on Memorial Drive at the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery, waiting for the gates to open at 8 a.m. for the ceremonies honoring America's fallen heroes.
In the line waiting to get in were members of the D.C. Chapter of Free Republic who were arriving to participate in an unusual Memorial Day observance. They were gathering to hold a patriotic counter-demonstration against the Fred Phelps led Westboro Baptist Church which would be holding a protest just outside the cemetery that morning to celebrate American combat deaths as God's supposed punishment for its tolerance of homosexuals.
The Topeka, Kansas based church travels the country targeting military funerals with protest signs that say things like, "Thank God for IEDs" and "God Hates America."
We checked in with the U.S. Park Police officer in charge to see where we could set up. He told us that Westboro had a permit for the south side of Memorial Drive right next to a Metro entrance. He told us that we would have to set up across the street and that we could not have more than twenty-five people in our demonstration because we did not have a permit. There was also a Metro entrance on our side.
We had most of our signs and banners set up well before 9 a.m. The MOAB looked great with its blue and red lettering on white fabric set against the blue sky above and the tall green hedges behind. The message on the twenty feet by four feet MOAB said, "God Bless Our Troops, Defenders of Freedom, American Heroes."
Other signs said, "This Memorial Day, Thank a Soldier for Your Freedom and Honor Those We Lost in Defending Our Freedom," and God Does Love our Defenders of Freedom."
We also employed several of W04man's Support Our Troops signs.
Lurker Bill used duct tape to set up several smaller signs next to sidewalk along our demonstration area.
Traffic going into the cemetery remained heavy. Passengers in cars and buses and on motorcycles gave us waves and smiles of appreciation as they slowly made their way past us. Hundreds of people on foot walking by us on their way from the Metro to the cemetery did the same. Many of them stopped to shake hands with us and thank us for being there. We in turn thanked them for their service to our country.
Around 9 a.m., Associated Press reporter Larry Margasak arrived to cover the dueling demonstrations. I spoke with him for a few minutes as he took notes and then repeated some of my answers for him as he videotaped with a handicam. After the interview I spoke with about Free Republic, but I didn't tell him how low Freepers' opinion is of the AP. I saw no need to antagonize someone who was asking decent questions and seemed interested in reporting the news. We'd been talking for a while when at 9:15 I noticed the Westboro cult in their protest area across the street. They were an hour early from the time listed on their press release. There were only four of them, but they carried multiple signs and from a distance it looked like they had more people.
Margasak left to go cover their side of the story. He was joined by several film crews: NBC News, WJLA-7 and Associated Press TV.
Westboro had a new sign with them yesterday. Is that a Phelps, or Cindy Sheehan holding the "Bush Killed Them" sign?
We could barely hear the taunting jeers from the Phelps cult over the noise of the traffic. We tried a few rounds of chants of "USA, USA, USA!," but between the heat and the traffic it didn't carry to well so we stopped.
Everyone who expressed an opinion on the Westboro demonstration was disgusted by them. No one had anything remotely kind or supportive to say about them.
A couple people walking by them lost their cool and confronted the Phelps group. One was a Marine who apparently was upset at their desecration of our flag by the Phelps group. The police quickly intervened and walked them away. No one was arrested as no violence took place.
Through experience and threat assessment, law enforcement took differing approaches on dealing with our two groups. The Phelps group was kept behind bike rack fencing and yellow police tape to protect them from people who would be outraged by their message. We, on the other hand, had a couple saw horses placed far apart in front of us on the sidewalk to delineate our space.
With President Bush scheduled to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns and to speak at the ampitheater after, we were hopeful he would be driven by us and see our pro-troops demonstration.
We were not disappointed. A little after 10:30 the presidential motorcade appeared in the distance, led by waves of motorcycle police.
As these two photos show, President Bush carefully studied our signage as he rode by. Photo one.
Shortly after those photos were taken he broke into a wide smile and returned our enthusiastic waves with his own.
The Westboro group packed up their signs immediately after the motorcade was past. We decided to remain until after President Bush left, so we baked another hour.
The First Lady was seated on our side as the motorcade went by on its return trip. She gave us a wave and a smile, too.
We packed up our gear and headed off in different directions. Some of us went inside to visit our loved ones' final resting place. Others went home to spend the day with their families.
With the mainstream media, liberal politicians and the anti-American left trying to wear down our morale in the war on terror, it is more important than ever to publicly show your support for our troops and their mission. Even small gatherings like the one we had yesterday can have a broad impact.
This one gave a boost to thousands of veterans and their families. It also brought smiles to President and Mrs. Bush. And, because of Larry Margasak's reporting and decisions by his editors at the AP, our message of support for our troops was carried all across the country yesterday and today.
Free Republic and our message appeared on hundreds of news sites and was broadcast on radio on national news updates.
Today, variations of the AP report were published in newspapers around the country. A partial list of newspapers that published our message of support for the troops in their print editions today include: USA Today, The Washington Times, The Star Ledger, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Boston Globe, The Baltimore Sun, The Hartford Courant, The Frederick News-Post, The Houston Chronicle and the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Millions of Americans across the country saw our message in their papers today: "God Bless Our Troops, Defenders of Freedom, American Heroes."
P.S. We are very grateful to have 3D-Joy back with us.
Photos by trooprally and W04man.
It makes you wonder how people can become so hateful and so distort the bible. They are truly a bunch of sick bastards.
Finally, an uplifting thread on FR today!!
Thanks kristinn...and all you DC Chapter Freepers...you DO know that there are a lot of us that would LOVE to have been able to join you...but, you do us proud.
God Bless you all...you are truly a blessing to the troops and to Free Republic.
Thank you
D.C. Chapter mega ping!
Bravo Zulu!
Thank you. It's nothing compared to what our troops do every day, but it helps.
Thanks so much!
Sorry I haven't been active in the freeps lately, but I had some important business this past weekend.
I got married to a beautiful intelligent (and it goes without saying) conservative woman on Sunday.
Hey, as long as we were having an uplifting thread, thought I'd throw that in...
Wasn't a bill that makes this very thing illegal just signed into law? I hope the cops beat them up pretty good as they haul them away when it goes into effect.
Woo hoo! Great job, Kristinn and DC Chapter!!
Congratulations! Hopefully you and the missus can join us later this summer at our cookout (date TBA).
Thank you, sir!
Congratulations.
Conservative, Intelligent (goes with the Conservative) and the gravy of beauty too.
Lucky You! Woo Hoo!
If you ever have children, a word of caution. Smart kids are a bear. Usually not discipline problems, but difficult nonetheless. Results worth the effort though. My wife has a PhD, Older Daughter a J.D., Younger Daughter has M.A. and after working two years, has now finished her first year of her PhD work. Guess who will be the uneducated one in the family before long? (Opa, with only an M.S.)
Then you get smart grandkids. But that's the fun part.
This would not have been covered under the new law.
Nope, that law forbid such demonstrations at funerals. But this wasn't a funeral.
Thanks you all for continuing the good fight.
I was very excited over the good press you received.
Congrats! and very best wishes to you & the new Mrs. OMiW!
Hope you both can be at FReeps in the future!
Excellent FReepreport...
The thought of President Bush and Laura smiling and waiving at you guys on Memorial Day--much to Phelps' chagrine--gladdens my heart.
RD
And very cool pics of President Bush in the presidential limo. ;-)
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my ‘miscellaneous’ ping list.
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