The peaceniks feel emboldened and are giving America's enemies a warm heart.
Posted on 11/19/2006 5:03:10 AM PST by Dane
Here in protest People of all types united for common cause BY MICK WALSH Staff Writer A group of protesters join hands in prayer at the foot of a locked gate preventing entrance to Fort Benning on Saturday morning. Protesters gathered at the main entrance to Fort Benning as part of the SOA Watch events this weekend calling for the closure for the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, located at Fort Benning.
Judy Cumbee had more than one reason to slip back in her chair and listen intently to the Duluth songbird, Sara Thomsen, as she entertained thousands of protesters, most of whom were at the gates of Fort Benning Saturday.
She was calling for the closure of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.
After leading what was called the "Living the Dream" march from Selma, Ala., to Columbus earlier in the week, dodging thunderstorms and angry motorists along the way, Cumbee needed to rest her feet a bit. And while she did, her newfound friend Thomsen romanced the crowd from the SOA Watch stage.
"Today re-energizes me," Cumbee said as she noted that Thomsen, Rachael Kilgour, Brooks Anderson and several dozen others from Minnesota had hooked up with her civil rights organization for the march to Columbus.
"They're called the 'Echoes of Peace' and they helped make our march a lot of fun," she said.
Fun seemed to be the key descriptive word Saturday as the two-day protest on Benning Road celebrated its festive day.
Today is the day that protesters make the decision to cross over onto federal property and risk arrest, as former New York City firefighter Rich Wekerle did in 2003. Serving six months in an Oregon prison "was the high point of my life; it's worth going to jail for something you believe in."
Crossing over could be difficult for protesters later today.
On Friday, yet another high fence was installed in front of the gate, meaning that anyone who wants to go onto the post must scale three fences.
Eric LeCompte, one of the protest organizers, said he didn't know how many might decide to cross. The number has varied since 2002 when 85 were arrested. Thirty-two were charged last year but only 16 in 2004.
One who won't be risking arrest will be Ursuline nun Margaret Johnson of Moscow, Idaho.
"I've actually crossed over twice, in 1999 and 2000, but in neither case was I arrested," she said. "I'm not going to make an attempt to do so this year."
Johnson was one of many clergy on hand at the protest. Sisters of Mercy and Sisters of Providence walked hand in hand with Benedictines for Peace, Franciscans and even a small contingent of Buddhists.
"You see people from all walks of life," said Rachael Kilgour, who is making her fifth visit to Columbus. "It's what keeps us coming back."
If fun was the day's watchword, diversity was a close second.
The crowd was made up of high school and college students, retirees and two groups of grandparents, including the 1,000 Grandmothers.
Variety of items
Nancy Jakubiak of Clarksville, Ind., was one of those grannies.
"I want to see the school closed down," she said. "It's the main reason I've come here every year. But not the only reason. I enjoy visiting with old friends, listening to the music and speeches. It may have cost me $200 or so but it's worth every penny."
On a day that began cool, then heated up considerably by the time the "puppetista pageant" began in late afternoon, folks from upstate New York to Atlanta, from Milwaukee and Chicago to New Orleans and Montgomery, Ala., found themselves singing, dancing and eating from lunch time to dinner time.
"There's a spirit here unlike past years," LeCompte said. "The recent election had a lot to do with that. There's a real feeling that the new Congress will shoot the school down. If it does, I'll still come back, if only to see the Auburn-Alabama game."
One thing is obvious to anyone visiting the scene. This is not only a protest to close down the institute, which they believe still teaches torture tactics to be used in Latin and South America.
A quarter-mile long row of vendors is selling everything from anti-war, anti-Bush, anti-poverty and anti-death penalty messages to CDs with many of the Latino songs that were sung on the stage Saturday.
It was sort of like Alice's Restaurant, where you could get anything you want. Even red beans and rice, chicken wings and sweet Georgia tea
The peaceniks feel emboldened and are giving America's enemies a warm heart.
Are they still giving head in the street or do they charge now?
I wonder WHY???
Looking at the picture in post 1, they'd have to pay me. Big time.
I wonder how peaceful they will be when a terrorist sets one off in they'er home town.
I just want to thank all those Americans who seat out this election...THANKS A MILL you have just EMBOLDEN the enemy! You SMUCKS!! Our local piece of CRAP fishwrap had a story comparing Vietnam and Iraq....UGH!! Please continue to pray for our troops!
Nice pic. I've seen more intelligence in the faces of cows chewing their cud.
Do not trust these people ~ they want you dead.
I made it to the God Bless the Troops of Fort Benning Celebration in Columbus, Ga yesterday. The Troops had a fun time. They got free food, free entertainment, free phone calls home, and all in all, it was just a beautiful sunny 65 degree day.
Hopefully they are praying for soap and water.
Looks easy enough to disband this group, water and a bar of soap should remove all of the grime.
Sorry, I shold have read the full thread before posting my comment.
Doctor Raoul made it to Ft Benning to counter protest yesterday. Hopefully he will get a report up later.
I wonder which god they are praying to? I understand satan also answers prayer.
Judy Cumbee had more than one reason to slip back in her chair and listen intently to the Duluth songbird, Sara Thomsen,
Yeah, namely the fact that she was stone drunk on homemade dandelion wine, blasted on Maui Wowee, and seven months pregnant by some biker who passed through the commune last spring.
The "Duluth Songbird" ??????!!!! Ay-yi-yi!
And so the drumbeat goes on. We are going to see more and more of these types of stories in the media, glorifying and sanctifying these idiots. The media, and those who READ, LISTEN and WATCH it and take it in HOOK LINE AND SINKER are all rowing in the same direction.
Which just happens, not coincidentally, to be in the same directions the Liberals and the Terrorists want us to go.
Ah well. As I suspected, we did not learn the lesson of 9/11 and take it to heart. We learned a platitude to mouth as long as the people in power made half an attempt to officially counter the negative drumbeat and make the platitudes easy to mouth for most of us.
The people in charge now ALL think 9/11 was an anomaly, not something that will be repeated. Hence the "We need to put it behind us" storyline they all mouth. Funny how the "Memory Hole" is most apt and practiced in Liberalism. Their only problem is that they do not DIRECTLY control and fund the dissemination of media, and the "Memory Hole" works imperfectly even though the Media does its best by pushing things off the front page and television news.
With liberals in charge of Congress...all the direction of news will eminate from there now. Note that the drumbeat of negativism and defeat did not issue primarily from Congress during the last three years, it was coming primarily from the DNC and the Media. Now with the children in charge, it will be in the news every single day with the authority of Congress.
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