Posted on 02/27/2007 9:54:40 AM PST by JoyjoyfromNJ
From the ANSWER website regarding a permit needed for their March 17 2007 anti-war demonstration/march from the Vietnam Memorial (Constitution Gardens)to the Pentagon:
"The State of Virginia Department of Transportation finally met with us last Thursday afternoon, February 22. At that meeting they demanded that we obtain one million dollars in insurance, hire an engineering firm to determine their traffic and road closure plan, and agree to pay a user fee of thousands and possibly tens of thousands of dollars for before we will be given a permit to march on Route 27 on the way to the Pentagon. We are talking about a stretch of highway under Virginia’s jurisdiction that is about 100 yards long. . . . . We need everyone’s help in two areas:
One thing you can do is to provide political support for the public Free Speech campaign. We are mounting a large scale legal and political effort to secure our rights. We have the best constitutional rights attorneys assisting us and we hope everyone will read the letter below from the Partnership for Civil Justice to Virginia’s Attorney General." Link to their letter to the AG: http://answer.pephost.org/site/DocServer/McDonnell_ltr_2_23_07.pdf?docID=5141
I'm 39, but does that really matter?
&&&&&&
Of course it does! You are only able to make your evaluations and your comments by what you learned from the same media that, I hope, you recognize as lying to you today. If you were born in 1966, you can learn a lot from other Freepers who were adults in 1966.
I think the ANSWER crowd is beginning to grasp that the National Mall will not be a good place for them to hang around. Should they fail to secure their permits in VA, they will have some difficult choices to make.
I will have my cell phone and camera handy. In addition, my chest is 10 inches wider than it was in 1967, and it is not from fat. I may be slow, I may be old, but I am a persistent bastard and not easily intimidated. I would like nothing better than to bench press one of this commie bastards up over The Wall should they try anything not in keeping with the tone of the memorial and its grieving visitors.
bttt
They even lie to their own supporters. The Pentagon is a mile away from the Virginia end of the Memorial Bridge. Whose jurisdiction is this road under if not Virginia's? Some kind of legalese that makes it Federal Property or something?
Let 'em march. It's a free country (or at least it used to be).
Here they claim they are for peace and support the troops.
Overseas, they tell the insurgants that they are the "strong armed resistance" who are victims of a "brutal occupation" for whom "acts of desperation" (i.e. targeting civilians in markets, mosques and hospitals, killing our troops) are legitimate and legal under the UN Charter and international law.
I'm not going to make it easy and pay for it when they get lots of bucks from the radical left which they'll then use against our troops.
Treason should not be funded with my tax dollars.
No. Let emotions rule the day! Misology...
You're the one who doesn't get it.
These groups abuse the system. For one thing, they put in for permits for most of DC on days like March 17th, areas they nevere intend to use and will not use. That way they minimize opportunities for others to hold a competing rally for the same cause as their's or a counter rally. They also brow beat the police and municipal governments into footing the bill for their anti-American, pro-communist recruiting rallies.
Let the commies pay to recruit commies.
Not In My Name??? Not On My Dime!!!
Hey Junior, how about posting her entire arguement and seeing if your case still makes sense...
Hey Junior, how about posting her entire arguement and seeing if your case still makes sense...
Of course I can learn a lot from you, but it goes both ways, which you utterly fail to acknowledge. I largely reject the rest of your point. You come across as condescending by suggesting that those who are younger THEREFORE are less likely to form correct opinions about events that predate their age of awareness. Too broad a brush. And I still disagree that the protests in 1968 and thereabouts were any significant CAUSE of society's downward spiral. We'll agree to disagree.
Are you saying there will be 297,000,100 marchers? HOLY SMOKES!
the Protest Warriors awesome!
I am writing to you about a critical issue facing the antiwar movement. Next month's March on the Pentagon is on the verge of becoming one of the most powerful actions of the contemporary anti-war struggle. And predictably there are forces who are trying to stop the march. We can and will succeed but we need the help of you and thousands of other people of conscience. We want to thank all of those who have helped the March on the Pentagon with urgently needed contributions.
The Pentagon march is developing as a free speech showdown. Here is the background to the unfolding struggle:
The anti-war movement is taking off. Thousands of family members of soldiers, veterans and active duty soldiers will be among the huge outpouring at the Pentagon on March 17. The Bush administration and the Pentagon high command know that this is a swelling tide.
More than 150 cities and towns, and a growing number of college campuses and high schools are organizing buses to come to Washington D.C. The number of transportation centers bringing buses has nearly doubled in just this past week alone and the number of cities will continue to grow rapidly in the coming days.
The March on the Pentagon, coming as it does on the 40th anniversary of the historic 1967 March on the Pentagon, has been a monumental effort. Government agencies and especially the Bush Administration don’t want this demonstration to succeed. We have waged a five month-long battle just to win the permits to carry out this free speech activity.
That fight is not over. Now the State of Virginia is trying to impose onerous financial fees on the ANSWER Coalition. They are threatening that we will have to pay tens of thousands of dollars to “reimburse” the State of Virginia and other government entities just to march on the streets and to rally at the Pentagon. That is ludicrous on its face. Attempting to charge demonstrators a large fee for the right to walk on the streets of Virginia on the way to the Pentagon is a violation of the First Amendment. It is also part of the process of delay aimed at making our logistical preparations both complicated and more expensive.
This financial obstacle that is now thrown up by the government, in an effort to thwart the March on the Pentagon, is not the first but rather the latest in a string of measures aimed at dissuading ANSWER and tens of thousands of people from marching on the Pentagon. We started organizing for this march last October. With three weeks left to go we are hindered from signing contracts with vendors for setting up the stage, sound and other logistical needs of the day. So the cost of signing these contracts goes up with each passing day. Having every permit in hand is a requirement for signing many contracts.
Based on a protracted political and legal struggle we forced the Pentagon to grant a permit. This was a big victory. People told us beforehand that we would not succeed. But we did succeed.
Now fresh hurdles are placed before us with the expectation that we will consider them too daunting. This has happened before. When ANSWER insisted on the absolute right of the people to demonstrate directly along Bush‘s Inaugural Parade route in January 2005 we were confronted with every possible legal, logistical and financial obstacle. The government, in effect, said “you can demonstrate anywhere you want but not on the Inaugural Parade route.” With the help of people like you, however, we successfully overcame the government’s effort and achieved a Free Speech victory that was unprecedented in Inaugural history. Now we are in a similar struggle.
Hundreds of volunteers and organizers have been working round the clock throughout the country. This a rare story of a purely grassroots movement sprouting up because of the desire, commitment and self-sacrifice of people who are trying through their own efforts to create change.
Self-sacrifice is a hallmark of every genuine grassroots movement for change. Thousands of people working together, finding time to volunteer before and after work and school is what makes the difference.
But we cannot possibly succeed without shared sacrifice when it comes to raising the hundreds of thousands of dollars the movement needs. The cost of the stage, sound, and day-of set-up for two sites, one at the Pentagon and the other at Constitution Gardens is $80,000. Delaying our ability to sign contracts with vendors forces the costs to rise astronomically. The government wants us to give up and throw in the towel. Bush desperately wants to avoid having a massive march on the Pentagon, on the 40th anniversary of the 1967 Pentagon protest. The imagery and comparison with Vietnam is something the White House dreads.
Bush and the Pentagon are determined to prevent the march but we will prevail. Free Speech and the right of the people to Redress Grievances is not a gift from politicians. It is a cherished achievement of earlier generations. It cannot exist on paper and be denied in reality. We can and will defend this right.
Will you help today with a generous donation? We need to raise $100,000 in the next three weeks. We have no foundation or corporate support. It is the generosity and commitment of individual donors who will make this happen.
In addition to making a contribution yourself please ask family members and friends to make a donation as well. We will update you in the days ahead as the struggle unfolds. We will see you at the Pentagon on March 17. We will organize today and every day until this criminal war is ended. As in Vietnam, it will be the people themselves, organized and in the streets, who will make the difference.
Thank you for your support,
Brian Becker
National Coordinator, ANSWER Coalition
Awwww you're just saying that cause it's true!!!!
The changes in the Sixties have had serious effects on our country ever since. Many of those student radicals are now tenured professors or CEOs of publishing companies which decide what go into history books, for example.
Of course I can learn a lot from you, but it goes both ways, which you utterly fail to acknowledge.
Sorry, what did you want me to acknowledge?
I think I had you confused with someone else, earlier in the thread (thought you were the same person, continuing a disagreement). My apologies.
I just called and told them to STOP THEM!
The person who answered sounded like she got a few people like me already and was happy to hear it! :)
I also told her that if they cant stop them, then to make them pay a billion dollars in fees. The person who answered agreed.
:)
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