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I thought our usual Friday night Walter Reed Freep was going to start off without a hitch when kristinn began doing this crazy dance on the way out of the parking lot onto the sidewalk. He was slapping himself on the back and singing, "HO HAY HA YOW HEE AH AH!". I thought he was celebrating Friday the 13th or something so I joined in.
"HO HAY HA YOW HEE HO HAY HA YOW HEE!" Threw in a few kicks, some old soft shoe, spun around a few times. A Hokey-Pokey sort of thing.
"I'M BEING STUNG!", he said and then began to pray to God. Or he told God to do something or other. Not quite sure.
Shirt comes off and and he slams it to the ground. Sure enough - hornet. Hornet was only stunned so I finished it off. kristinn was stung at least 4-5 times. I told him, "Must be Friday the 13th. I guess this means the rest of us are safe now 'cause you took one for the team. Way to go!"
I've always had a certain knack for comforting people when they're in need.
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After we got the Mother Of All Banners set up I mosied over to the southwest corner and joined Mr Trooprally. The rest of the night seemed rather normal from my vantage point. Lots of cars driving by honking and waving in the postive. You always get a few that flip you off or shout, "Bring them home!"
Spiff was in town from Arizona on business and once again made sure to come out to Walter Reed to help out. I guess he got there around 8pm. Joined me and Trooprally on the southwest corner. Here's a guy who lives 2000 miles away and he's made more visits to Walter Reed than other freepers (small "f") who live within a 10 mile radius.
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During most of the evening a young woman reporter / photographer, doing her own documentary based on the war on terror controversy, filmed and interviewed several freepers.
On the distant corner - the northeast corner - I saw a woman stop and talk with Cindy-True-Supporter, Tom the Red Hunter, and tgsl "Tiggles" Takoma...
Tiggles meets "Delusional Black Woman (DBW)": TIGGLES: After Cindy had talked with the woman for 10 minutes (the first time) , and became frustrated, I decided that I’d give it a go.
The woman said that she worked for WOL radio, as well as with JROTC in DC schools and had been to Fort A.P. Hill in VA.
Basically she spouted the standard liberal/leftist talking points: 1) That our soldiers tortured innocent people at Abu Ghraib, 2) That our soldiers are trained to, and want to, kill everybody in Iraq, 3) That our soldiers kill women and children, indiscriminately.
I told her that our soldiers were not savages who went around killing women and children on purpose. I tried to tell her about the strict rules of engagement that our soldiers follow, often to their own detriment, but she wasn’t listening.
She asked me how I would feel if someone was pointing an M16 at me, and again I tried to tell her that the soldiers don’t walk around with their guns pointed at innocent people, that they only aim them at people when they are being shot at or a bomb has just gone off in a crowd when they don’t know where the bad guys are. She said that they always point their rifles at people, and shoot them, too.
She told me that she had seen the soldiers training at A.P. Hill as if they were in Iraq and they want to kill people. I repeated that our troops are not savages, al Qaida in Iraq and the insurgents are the ones who have no moral objection to killing women and children.
Then I gave her Michael Yon’s name (which she did write down) and told her to go read his blog. I explained that he was a civilian who was paying his own way in Iraq as an embedded reporter. I told her about his recent story and photos of a deserted village that had mass graves of men, women and children killed by alQaida in Iraq. I told her that these were the savages who even killed the villagers’ animals.
I told her that she should do some reading of her own about the successes our troops and the Iraqi Army are having. I asked her if she had heard that the Iraqis are turning in the insurgents in their midst. She had not. I said that there was a lot of good things going on that the MSM was not reporting, because it wasn’t exciting enough for TV ratings, and that the MSM wants us to lose.
Then she told me that she and “her people” believed that the Bush administration was taking their rights away.
At that, I asked her which rights were taken away from her; she had no answer but to repeat the claim. I asked her if she was as upset during the Clinton administration when they were going after gun owners and the citizens’ right to own certain firearms.
She said, “Ma’am, I don’t have guns, so that wasn’t a concern of mine.” She then told me, “Your people and my people don’t have the same understanding about this government.”
That’s when I asked her, “Who are ‘your people’?”
She replied, “Ma’am, it’s not about race; it’s not a black and white thing.”
I replied, “I didn’t say it was. You are talking about ‘your people’ and I am wondering who ‘your people’ and ‘my people’ are. You are the one who just brought up race. What do you mean by that?”
Then she went on to tell me (that in fact she was looking at things from a racial perspective) that ‘her people’ were enslaved, and that ‘her people’ were oppressed, and that they still are.
I told her that she was standing out on the street talking with me, she was dressed in nice clothes, had nice jewelry on, and spoke like she had a good education; so how, pray tell, was she being oppressed?
Her response was that she knew how to iron her clothes (?!?) and that white people and the government have always oppressed her people, and they still do.
I was so surprised by her accusation that I laughed out loud, saying, “You’re oppressed? How do you think that you are being oppressed? Did you get a good education? Aren’t you standing right here, right now, on a public street, and nobody is threatening you or beating you up for speaking your mind. How are you being oppressed? You are blaming all white people for something that is not happening, and that is racist.”
She got angry and said that she wasn’t the racist. She said that ‘her people’ were enslaved; and I interrupted her, telling her that slavery was 150 years ago, and that it was a bunch of dead, white guys who fought and died to end slavery for her people. I asked her how she could claim that all white people are her oppressors when it was white people who fought in the civil wasr to free her ancestors.
By this time, she was getting very upset with me, raising her voice and repeating, “Ma’am, my people are oppressed!”
I then joined her in shouting, saying “Help me! I’m being oppressed!” And I told her that she was carrying a mighty big chip on her shoulders against white people who had nothing to do with slavery or any oppression of her or her people. I told her that her shoulders were rounded under the weight of that big, old chip, and that she was a racist against white people.
By then I realized that she was not at all interested in discussing the war or anything else. She just wanted to blame me and ‘my people’ for every perceived wrong that she could imagine; so I walked away from her while Tom The Redhunter started teasing her, using her own words back at her.
Tom the Red Hunter versus DBW! TOM THE RED HUNTER:
I was standing on the main corner (by the MOAB) when I noticed behind me tgslTakoma speaking with a woman who was apparently just passing by. At first their conversation was in a normal tone of voice, and I didn’t pay it much attention.
After several minutes, however, I could here both of them getting louder. Not being one to shy away from a good argument, I moved a bit closer so as to hear what they were saying.
Apparently the two of them had been talking about Iraq, because the woman was saying something about how bad our troops were since they “pointed weapons at Iraqis at checkpoints and of course the Iraqis reacted badly”. Takoma was trying to explain what war and checkpoints were all about but this woman would have none of it. I could hear Takoma getting frustrated as she realized she wasn’t making any headway.
The woman then started talking about how “her people” had been in chains and were therefore “oppressed”.
At about this point I decided that Takoma had probably had enough, but also that trying to reason with this woman was going to be pointless. When I heard the woman say that she taught immigrants I interjected “what do you teach them, that they’re oppressed by the white man and that this is an evil country?”
She tried to deny it but it was clear I had struck a nerve. She then started to make her way down the street, all the while making comments to me about how I was part of the white oppressor class also. Deciding to have some fun, I agreed, which seemed to make her even madder.
A few minutes later I noticed she had crossed the street and was speaking with Cindy-True-Supporter on the corner beside Lurker Bill was standing. They engaged in conversation for some time, though I never got close enough to hear what they were saying.
You never know what you’ll run into on one of our FReeps! |
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Later I moved over to the southwest corner with Lurker Bill and Cindy-True-Supporter. Cindy was having a second go with DBW. I overheard some of the conversation. That's when I realized DBW put the "D" in delusional. Cindy was handling
the situation quite well though. The exchange was no where near as heated as hers, Tiggles's, and Tom's previous encounter. Maybe she got through to her or at least gave her something to chew on later.
But, there was one thing DBW said - that everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I pointed to the sign across the street and said, "Yeah. Everyone's entitled to their opinion. But that sign over there across the street - 'War freed the slaves. War saved the Jews' - that's a fact!"
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Two soldiers, at different times, also payed a personal visit to thank us. One was wearing jeans, black T, and a desert cammie backpack. The other was in uniform, we'll call him Sgt M, stayed a while to wave Old Glory, and hang out with the girls: Loro, Alicia, Megan, and VictoryNY. No offense Frax and PrezUSA222.
Still later another woman came passing by Sgt M's and the girl's corner and again I'm on the opposite side of the street. I acn "hear" her because she's loud. But I can't make out what she's saying because of the distance and traffic noise. She's very animated. I thought she was excited about what we were doing. Cheering everybody on. Come to find out she was argumentative too. Guess it was the red hat and pants that confused me. But I was told the crew on that corner managed to calm her down. She handed out business cards and promised to come back again this Friday. Is that a good thing?
Honor roll for July 13th, 2007:
Albion Wilde, Alicia*, BufordP, Lurker Bill from Olney*, Cindy-True-Supporter, Fraxinus, George* and Ethel*, GunsAreOK, Jimmy Valentine's Brother, kristinn, LoRo, Megan*, Pasquale, PleaDeal, PrezUSA222, Spiff, tgslTakoma, Tom the RedHunter, Mr & Mrs Trooprally, VAFlagWaver, VictoryNY
(* lurkers)
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Here's more pictures. Enjoy! |
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The commie pukes |
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Plenty more pics at...
PleaDeal's complete photo album
Mrs Trooprally's complete photo album
If you can't get to D.C. to join us but would like to do something for the wounded, you can find a wealth of ideas by FReepmailing Albion Wilde, Cindy-True-Supporter, VAFlagwaver, or PleaDeal.
Come join us every Friday night between the hours of 6:30pm to approx 9:30pm.
Directions to our Walter Reed freep location from the Takoma metro station
