Dueling rallies for war, peace (NC Patriots' Rally mentioned in Raleigh N&O)

RALEIGH -- Organizers who hope to draw thousands to an antiwar rally at the Capitol on Saturday must deal with a pro-war rally that will be just around the corner at the same time.

"All voices need to be heard on this, despite what side you're on," said Mandy Carter, co-emcee for the antiwar rally, being advertised as a rally for peace and timed to coincide with similar events in more than a dozen major cities, including New York, London, Paris and Rome.

The real challenge could come from a third group, organized by N.C. State University students who plan to march down Hillsborough Street several hundred strong early Saturday -- possibly through the pro-war rally -- to join the protesters at the Capitol in their stand against war with Iraq.

Freshman Jared Milrad, 19, of South Brunswick, N.J., said he and other organizers knew about the patriotic rally. "We see it as a nonviolent action, and we're really just trying to organize young people," he said. "We plan to just be peaceful and respectful."

Susan Eaton, vice president of the state chapter of freerepublic.com, said she organized the "patriotic counter-rally" to support troops headed to the Middle East after hearing about the antiwar protest, but she said she was unaware of the students' march. She said she is nervous about aggressive behavior she has seen in televised footage of some recent antiwar protests but is counting on police to provide enough security.

Raleigh Police Maj. John Kramer said no additional officers will be added because of the rallies, beyond the normal contingent for crowds that size. He said he spoke with NCSU police Thursday about the student rally and does not expect a conflict.

Kramer said the pro-war group is expected to be small -- about 30 people. State Capitol police plan to add 15 officers Saturday to a normal patrol of about five officers, said Maj. W. F. Etheridge. NCSU police also plan to add officers for the student rally, said Sgt. John Barnwell.

Because students did not apply for a city permit to march from the Bell Tower on campus to the Capitol, Kramer said they will have to stay on Hillsborough Street sidewalks. With a Hillsborough Street bridge closed for repairs, they will likely avoid the pro-war rally by detouring onto Morgan Street to get to the antiwar rally, he said. The antiwar rally is scheduled to start at 11:30 a.m. and end about 3 p.m.

Carter, director of Southerners on New Ground, a Durham-based lesbian and gay rights group, said she spoke with Raleigh and State Capitol police about security concerns. The antiwar rally's organizers also plan to provide several "peacekeepers" to watch for disturbances in the crowd, she said.

Antiwar groups in some cities, including Greensboro and Winston-Salem, are sending contingents to Raleigh, while Asheville, Boone, Charlotte, Morehead City, Pittsboro and Wilmington have scheduled protests of their own.

There is a 70 percent chance of rain Saturday, but both Carter and Eaton said the Raleigh protests will go forward, rain or shine.

If anyone has the stomach to listen for it, I was interviewed by National Public Radio today while FReeping the Nobel Peace Prize Forum in Moorhead, MN (next door to Fargo).

Key quotes included:

"Peace is good, but Freedom is better."

"The Iraqi people deserve freedom, and we deserve to live without fear of Saddam's nukes."

"I expected to find some International ANSWER people here. They are a front group for the Workers World Party, a bunch of communists. I'm here to give the pro-American side."

"I'm in favor of taking out Saddam before he lands a nuke in an American city."

I was reluctant to talk to the interviewer, "because in another city, I carried a Bush sign and was threatened with physical violence every fifteen minutes."

My Sign read:

FREE IRAQ
FRY MUMIA

I really hope they get the Fry Mumia part onto NPR, because Mumia is their prison correspondent.

I carried the American flag. It was 15 degrees with a 20 MPH wind. Darned cold, but worth it.

FREEP ON!

I'll let mykdsmom or Constitution Day do the honors of the official after-action Patriots' Rally report, but I just got back and this is my take on it. First of all, thank you mykdsmom and Constitution Day for helping put this whole thing together! Y'all did an excellent job getting the word out. Most of the people on our side weren't FReepers at all, but had heard about the rally on Jerry Agar's show, the News & Observer and WRAL-TV. The weather was cold, breezy and constantly threatened rain, but thankfully I didn't need to use the red, white & blue umbrella I bought special for the occasion

So Mr. Wimpycat and I showed up early, to make sure we had a good parking spot, armed with our sign and our Gadsden flag. We were stationed at the end of Hillsborough St. right across from the Confederate Memorial on the State Capitol grounds. There were lots of police in attendance and they had metal barriers between our side and the other side, to let traffic pass between the two sides.

Mykdsmom, Constitution Day, ncweaver, overtaxed, Helms and several other FReepers whose names escape me were there. There was a very nice man from Italy who was very gung ho and added a lot to the spirit of the rally. There were several college students from NC State University carrying huge US flags. At first we thought they were walking past us to get to the other side, and somebody asked them if they were from NC State, and one of them said, "Yeah, but we're not socialists!" and they came on behind the barrier to our side.

I'm not good at estimating, but I'd say we had about 75 people there out supporting our troops and our president. The other side had several thousand, and I wouldn't be surprised if they had the promised 10,000, but I know it wasn't any more than that. They were mostly congregating on the other side of the Capitol building, so we didn't see them, but about 100 of them or so came to stand on their side of the street opposite us, and that's when the real fun began. There was mostly good-natured jibes going back and forth. One poor, deluded ignorant chap was in for it when he held up his sign that read: "Lets chose peace not war." Well you know us! We gave him a hard time over that. "It's CHOOSE! It's CHOOSE peace! Don't you want more funding for education and SPELLING?" Most of their signs were pretty lame, and I don't know how they reconciled their pacifist tendencies with the two guys standing right in front of the Confederate Memorial with a Palestinian flag and two flags with the Dome of the Rock and Arabic writing on them. These two guys walked by with a "Bomb Texas--it has oil, too!" and I hollered out, "Why don't you TRY and bomb Texas? Just TRY it!"

I must say, my husband got into the spirit of things quite early, and was enthusiastically heckling the other side. These two middle-aged and obviously non-Hispanic women walked past us on their way to their rally carrying signs written in Spanish that read "Witnesses for Justice" or something like that. So my husband hollered out to them (in Spanish), "'Witnesses for Justice'? Do you speak Spanish?" They didn't even turn their heads--it was obvious they didn't understand him. "Why are you carrying those signs if you don't even know how to speak Spanish!" He really got into the spirit of the rally. The Italian gentleman was especially vocal, and he was interviewed by several news organizations. (I was interviewed by one myself.)

It was so funny, watching people from the other side walk past us before the rally heated up. We were friendly to everybody. A smile and a "Good morning!" for everybody. Most of them sort of winced and said, "Good morning" back like it hurt them to be polite.

Lots of news organizations came by and talked to us and took pictures of our signs. I know at least 3 or 4 photographed my sign. Lots of reporters interviewed the decorated combat veteran who was with us as well. I didn't hear if he was a WWII veteran, but he was a Korean War and Vietnam War veteran and I think CD said he had a Bronze Star on his VFW hat.

Anyway, it was lots of fun, but the cold front started to come in and a lot of us started getting cold, but I didn't notice how cold I was until the time we almost left.

ROFL! CD was a trip with his Fry Mumia T-shirt! I'll let him tell you about his "special" gag that he used to go over and mill around the other side!

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