Posted on 02/15/2003 1:34:58 PM PST by RedWing9
The Chicagoland Chapter had a successful Anti-antiwar protest in the Lincolnwood area of North Chicago. Attendees were Chicagolady, GRRRRR, Chi-Town Chief, BillyBoy, RedWing9, justshutupandtakeit and son.
BillyBoy, Chicagolady and myself arrived at the corner of Western and Devon around 12:15. GRRRRR and Chi-Town Chief had already laid claim to the corner flying the American Flag and egging-on the 'Saddam Fan Club' of 'Useful Idiots.' justhshutupandtakeit and his son came soon after that, yelling comments from across the street like 'We love Saddam'.
We were located about 4 blocks west of the protest gathering but right along their planned march. Their rally was to start at noon, but there were plenty of stragglers coming down Devon until the march began. That only allowed us to stir them up with chants like:
I'll leave it up to the others to add their own reminisces. I do remember calling out to the bandana-covered-face radicals to show their face. They tried to yell something which was undiscernable, so I again asked them to drop the bandana so we could understand them. They continued on their way, flustered by their inability to make a point, I think.
The marchers began their journey west at around 1:15p and they past by us, all ~4000-5000 of them. I stood on a bus bench the entire time with my 400,000 inspectors sign, chanting, pointing out their faltering logic, and just generally laughing at them.
Several of them tried to corner me into the 'you've never served in the military' argument, it was most assuredly easy to ignore them.
We kept reminding them that A.N.S.W.E.R. and N.I.O.N. were fronted by communist organizations. At at the end we had an old man, veteran of Korea, establish himself as a member of A.N.S.W.E.R. We had a discussion with him that was more laden with the typical 'you didn't serve, you can't talk' rhetoric, along with other things that justshutupandtakeit and GRRRRR will have to comment on. I would like to point out that as he was walking away and said "A small town in Texas is missing their town joker" I said, "Oh, I didn't know you were from Texas"... lol
It seems the "most likely to have earned a section eight" crowd, found a another brow beating tactic. Slimy Scotty Ritter often beat up newsies with a similar tactic; whenever a newsie would begin to question Ritter's 180 degree flip-flop.
If your "thanks for their service" doesn't calm them; you might want to respond with something like:
Tell me sir, what did you think about Billy Daley (when in Chicago, otherwise Algore) disqualifying out our soldiers/sailors overseas absentee ballots? You've been hanging with the same crowd which supports the Daley (Gore) military voter disenfranchisement scheme.
If you get any response other than agreement with you after that zinger, they are not a veteran. This veteran thanks you FReepers for supporting the young men and ladies of the US Armed forces. Don't forget to e-mail the troops with your FReep stories. 
They're watching CNN.
GREAT JOB!!
You guys make us all proud. Sure wish I could have been there with you.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.