ANOTHER VIEW TAKES TO THE STREETS (FREE REPUBLIC GETS MENTIONED AS A RIGHT WINGED WEB SITE!)

NY Daily News ^ | 3/24/03

[areafiftyone]

They assembled at noon on the east side of Broadway, just below 42nd St. Above them rose a billboard for The Gap and another that showed a beaming Al Roker tipping a weatherproof hat. They were here to support President Bush and the war in Iraq, and they started with "God Bless America" and chants of "U.S.A! U.S.A! U.S.A!"

As with the immense anti-war demonstration on Saturday, many of their sentiments were expressed with hand-lettered posters. GIVE WAR A CHANCE! and WAR IS THE ANSWER and SUPPORT OUR TROOPS. Some were polite and thoughtful.

"This is designed to be an antidote to the negativity, the anti-Americanism of what we saw yesterday," said a retired policeman named Michael Fandal. "The troops are risking their lives. We're learning that freedom is not free. This is the least we can do for our guys. Basically, war is not pretty. We had to go in and get Hitler. Now we have another crisis, and we have to terrorize the terrorists ...."

Up on the electronic zipper running around the side of the old Times building, there was news about American soldiers who had been captured or killed in a fierce ambush in Iraq. The news did not seem to chasten the crowd. "U.S.A! U.S.A!" they chanted, raising clenched fists to the sky, many of them with blazing, angry eyes.

A speaker with a bullhorn shouted that "all major organizers of anti-war rallies are Communists! ... They want to take this country and turn it into Cuba!"

This rally was organized, I was told, by the Christian Coalition, the Zionist Organization of America and freerepublic.com, a right-wing Web site.

More signs bobbed in the sunlight: NUKE IRAQ, BOYCOTT FRANCE, said one sign, aimed at TV cameras on the west side of Broadway. I SUPPORT OUR COUNTRY and U.S. TROOPS SAY "NO MORE" and U.S.A. RULES. The strangest said: $ FOR FREEDOM NOT THE BOARD OF ED.

I ran into John Bal, a Vietnam veteran, a former police officer, who wanted to show his support for the soldiers, even though he was skeptical about the Bush administration. "I thought this was going to be something else," he said, and showed me his own sign, whose message was simple: "My heart aches for coalition forces and Iraqi casualties."

Another man told me he had marched for civil rights in Mississippi, had been jailed there, and had come - to his own surprise - to support Bush and the war. "Sept. 11 changed everything," he said, with a certain sorrow in his voice. "We have to fight this war or we'll never be safe again."

Now they were chanting, "U.S.A! U.S.A!" again, and broke into cheers when a fire ladder came past them in the open lanes, and cheered again, for a police emergency vehicle.

Behind me a heavyset, bearded man was suddenly screaming at a middle-aged woman, "You're a bigot! That's what you are! You're a bigot!" And then he rushed her, knocking off her glasses, and started to punch her, and a cop was there, shoving the enraged man away, protecting the woman, and leading her away to safety.

"U.S.A! U.S.A! ..."

One thin young man who supported the war said to a friend, "That's just not right, man. You never hit a woman."

"Yeah, but she must've said something."

"But you don't hit a woman, man."

Someone started singing "God Bless America" again, and images of our amazing week after Sept. 11 flashed through my mind, that week of extraordinary unity that is now breaking into pieces.

Across the street in the media pen, I talked for a while with Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, who argued vehemently in support of the war.

He believed that the Iraq war would be a warning to Iran, Syria, Libya and other countries that "we are not cowards. I believe there's a reasonable chance that if the Saddam regime is eliminated, it may not be necessary to fight the others." Yes: there could be no guarantees.

"But it's like chemotherapy," Klein said. "It could have terrible side effects. But if you don't try chemotherapy, you're dead."

At the corner of 41st St., a lone thirtyish man in jeans, lean and bearded, held a simple sign toward the demonstrators: "Thou Shalt Not Kill."

"Go away!" shouted a furious woman. "Go away! Go away! Go away!"

He wandered away. Now they were chanting, "God Bless Fox News! God Bless Fox News! God Bless Fox News!"

Biblical injunction

On 42nd St., I saw the man with the "Thou Shalt Not Kill" sign standing out of sight of the demonstrators with another bearded fellow who held a small sign that said: "No War."

A wild-eyed man (also bearded) approached them, and shouted: "Get the f--- out of here! Get the f--- OUT of here!" A cop eased over, cool and restrained, and nothing happened. Now some people were leaving the demonstration. One muscled young bravo passed the two bearded men, and shouted at the man in jeans, "F-you, you s------!"

The zipper was telling us that it was a bad day for soldiers in Iraq. The chants began to fade into a kind of bored futility. A long way from Times Square, soldiers were killing and dying. I glanced back and Al Roker was still smiling from the billboard.

Originally published on March 24, 2003

[Darksheare]

"Behind me a heavyset, bearded man was suddenly screaming at a middle-aged woman, "You're a bigot! That's what you are! You're a bigot!" And then he rushed her, knocking off her glasses, and started to punch her, and a cop was there, shoving the enraged man away, protecting the woman, and leading her away to safety."
One thin young man who supported the war said to a friend, "That's just not right, man. You never hit a woman."
"Yeah, but she must've said something."
"But you don't hit a woman, man."



That right there embodies the entire essence of the piece protestors. They're violent and make equivalency between assaulting a woman and 'getting even with her for saying something he didn't like' which is what the one idiot was doing.

[areafiftyone]

He's not bad looking but not really a hunka hunka burning love! ;-)

[EBUCK]

I noticed that as well. As if, just in passing, a man was beating up a woman, the cop shoved the woman away and no one, in the whole crowd of men, beat the tar out of that aggravator. Yah, right. The very last place I would take a swing at a woman would be at a conservative rally, chances are that I'd be killed rather painfully and by way of unending kicks and punches.

[syriacus]

Imagine...

I guess right wing means "People who don't obstruct their government's attempts to protect its people."

[NH Liberty]

"I heard Laurie Dhue yesterday afternoon mentioning Free Republic. I was in awe that we were mentioned."

What did she say exactly?

[areafiftyone]

Nah if he was a bum he would have his pants halfway down his legs! LOL the bums in NYC are in dire need of belts!

[incrediable]

not only you areasfiftyone but all of you are the largest bunch on unintellectual people i have ever read posts from. you are as worse as then those i you oppose. i disagree with you more then the so called liberals. wake the hell up and snap out of your us vs them mentality. not only that you waste a public forum on the attractiveness of news casters. don't you have anything better to say? promoting ideas of hatred are not what being pro american is all about (ie what was that... ah.. invade iraq, nuke france?) well then maybe france in pre emptive fear of us should just nuke us first.
do all of us in the world a favor, either stop breathing, stop breeding or think and give your politics a good name. if you really believe that your white christian majority desearves to dominate the planet then promote the ethics and morality underlined by the us constition and bill of rights. everyone has a right to be what and how they believe they should be as long as it brings no harm to other people. if you disagree with this statement then your the ones that should move to a dictorship.
or better yet, dragged out in the middle of the street and shot point blank in the head.
then all the world can rest a little bit easier knowing that some of the ignoranant selfish american antipatirots like yourselves have extingushed. do you really believe that just because your born in this country that your better then other people. and just because you choose to follow exactly the will of your governement that those that oppose you are wrong?
and one question, what does conservatism have to do with supporting war? as christian you should be opposed to all forms of murder. legal or not.

[areafiftyone]

MY MY MY!! Bored at DU again? Grow up and get a life!

[Admin Moderator]

Capital letters and proper spelling are your friend if you want to claim intellectual superiority. Just some friendly advice from your friendly neighborhood Admin Moderator. Thanks, AM

[dead]

it is you incrediable who thinks as i aassume you due that peaple who in disagreement with you should be shot in the head. i think you should not call into yourself the lable of conservative in that being you am an idiot.
you lack of capitalization and incoherent ramblings on of english as second language funny but often also stupid.

[abner]

You must be the Zionist.

[Slip18]

Laurie was talking about the people protesting the anti-war movement. We were one of three she mentioned.

[Slip18]

Also see Post 3.

[Slip18]

ROTFLOL! That was great, dead!

[CyberAnt]

Sorry to tell you folks, but the blonde has been the major hire for the media for many, many years. It's because mostly MEN watch news, so to attract the MEN, they use the blonde - just demographics. Has nothing to do with ability - sadly. However, sometimes the stations luck out and get a talented blonde (such as Laurie).

However, I will say that as more and more women have begun to watch TV news, the "blonde" has become less and less of an issue. I think this is because the stations began hearing from the other WOMEN who started complaining.

[gg188]

Christians, Jews and Freepers. That's America! If you were there you were in good company!

[Zevonismymuse]

not only you areasfiftyone but all of you are the largest bunch on unintellectual people i have ever read posts from.

You dangle prepositions, use incorrect punctuation and have misspelled several words. You call us "unintellectual"? You can't be series.

[rocky88]

"do you really believe that just because your born in this country that your better then other people"

Ummmm. Yes. That's why America is the best country on this planet and everyone wants to come here, you idiot.

My ancestors came to this country and worked to get where they wanted to be, which is more than I can say for most of the trash (Hispanics excluded) entering today. When you're proud of your country, it shows in your voice. Now shut up and go back your hilarious infighting on DU. (Your site has become such a microcosm of the DNC - it gives me giggles to read it - thanks for the daily laughs!!!)

[areafiftyone]

Wasn't this person just cute as a cockroach! Makes you want to just step on him/her!

[Amore]

I'm not blonde, and never wanted to be. But guys, there's very few "true" blondes over 21. Blonde hair tends to darken with age. Probably most of these women were blonde when they were younger, and they want to maintain blondeness. Good for them. That said (& I guess this proves I'm a female), I find Dhue's lips to be distracting and unattractive.