Posted on 04/06/2003 5:56:37 PM PDT by newslady
Just arrived home from our third successful “Rally for America” in three weeks in the New Orleans area. A large crowd of patriots participated with us in a very rewarding, patriotic experience, which included prayers for our troops, flag-waving, and horn-honking of supporters, as they drove past our group. And believe me, the honking was LOUD! Here are a few photos which I took (I did a terrible job, unfortunately).
We were also joined by our favorite State Representative, Steve Scalise, popular WTIX radio talk show host Jeff Crouere, and WWL radio’s “Queen of Talk,” Andre Trevigne. The owner of Goody’s Café even stopped by with donuts for everyone.
Patriot1 and I have been organizing “informal” rallies each Sunday, following our big “formal” rally on March 21st, which featured such important speakers as Congressional Medal of Honor Winner Gen. James Livingston, Congressman David Vitter, State Senator Ken Hollis, and State Rep. Steve Scalise, and top notch entertainment, including Vince Vance (of Vince Vance and the Valiants).
The purpose of our informal rallies is to give all of us an opportunity to continue to be visible in support of our troops with prayers, patriotic signs, patriotic music, etc. We want our troops to know how much we appreciate the sacrifices that they are making for us and our great country. We are eternally grateful that these brave young Americans are putting their lives on the line for us—they are our heroes.
We are planning these rallies every Sunday (except Easter), until our troops start coming home, when we have achieved victory in Iraq. The location for each of these rallies will be the Korean Monument Park on the neutral ground across from Lakeside Shopping Center in Metairie, LA.
I'll be back home in time for the next rally which will take place next Sunday, April 13th. We MUST continue to show our appreciation to the brave men and women in the war zone, who are putting their lives on the line for us.
Thanks, chemicalman. I didnt' realize Fox 8 was there. By the way, I was happy to have the opportunity to meet you. I know you were also at our big rally on March 21st, but the crowd was so big at that rally, I didn't even see one of my daughters or my grandson!
By the way, I forgot to say that these rallies will be for just an hour, from 4-5 PM, which seems to be just about the right amount of time for flag-waving.
Hope to see you and the freeplet next Sunday, omegatoo. Thank goodness Patriot1 will be back, so we can get some better photos! She is also an expert on grass-roots rallies, and she did a lot of organizational work on this rally before she left to visit her son in Michigan.
We're expecting bigger and bigger crowds, as the word spreads about our rallies to support our troops. It takes a little time to get the word out, since our advertizing budget is rather small--approximately $0! Actually, we do spend a little on making copies of our fliers, but Patriot1 and I both own copy machines, and we know how to refill ink cartridges, so we keep our expenses to a minimum.
Quite a few volunteers are helping us distribute the fliers, primarily in the Metairie area. We also have our automatic callers going to a targeted group in our database, and we call in to talk shows, such as Jeff Crouere and Susan Berneker on WTIX, Andre on WWL and David Tyree on WWL. We are also spreading the word by email and word-of-mouth. If you can think of any other ways to spread the word, let us know.
Mikenola, for informal rallies like the ones we are now having, the Korean Monument Park across from Lakeside Shopping Center is ideal. Parking is available on the neutral ground for quite a few cars, and there is a place for people to sit, since there is a cement wall which is ideal sitting height. And since the intersection of Causeway and Vets is one of the busiest in this area, there are lots of cars to honk.
On the other hand, for large, formal rallies like the one we had in Kenner on March 21st, it's difficult to get permission from local authorities, without being asked to put up large amounts of money for police, insurance, porto-potties, etc. Since we don't have any funds for these rallies, we were very fortunate that the city of Kenner allowed us to have our big rally for free. We love Kenner, America's city!
There *has* to be a way to make a French Qtr. rally happen. I don't have a lot of contacts with the city, but I'm going to look into it. I just emailed David Tyree about it.
To #13: "There *has* to be a way to make a French Qtr. rally happen".....SheetRack won't "smell what you're cookin"...no way...maybe in Freedom Quarters...
By the way, I think that we need another Gulf Coast Chapter FReeper party in the near future. What do you think?
Sounds good. You have FReep mail.
WFTR
Bill
Bill, I'm not very good at finding place around New Orleans either, even though I'm a native. However, this is very easy to find. Just get off I-10 at the Causeway Blvd. North exit, and you are on Causeway Blvd. The traffic light that you hit is Veterans Highway, and our rally is on the median ("neutral ground" in New Orleans talk) to the left, at the "big American flag." You will see Lakeside Shopping Center on the other side of the street (the northwest corner). To get to the parking area for the rally, you have to go past Veterans on Causeway and take a U. Then turn right on Vets, get to the left, and take another U around the neutral ground, and the entrance to the free parking lot is on the left. This sounds complicated, but it's not really that bad. You'll see a group with lots of American flags.
It would be great if you could make one of our rallies. Looking forward to meeting you, Bill.
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