The 'Sparsely Attended' Patriots Rally for America--After Action Report

The D.C. Chapter and Rally for America ^ | Sunday, April 21, 2002 | Kristinn, Angelwood, Dave Dilegge, tgslTakoma

[kristinn]

Never. I'm sorry to hear about the loss of your friend and your husband's health problems. I'm sure we'll see you soon.

[kristinn]

That's an excellent idea.

[Dr_Cruel]

I went to the rally, on both days, and never saw the "pro-US" rally you folks staged (was luky enough to catch you when you all were in front of the courthouse last September - blind luck on that one). Your group is a good start, but it needs to get bigger. There's a lot of grass-roots support for what you're doing, but people aren't getting the message that there is a viable answer to the ANSWER folks. The Left is a great deal more organized, knows how to leach funds off colleges and "charity" outfits, and comes better prepared to these gatherings. By way of leaflets, all I saw was one discarded sheet telling the protestors to "go back to Cuba". In getting our message across, we can do a great deal better than that. Remember that these Leftists, besides desirous of seeing an end to the Jews in the Middle East, have advocated for the Syrian occupation of Lebanon, a hands-off approach to the narco terrorists in Columbia (and their fellow travellers in Venezuela), have blamed the massacres of Afghanis by the Russian Marxists on the CIA, and have otherwise become associated with such obvious bald-faced lies and monstrous practices as to be the subject of a hundred damaging leaflets. Anyways, sorry to criticize. Your presence made it clear that this hatred of the Israelis is not universal; if the story about these characters setting one of our flags on fire is true, it showed what sort of people are against us as well. Thanks, and I'll be sure to check this site for details on the next outing.

[RaceBannon]

What?? Know ye not that I would save the women and Children first? THEN fight??

[Congressman Billybob]

Thank you again, my friend, for inviting me to be part of the Rally for America, I was honored to be part of it.

I know you have a lot of fish to fry. But when you get a chance, please send me an audio or video tape from whatever source, of the festivities. As mentioned, I will transcribe my comments to begin the Rally, and post them up on FreeRepublic.

Given the reprehensible decision of C-SPAN to broadcast the Anti-American rally twice (live and on tape-delay) but not broadcast ours at all, that transcript will be the only way I have of sharing with all FReepers the historical quotes that I used in my speech (as you, wisely, suggested).

I look forward to hearing from you at earliest convenience. Or, if one of the FReepers who were in attendance has a tape, please make a copy and send it to me. My snail mail address is J. Armor, Esq., Box 243, Highlands, NC 28741. If anyone can do that directly, it will be one less item on kristinn's desk.

Thanks.

Congressman Billybob

Click here to fight Campaign Finance "Reform/".

Click here for latest: "Memo to Yasser from Irv on Career Choices."

[YourAdHere]

You guys did an awesome job in arranging the rally. I am not surprised that the media did such a poor job in spreading the word, but am still disappointed. But it was still great Freeping with you guys.

[Tinman]

"I will tell you this, I would rather stand with any five or ten committed patriots than ten thousand of those "bussed" in, rent a mobs."

Couldn't agree more, my brother. The MfL was also "sparsely attended" but we'll never know how many we really reached on those days.

Kristinn, allow me to add my "thanks" to Jeff's. All the best to you, Connie and everyone who participated.

Regards

[Marie Antoinette]

We still have those whistles, blackbag!! Well, two of them anyway. And they still fight over them! LOL!

Lauren is 3 1/2 now, she's a beauty, very temperamental. Typical girl - ha. Since then we've had two, Rebecca who is two, and Joseph is two weeks old.

Still, it seems like yesterday that we met y'all. Of course that could be pregnancy induced dementia too ;-)

[FreeTheHostages]

Well, the PLO people were back in my Dupont Circle neighborhood last night. If you guys are interested, here's a brief report from the front line.

Appropriate use of barricades. Police had many streets that feed into the Hilton area barricaded off.

Appropriate use of force. MPD had all kinds of people about. Tactical units on bikes with bullet proof vests. Vans of other cops waiting nearby. No shortage of MDP anyway. Cops posted on the corner of many blocks as far away as 18th & Q, quite far from the Hilton.

That lonely bus. There it was, a nice big bus with the name "luxury tours" on the side. Parked discretely with some cop cars on a side street. No doubt one of many offering a free ride to lock-up if the protestors violated the law. Almost kinda wish it had been filled up.

We didn't actually go to the rally site. Why chance it. There had been some black-garbed anarchists being followed by some MPD officers on bikes (and foolishingly trying to lose them!) and other little games going on. Plus, sadly, there didn't seem to be much of a pro-Israel protest group. I saw one guy coming back with a pro-Israel sign and he seemed very sad and dispirited. God bless and protect his country.

[Jeff Head]

Good to see you my friend. Hope all is well with you and yours.

I still receive emails about the MFL where folks are wondering if we will ever have another one.

Hearing those everyday people express their own thoughts on the "state of the union" is something I will never forget. Most were much more capable, articulate, and heart felt messages thatn you ever hear from the "politicians" of the day. And that is why the events were so memorable, so thought provoking and so uplifting ... to see those folks express those feelings in their own words to anyone willing to listen. Here's a memory:

(L2R is OWK, Bob Locke, Mongo behind Bob, (don't know the blonde guy in the hat), CC2k, Buckeroo and to the far right is none other than the Tinman himself)


(That's Buckeroo and yours truly with a bunch of others behind, listening to one of the speakers)

Best regards. I'll the latest thread on my book to you.

[Feiny]

No such luck. We won't be there until the 8th. Have fun!

[Ligeia]

By way of leaflets, all I saw was one discarded sheet telling the protestors to "go back to Cuba".

After the Rally, some of us hiked to the Hotel Washington for dinner. One of the freepers there had a Xeroxed flier that had been distributed by someone outside our group. The flier had the Rally logo at the top then all sorts of outrageous claims and accusations making up the body of the text. The obvious intent was to make FR and its supporters look like lunatics. If someone still has a copy of that flier, I wish he'd post the text of it for all to see so it can be discredited.

[VaMarVet]

I never saw any fliers from our side. I would venture that any fliers that were lying about were part of the opposition's disinformation campaign. Besides, FReepers do not litter.

[Ligeia]

It was definitely part of the opposition's disinformation campaign.

[RasterMaster]

You had an excellent segment on C-span...the other guy came off looking like a whiner without a cause. I did see a liberal slant to the calls they were taking. Glad some intelligent callers made it through!

I also noticed you stated all the things that the rally was FOR and the opposition could only talk about what they were AGAINST.

[john cotter]

Hello, "Tomkat". Sorry, but I am so terrible at names, but then again you might not want your real name posted. So noone misunderstands me, there were plenty of complete idiots among their crowd, and some of them would have attacked us if they could have gotten away with it. It's just that absurdity and violence is all I ever expect from them, and the "other" ones suprised me by their decent treatment and protection of us. My daughter and Tomkat were fearless in the face of the worst of the freaks, but this old man started to feel he should not have brought them into such a dangerous situation, and more than once I was thankful for the protection from the best of their crowd. You know, give the devil it's due? I could spend hours talking about the worst of them, but it is the same I have seen from them for years, nothing new, nothing unusual.

[nutmeg]

I love reading your "After Action" reports, kristinn, they read like a very interesting novel! Thank you for standing bravely to face the very nasty Commie opposition last Saturday! And thank you also for your tireless efforts and thorough preparation before the Patriots' Rally for America. You've done us proud once again.

nutmeg & zelig

[nutmeg]

THANK YOU FReeper Patriots and speakers for making the Patriots' Rally for America such a success! ("sparsely attended" or not) While the Commies seemed to get all the media attention, I highly doubt that The Unwashed gained much favor among average U.S. citizens with crazed rantings of their pro-terrorist agenda on live television Saturday.

Kudos to all of you Patriots for your courage in the face of real danger from above-mentioned Unwashed Commies. Thanks to everyone who posted the great pics, too. I am so sorry we were not able to participate in this rally with you, our DC Chapter and Tri-State Chapter friends.

God Bless all of you... Eagles UP!

nutmeg & zelig

[nutmeg]

Please see Post #179. I believe I saw you at Saturday's rally in some of the pics! :-)