Activism
I Guess To Some Degree They Were Right
Thursday, April 8th, 2004For quite a few years now, various people have told me I’d run for office one day. I really just dismissed it - considering if I had a choice to either be a Senator, a Congressman, or some other elected official or perhaps have my own radio show like I did in college and talk politics, I’d rather do the latter.
Last night I went to the Republican City Committee of my hometown. It was suggested to me by newly elected Republican State Committee member John Racho that I should go.
Hey, why not? It’s about time I get more involved in local politics…
During this meeting, elections were held to pick new Republican City Committee members and Ward Committee members. To make a long story short, I ended up being elected Secretary of my Ward.
How about that?
Well, I guess all those people might be right… Perhaps this is merely a stepping stone for some future calling. Who knows?
Confronting Evil Again in New York City
Sunday, March 21st, 2004Yesterday, I went to New York City with a few friends from Boston to counter-protest International ANSWER’s anti-war/ anti-Bush/ pro-palestine/ anti-Israel/ pro-Mumia/ anti-capitalism/ pro-socialism/ pro-comunism /anti-America/ anti-Republican/ anti-democracy /anti-war on terror protest.
We left Boston around 7:30 a.m. There were four of us driving down, Aaron and Tyler from Pardon My English, FReeper Javene, and myself.
We got to New York around 11:30 a.m. found a place to park and got into the action. We had our signs and flags ready. I had a Bush-Cheney ‘04 rally sign and a self-made sign for the event. Before we even approached the center of activity, we were getting looks by passerby. Several negative, as well as a good number of people supporting the fact we were about to stand up to the commies of International ANSWER. A vet came to us and was grateful that we were there to support the efforts of President Bush – who actually had the guts to do the right thing.
We met up with our Freeper James, in New York and started in. We were immediately subjected to harassment from those people who didn’t like our signs. A few people even went to so far as to physically intimidate us. One person tried to rip off Tyler’s American flag.
So much for freedom of speech and diversity huh?
We knew we were going to be outnumbered. We were not part of any nationally organized effort, so other counter-protesters like us were probably there, but we couldn’t find them. However, the support we got from onlookers throughout the day was especially pleasing. We gave out some Bush-Cheney ‘04 buttons to a bunch of people who told us they were grateful we were there to counter protest the “nuts marching in the rally.”
We were engaged by occasional anti-war protesters. Many of whom told us we didn’t belong there and we should leave. Some looked at our signs and said “Are kidding?”, or “Are you for real? These are people who are so extreme they literally cannot believe that people could possibly think differently than them.
Or in reality – just think.
In the middle of the action
Tyler and I get interviewed by independent media
These people were completely uninterested in debating – they approached us not to have a discussion (which they claimed they were trying to have) but to tell us why they were right, why we were wrong, and they showed no interest in what we had to say and quickly dismissed our facts as propaganda and lies.
John and James
Me, holding my signs
Along the way, we were joined by a few people, one of them was John Brose, who just came back from serving Iraq in February. He had come see what was going on with the rally after hearing about it in the news and spotted us and joined our group.
I talked a lot with John, between arguing with the commies of International ANSWER. He told me about how things were in Iraq (which are not nearly as bad as the media makes it out to be) and that the troops are overwhelmingly pro-Bush and are still dedicated to the mission.
Sometimes John was confronted by the protesters, being criticized for his views. Very often he was told “Why don’t you enlist and go to Iraq?” Of course, he would “Actually, I just got back from Iraq.” After that they would usually shut up and move on. I heard a couple protesters accuse him of lying to them.
None of them thanked him for his service either. How’s that for “supporting the troops?”
John Brose (center) in Iraq
There were lots of different reactions to our presence. Once a person did come up to me said, “Listen, I disagree with what you’re saying, but I have to admit you have guts to come out here.”
People like that I could appreciate. He was someone I could have a discussion with. Unfortunately, he was a rare exception.
The signs hoisted by the ANSWER people were quite telling. From the blunt anti-Bush signs like “Bush Sucks,” “Re-Defeat Bush” or “Impeach Bush” to the anti-war signs “Bush Lies, Who Dies,” “Bring The Troops Home Now” and of course “End the Occupation of Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq,” we knew we were dealing with dealing with a large groups of extremists. Some of them even told us “You guys better get out – you’re going to get killed!”
So much for being pro-peace and anti-violence right?
We took a time out at Starbucks to get caffeinated and reenergized for the rest of the rally. We shared our individual stories from confrontations, and laughed at the ridiculousness of their arguments. After that short break, we jumped back in, and infiltrated the march – which had already started dying down.
Taking a break, posing for a photo
At one point, a rambunctious anti-war protester was screaming at us, accusing us being stupid and illiterate, and I was even called a “Hitler Youth,” – which was not a nice thing to say to a Jew.
But that’s the mindset of these extremists… If you don’t agree with them, you’re a nazi. If you support President Bush, they call you a neo-con. If you support the war on terror, you are yourself a terrorist.
There was some media interest in us. We were followed by a freelance photographer for a couple hours, and I was asked some questions by a freelance writer from Columbia University and I spoke with someone from Salon.com (though I’m not expecting an objective recount of that encounter – should she use my words.)
After the rally died down, we decided to pack up and get dinner. We treated our new friend John to dinner, as a thank you for serving our country.
After parting with our new friends, those of us who came in from Boston went to pay our respects at Ground Zero.
The cross at Ground Zero
We walked around and grasped the massiveness of the holes where the twin towers once stood. We had parked nearby, and it was eerie to think as we approached that this is where it happened. This is where thousands of people died, where people ran to escape the crashing down of the towers.
And it’s sad so many people have forgotten.
Our humility turned to anger when we began heading back to the car to find that the ANSWER people had assembled a small group of people on the platform of the view area of Ground Zero. The were still going at it, bullhorns out, and screaming out hateful words and obscenities, disgracing the memories of those who died there on September 11, 2001.
ANSWER disagracing the memory of 3000 dead at Ground Zero
As we left, we decided to do our best to disrupt this despicable display; we hoisted out of the car window Tyler’s American flag, and beeped the horn as we drove by them. It may not have stopped them, but we couldn’t have left without doing what we could.
Hours later, I came home and had received an e-mail from John Brose, thanking us for hanging out with him:
Thanks for hanging out during that bullshit protest. Well, I am glad I came across you guys, because seeing all these morons in one place was pissing me off and I think I was ready to jump someone. I just can’t understand their whole thought process. How can you not be willing to support someone who is defending you? I was shocked at how almost all of these people had no agenda whatsoever, or even seemed to know what they were talking about. Most of them were nothing but freaks. And what’s scary is that their votes count just as much as mine.
Scary also is that they think they represent mainstream America.
It was quite a day. So much happened I probably won’t get to share, but Aaron and Tyler have each written about the day at Pardon My English, and you can read their accounts of the protest.
UPDATE: More accounts of anti-protests from IvanLenin, Hootinan, and Anti-com.com,
Axe The Auto Tax
Friday, November 7th, 2003To all my readers in Massachusetts, I urge you to visit the “Axe The Auto Tax” Website, download the petition, and get signatures in your town. As of November 3, the website says “8,225 signatures have been collected, and they need 69,422 by the 19th.
Read up on this petition to get an understanding of why the Auto Tax should be repealed. You can sign up for updates on the main page to stay informed of the progress. There’s not a lot of time, so with a little organization and dedication, we can axe the auto tax!
Doing The Lord’s Work
Sunday, November 2nd, 2003Last night, myself, and a few others of the local chapter of Free Republic held a counter protest to a rally organized by One Palestine. One Palestine was in Boston to protest a conference held by an organization called Brit Tzedek V’Shalom, an organization which basically believes that the Jews of Israel can peacefully co-exist with the Arabs as long as both sides make various concessions. Personally, I don’t believe their goal is realistic, for the Arabs have shown nothing but pure hatred for the Jewish people and only wish to destroy Israel.
Holding signs and having fun.
That aside, we had a small group with us. Several people on our side could not make it. However, we had about five people, and the pro-Palis had between 30 and 40 people. They were on one side of the street, we were on the other, at the entrance to the Park Plaza hotel.
Their messages were contradictory and inflammatory. They called Israel a “Terror State,” they were calling for an end to “racism and genocide” amongst other things.
Aaron with his ever-so-popular “Suck My Intifada” sign.
This is very interesting, because not one of them was holding a sign condemning suicide homicide bombings. They had a few chants, and we’d usually counter their chants with our own. They would shout “Palestine will never die!” and we’d say “Palestine was never alive!” or they’d say, “Zionism is racism!” to which we replied, “Intifadah is terrorism!” They had a bunch of different slogans, and I’d come up with different things on the fly to respond with, “Palestine is a terror state!” “Bombing buses is not peace!” “Stop the bombings then we’ll talk!” “Am Yisrael Chai”
All in all, I think we did a good a job standing up to them. They appeared very irritated at our presence, and I think they got really annoyed that our chants were interrupting theirs and they certainly appeared dumbfounded at times on how to respond to various things we said.
Me wearing Tyler’s President Bush mask.
You can imagine the reactions we got.
We experienced a lot of different reactions from passersby. One man came up next to me said, “I can’t believe those people across the street, I’m glad you guys are out here, you’re doing the Lord’s work.”
At one point, we saw the pro-Palis chasing after someone surrounded by security, me, my brother, and another Freeper chased after them to see what was going on, we were told it was Congressman Barney Frank, who the pro-Palis had been shouting about a couple times back by the hotel. They assaulted him with questions, and he did his best to have a reasonable conversation with him, but after they kept flooding him from all directions with remarks and accusations he refused to continue and left with his security. After this incident we had some face-to-face confrontations with the pro-Palis, which almost seemed ready to violent. Ignorant of the history of Eretz Yisrael, they were unwilling to listen to what we had to say, calling us racists and counter productive. The sign I was carrying had pictures of suicide bombings and I asked them “Do you call this peace? Why don’t you condemn this?” A couple of girls, who I believe were organizers of their protest said, “Yes, I support suicide bombings if that’s what it takes.”
Tyler (wearing the mask) and myself.
These pro-Palis were clearly inhuman parasites. I couldn’t believe my ears. I shouted some nasty things at them, and made my way back across the street.
Occasionally someone from their side would come over and they’d engage us in an argument… while they were perfectly willing to spread their hateful lies, they were unwilling to listen to us. They kept shouting, ignoring the facts we had…I once again asked them to condemn the homicide bombings, and they wouldn’t – they actually said they agreed with them.
The whole affair lasted a bit over 4 hours. For a group of our size, we gave them a decent fight and as their numbers dwindled, we remained strong. After it was over, the five of us went to cheers for dinner and some brew. It was a great time.
Hanging at Cheers after the protest.
Check out my brother Aaron’s description of the protest at his blog.
And Tyler (BostonianRightist) has a FReport about the event also.
Confronting Evil Face to Face
Wednesday, October 1st, 2003This past Sunday, I participated in a counter protest to a rally being held in Boston, which was run by International A.N.S.W.E.R. – an anti-war, pro-“Palestine” (pro-terrorism), anti-Bush, anti-American, anti-Israel, pro-Mumia, organization. The counter protest was partially organized through Free Republic.
Me and my fellow Patriots met on the front steps of the Boston Public Library in Copley Square, and looked on as we saw our opposition slowly grouping together forming a crowd of approximately 150 people.
A few from our counter-protest
Our side was a small group. We started off with about 10 or so, and actually recruited a couple people along the way.
Once they officially started, we moved in closer to their position, after conferring with the police on site, we kept a safe 150 feet away. As more of them walked by us to join A.N.S.W.E.R.’s rally, we got dirty looks, shaking heads, and expressions of utter bewilderment regarding our presence.
My brother and I had prepared a good assortment of signs to use for the rally, I toted a sign with the message “War Was The Answer To Defeating Nazism, Communism, Imperialism, & Fascism. Support The War On Terror.” This sign was aimed towards the “anti-war” position of International A.N.S.W.E.R. – who were actually rallying that day for a number of different causes.
We were often engaged by passersby. Some were rallying with A.N.S.W.E.R., others were just curious about what were doing. One man, who appeared to be in his late 50’s, and was holding a flag and a sign in support of one of ANSWERs flavor of the moment causes read my sign, shook his head and approached me.
He started rambling about how evil the United States is, and how war doesn’t solve anything and is an evil act of aggression. So I asked him “So are you saying we shouldn’t have gone to war to defeat Nazism?” He wouldn’t answer. He kept rambling anti-American rhetoric he must of read off of some left wing website. I interrupted him, “No! Answer my question; are you saying that we shouldn’t have gone to war to defeat Nazism? Are you saying we should have done nothing in that case?” He lifted up a finger and started saying “This is an illegal war by a President who-“ “No, that’s not what I asked you,” I interrupted again, “Are you saying that we shouldn’t have gone to war to defeat Nazism? Can’t you just answer that one question with a yes or a no?” Nowhere to run, he said, “War is never the answer.”
He couldn’t even say it.
Some of our crowd
Sometimes, there were signs of hope. Some people cheered my group’s opposition to the ANSWER rally. One man, walking towards Boylston Street was reading my sign from a distance, I held it up in clear view, and I saw how he focused his eyes on the words written on it. Then he looks directly at me, and says, “You’re right,” as he nodded and gave me a thumb up.
We were approached by some girls from Boston University who were interested in what we were doing in regards to the events taking forth in the square. One of my fellow patriots, Ron, offered to speak to them and be recorded for their effort.
Some time later, we met a person who left the A.N.S.W.E.R. rally after being completely disgusted by the reality of what they were supporting. He joined them because he was against the war in Iraq - but he left because their views were clearly in support of terrorists… he couldn’t stay there any longer.
And some more of us.
Through the next hour or so, things were rather tame. People driving by who saw our signs gave an occasional honk of their horns and waved. People riding on the Boston Duck Tours, who had a clear view of my group, often cheered at us. One time, the conductor of one Duck Tours, shouted his support through his microphone, and I responded with an exuberant “God Bless America!”
Some creative signs
Eventually, International A.N.S.W.E.R. began their march through Boston. We were given instructions by the Boston Police to stay behind them in the street with plenty of distance. So we followed the commies up towards the Common. The disgusting views of this group were coming out in full force. They were blasting Bush, his administration, the war in Afghanistan, and the war in Iraq… you really needed a pen and paper to keep track of everything they were rallying for – people in their crowd were probably confused too.
As we marched along, we saw lots of people on the sidewalks looking on. Some people shook their heads at us, while others cheered. I shouted out various things to energize those who showed their support “God Bless America! Support The President, Support The Troops! Am Yisrael Chai!” It was great.
Me marching down the street
As we passed the State House and turned around the Common, we saw lots of onlookers. Many showed support for our group; at this point we actually had someone join us. Marching down Boylston Street, we began having verbal confrontations with the ANSWER guys ahead of us carrying a huge banner. Their mouths moved faster than their brains, for they could barely come up with comments to say to us – certainly nothing that made sense.
The march ended at the Israeli Consulate. They got out their bullhorns and we kept a fair distance away and shouted the loudest we could to disrupt their hate speech against Bush, Jews, and Israelis, while they lauded Palestinians, terrorists, and a cop killer.
The whole thing ended without a serious clash. We had some shouting matches between our side and their side. It continued a while after their rally officially ended. Their numbers had dwindled significantly throughout the whole day.
The hatred and ignorance of those participating in International A.N.S.W.E.R. was unimaginable. With slogans like “Love live the intifadah.” and something that sounded like “Kill George Bush,” one can imagine just how intense things were. The sad thing was just how many different causes it took for International A.N.S.W.E.R. to amass such a modest group of people. Everything from “End Occupation of Iraq”, “No Blood for Oil”, “End the Patriot Act”, “Free Mumia”, they had covered the entire left end of the political spectrum of causes. This does not reflect an organization with focus, it reflects an organization of disarray and upheaval – as if they were just out to hate someone, something, and anything right wing, American, and democracy loving.
It was an overall good day. We showed Boston that there are people out there willing to stand up to groups like A.N.S.W.E.R.
For more information on the rally, please visit the following sites:
FreeRepublic.com’s post on the event.
My brother’s online photo album with pictures.
“Little Bill”’s Photos of the protest.
Protesting the Dixie Chicks
Friday, June 20th, 2003The Dixie Chicks protest was a lot of fun. The size of the group varied due to late comers and people who had to leave early, however there was a solid 12 of us there, and I believe possibly 15 in total.
Where to begin? Well, I guess it’s noteworthy that it was a sold out show at the FleetCenter in Boston. We gave our show outside by the entrance to the Green Line on Causeway Sreet. My brother Aaron and I went directly from work. We hadn’t met the other protesters in person before that night; I spoke to some online previously and coordinated this event through FreeRepublic.com.
The signs we display were diverse and many. Some were more serious than others. Some were just outright hilarious and meant to stir up reaction. It was all in good fun.
We came across all types of Dixie Chicks fans. Some stared at us bewildered. Some walked on disgusted. Others, and there were more of these types than I expected, actually cheered us for our efforts.
That’s right. Many people told us the only reason they were still going to the show was because they had bought their tickets before Natalie Maines made her big stupid statement.
We made a lot of cheers, we kept our voices going loud and strong toward the concertgoers.
“USA! USA! USA!”
“Support the President! Support the troops!”
“Burn Your Tickets – not the flag!”
“We have freedom of speech too!”
“George Bush 2004”
We sang “God Bless America” and others…
Sometimes, there was a concertgoer who made crude remarks to us. The most common remark being “Hey, freedom of speech!”
To which I’d shout back “Hey, we have freedom of speech too!”
One of my fellow protesters would also yell back “That’s right! That’s why we’re here.”
We kept coming up with new things to say, which amused ourselves, and got incredible reactions from the concertgoers. Some would even come up to us to tell us we were wrong for what we were doing. Some told us to get a life. We were called losers.
Hey, we were having a good time. Free speech at its best. Which it appears liberals don’t understand. To them, only they have the right to free speech – we didn’t. But that’s another topic for another blog entry.
Interestingly enough, we made it in the news. Several local stations videotaped us, and the
Boston Globe and the Boston Herald mentioned us in their music reviews of the concert.
The Boston Globe gave us a larger, yet somewhat inaccurate mention. In a review titled
“Dixie Chicks arrive to little dissent, and thrill their audience and thrill their fans. In fact, our protest kicked off the review:
The protesters looked lonely last night. There were only about six of them, clustered out front of the FleetCenter and holding signs with messages such as ”Deport the Dixie Twits” and ”Support President Bush and Our Troops.” And nearby were a couple of people staging a counter-protest; one held a sign saying, ”God bless freedom of speech.”
The whole thing was very tame, even though Dixie Chick Martie Maguire later told the sold-out FleetCenter crowd that ”we heard a brawl broke out” between the protesters and Chicks fans. A police officer said he had heard nothing about it, but it made for a provocative comment on stage. And it got more provocative when Maguire referenced the supposed brawl by saying, ”I think I would put my money down on your guys. . . . If there’s one thing I’ve learned since March 10, it’s that nobody tells you guys what to do.”
Inaccuracy #1: There were at least 12 of us when I arrived.
Inaccuracy #2: There was no counter-protest. Ron, who helped organized this protest, held the sign which read “God Bless Freedom of Speech”
Inaccuracy #3: There was no brawl.
It’s kind of incredible if you think about it. I’m sure some troll will read this and say “Only 12? That’s nothing.” Maybe it wasn’t a huge crowd, but we made enough of an impression to merit the Dixie Chicks mention us during their show. That says something.
We finished after a couple hours, once there weren’t any people coming into the FleetCenter. I’d write more, but I’m hoping to get some other people who attended the protest to write about it here, so I’ll post a few pictures for now, and see what happens.
We lined the passage to the FleetCenter entrance - here’s one side of us.
Here’s the other side.
My brother is the one on the right.
I’m the one in the middle. Like the sign?
Some signs are just priceless!
Here’s most of us. Some people had to leave early.
If you want to see more pics, click here.
My Freedom of Speech
Wednesday, June 18th, 2003I’ll admit that my experience with participating in actual protests is lacking. The main reason is I’m too busy trying to be a productive citizen by going to work during the week. I do hope to increase my involvement in political activities in the future.
Now, the reason why I am mentioning this today, is because I am participating in a protest tomorrow.
I, as well as atleast 20 others, are protesting the Dixie Chicks at their concert in Boston tomorrow night.
I know some people may be thinking “aren’t you beating a dead horse?” or something similar to that affect.
Maybe, maybe not. The truth is, I don’t care. Some of us are still pissed at what Natalie Maines said. Sure she had the right to say it, but her discretion was poor. The meaning of her words still echoes in the brains of some of us who don’t appreciate some dumb country girl bad mouting our President while in another country.
So we’re showing the Dixie Chicks that some of us have not forgotten.
If you want to say stuff like “Get over it,” or “Move on,” or whatever, don’t bother. I’m not interested in anyone’s approval. I’m going to have a good time with people, and send a message at the same time.
So, if you want to post a comment here, why don’t you share with the rest of us your experiences with protests. What was the last protest you were involved in? Why did you participate? Tell us the story of your activism.