March 20th “Peace Protest”
Sat March 20th, 2004 19:06 MSTToday’s part of the “World Wide Protest” in Phoenix was a bit of a disappointment. It seemed to have an incoherent message. I don’t know what they were trying to say. It sounded mostly like a combination of a Hate Bush cult, a bunch of far left folks tropes, and various other odd concepts. Certainly some predictably advocated immediate removal of our troops from Iraq (which is, of course, idiotic). But otherwise it was a strange little group.
Organizers estimated 400 people attended (far less than last year). Twice I asked police for their estimate. One said 100, and the other said “A lot fewer than 400.”
Anyway, I guess their message had something to do with politics, since they marched along the sidewalk (last year, their numbers filled a street) to the Republican Headquarters.
Useful Fools, which of course enjoys photographing and talking to useful fools like we found at this event, will probably show more photographs on this later.
But for now, a few pictures…
Armed Protesters at a Peace March? (sorry for the lack of focus, I didn’t want these folks to see me taking their picture!).
One side of a rather bizarre sign.
The other side of a rather bizarre sign.
Trite and false - the President Profits from War silliness.
Speaker from Council on American Islamic Relations (These folks were aginst the liberation of Iraq last year, and have quite unsavory connections).
One of many different silly conspiracy signs.
Counter-Protester sign from folks organizing at Protest Warrior
The “Leave it to the UN” silliness.
Women in Black? Whatever.
We had the same type in Atlanta. They were making speeches about South Africa for some reason. What a bunch of dummies.
Hey, the Women in Black! Memories of my college days, coming back to me. Crotchety old (surely Berkeley-educated) professors, standing silently in protest. I always made an effort to spit when I walked by. Not at them, mind you, but on the ground, in disgust. Women in Black, defending despots, rapists, murderers, war criminals, thieves. Turns my stomach.
On the other hand, I have to congratulate the protestors on their choice of venue. Practically nobody would see them out there at Los Olivos Park, but it is a lovely little area for a hot spring day. (My mum grew up about 2 blocks from there.)
About a boot
I am viscerally disgusted at the thought of yesterday’s ‘peace’ protests. It’s not enough in this world, apparently, to liberate two countries, from terrible, crushing despotism. Remember well what Orwell said in 1984. “If you want a picture of the
Dan, Wootton, John–If I were a betting man, I’d say that the garden-variety ‘anti-war’ (no, read: “anti-Bush”) protestors you speak of are probably the same ones who showed up near the University of Arkansas campus, in my hometown of Fayetteville. You tell me: Were any of your protestors sporting colored beads in their braided, unwashed hair? Were any of them pounding bongos or playing bamboo flutes,’ or toting crudely-printed placards’ bearing earth-shaking philosophical messages like, “Bush’s war goal…world domination and police state”? or the more ubiquitous, “No blood for Cheney oil”? (Not quite the stuff of Nietzsche or “Gotterdammerung,” but pretty darned profound, ‘eh?) Used to be, it seems, political protestors were often college-educated (well, they were theater, art, or humanities majors, anyway). Likewise, those who demonstrated in Fayetteville, yesterday, were ‘college people,’ I guess–only these were the folks who sleep on greasy cardboard boxes at the entrance to the Student Union!
John Moore apparently captured some of his own local protestors on film. Let me ask you, John: Did any of your ‘dissenters’ reek of hemp, by chance? Any of them have the old ‘red-eye’? Any of them appear to be physically or emotionally disoriented? And is there a particular reason why these types’ seldom seem concerned about, say, laundering their clothes at least once-a-week? I mean, these people inject stuff like acetone into their veins, but are afraid of washing with “Tide,” or “Chlorox” for fear of ‘harming’ the ‘environment’? Hmmmmmm….
Odd it is, our local newspaper–in lock-step with their red comrades’ nationwide, on CNN and NPR–made great fanfare of our local rally, even if only 60 malcontents attended (not counting the four members of the local press, or “The Northwest Arkansas Times-”Izvestiya”).
Something which did, however, really get my goat, something of a rather serious nature: On our newspaper’s front page, in big bold letters, reads the headline, “PROTESTORS REMEMBER FALLEN FAYETTEVILLE MARINE DURING DEMONSTRATION AGAINST WAR.” And directly beside this headline is a color photo bearing the image of a young man (or ‘woman’?) carrying a desecrated American flag, a flag whose starless blue field bears instead the timeworn, blasphemous image of the “Peace Symbol,” or broken cross.
I ask any Gyrene out there: Is this the manner in which a young Marine would choose to have his life remembered? Desecration of his nation’s flag?
The pictures above are the ones I took of the protest in Phoenix. I have a bunch more.
But most of the protesters were not hippies - they were just ordinary people with the wrong ideas.
The usual collection of nuts and flakes were there also, and the signs were mostly stupid. But there weren’t many hippie types there.
There were communists, anarchists, marxists, anti-Semites, pro-abortionists, pro-gay-rights types, CAIR people, the Women in Black, and ethnic special interest group folks. There were even some vets at least some of whom were for real.
But most of them did not fit the hippie stereotype, or you would have seen their pictures.
It was a very nice day (a little hot - in the 90’s) and the location was a nice park, so its not surprising to me that a 100 or 200 mostly normal folks turned out in a metropolitan area of 3.5 million people.
March Madness: Idiots on Parade
Marxist front group International ANSWER did a good job of showcasing the worst of the angry left yesterday, but you wouldn’t know it based on the pictures that the mainstream media ran when covering the anti-war protests.  Right Wing News…
Is it me or do these protesters seem akin to the overpampered vietnam protesters using the same lies and rehashed BS! of that time period….I mean damm I half expect the Ussr to rise again..after all…mother russia was their godsend…maybe they should go there..or even better Castro’s Cuba or Jong-il’s North Korea! I usually never quote Stalin..never had a taste for it..but his phrase “Useful Idiots” does seem to come into play more than just abit with these mental midgets…but for any out there who have actually seen the lame movie..PCU…the protesters are imortalised as “The Causeheads”….but thats just my opinion on the whole lot of halfwits….
Is it me or do these protesters seem akin to the overpampered vietnam protesters using the same lies and rehashed garbage of that time period….I mean damm I half expect the Ussr to rise again..after all…mother russia was their godsend…maybe they should go there..or even better Castro’s Cuba or Jong-il’s North Korea! I usually never quote Stalin..never had a taste for it..but his phrase “Useful Idiots” does seem to come into play more than just abit with these mental midgets…but for any out there who have actually seen the lame movie..PCU…the protesters are imortalised as “The Causeheads”….but thats just my opinion on the whole lot of halfwits….
March Madness: Idiots on Parade
Marxist front group International ANSWER did a good job of showcasing the worst of the angry left yesterday, but you wouldn’t know it based on the pictures that the mainstream media ran when covering the anti-war protests.  Right Wing News…
John, didn’t realize you were a fellow Phoenician. I live in the PV Mall area, work in Scottsdale. Where was the demonstration?
Hey, how’s it going? I was at the protest - with the “Say No to War” sign. We spoke briefly.
I knew that blog of yours you told me about was here somewhere.
Also, FYI, the lefties are planning some anti-Bush activity this Friday (Bush is coming for a speech or something) and a couple of us PWs are planning on intercepting them.
Just FYI.
Thanks. When are you going to post the rest of the pictures, or are you?
Reminds me of before 9/11, when a couple of friends and I were having drinks on the patio of Fat Tuesday in Tempe on the Mill Avenue side and about two or three dozen college kids took advantage of the holiday parade crowd to “march” down Mill protesting everything under the sun. At the time, pretty much everyone found them amusing, and they didn’t get much more for their efforts than a few shouts of “Get a job.” I remember thinking at the time how different it was from Washington’s WTO hoopla.
There will always be September 10 people, even in a state as great as Arizona.
One thing that transcended the generation gap of the 60’s was hypocricy, oft touted as a disease of anyone over 40 who knew their who both their parents were, believed in basic morality, and lived lives laden with self sacrifice. My generation in it’s ignorance and iconoclastic zeal forsook any concept that was counter to their need for personal comfort and gratification. You know, concepts such as “truth”, “honor”, “guilt”, “selflessness”, “sacrifice”… All those lame concepts which hold families, communities and nations together.
Just so you know, we are still a major “go” for the counter-protest on October 13th outside Gammage Auditorium in Phoenix.
Also, expect to find a few of us PWs down in Tempe on the 4th of July. We’re gonna put up some flyers, pass out pamphlets. Do a little recruiting. Thought you’d be interested.