OC Register: For an effective protest

[question everything]

Friday, September 23, 2005

For an effective protest

Editorial: We hope anti-war activities across the country this weekend avoid the moonbat fringes

(snip)

As opponents of the invasion of Iraq from the beginning, we hope the events are large, peaceful and respectful of those who disagree. Most of all, we hope that they reflect not just a radical fringe group of knee-jerk Bush-haters, but the growing number of ordinary Americans - around 60 percent according to most polls - who have come to see the war in Iraq as a mistake.

Some signs are hopeful. While many of those who came to oppose the Vietnam war, for example, were openly scornful of Americans who served in uniform, the early stages of anti-Iraq war activity have often included military families. This tendency has been highlighted by Cindy Sheehan, whose son Casey was killed in Iraq in April 2004 and who camped out in Crawford, Texas, during President Bush's ranch vacation, and who has organized military families who oppose or are skeptical about the war. Ms. Sheehan will be a speaker Saturday in Washington and has drawn most of the media attention to date.

(snip)

Some signs are less than hopeful. The Washington organizers might have asked for a speaker from Pat Buchanan's American Conservative magazine, which has opposed the war steadfastly from the beginning. But the speakers we saw listed on the United for Peace and Justice Web site were all from the left side of the spectrum.

When the anti-war movement, to borrow a phrase, starts to look like America, the politicians will start to pay attention.

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/abox/article_686385.php

[LiberalEsto]

1. Gee, all the protests I've attended

are full of ordinary-looking middle-class folks, families, grandparents, well-scrubbed high school and college students. I live in Maryland and I've been protesting in DC since the Vietnam war. I remember when there were hippies at protests.

But what the F does the OC Register - a rethug paper in a rich California rethug county - know about protests in DC, anyway? Only what they see on Faux tv, where the cameras tend to stay focused on the most fringe-like people they can find, and ignore the ordinary majority of us.

[ima_sinnic]

2. oh gee, excuse me if my appearance does not fit your criteria

of "American-looking" protestor! is this a protest or a conformist convention? who the #%(& are these a-holes, anyway?

[Atman]

3. You guys are missing the point

The people who are making the decisions, whose opinions we're trying to influence, are suit & tie types, largely republicans. Virtually every protest I've seen had it's cotillion of "moonbats," as this article calls them, dressed in mardi gras like costumes; there's the gay pride contingent dressed in leathers, the ANSWER people calling for a Palestinian homeland, the half-naked hippys with peace signs painted on their bellys and their bright green hair. I'm obviously generalizing, please don't demand I produce pictures. My point is, when you go to a job interview, are you "yourself," or do you dress the part the HR people want to see? When you meet your girlfriend's parents for the first time, do you bone-up first, and wear your best Rat Dog shirt, or do you try to act in a way that will not freak them out.

That is all this guy is saying. I don't care if you have a PhD in global economics, if you dress up in green hair and hang peace signs from your nipples, the guys in the suits & ties, the people making the decisions, will not see you as "regular" people, they'll be able to write you off as a lunatic fringe. So, fuck with them...confuse the hell out of them by resisting the urge to protest the treatment of baby seals while you're trying to stop a war.

That's all the guy is saying.

[Demeter]

4. If You Want to Influence The Suit and TIe Group, Get Them Where It Hurts

in the pocket. Sue them, boycott them, picket their corporations, start whisper campaigns, and vote for fire eating reformers.

These marches are for the general public, to inform educate and provide solidarity.