Interesting photo of the DoD "Freedom Walk"

[Plaid Adder]

I was so intrigued by the fact that "thousands" was all the WP could scrape up in terms of a description of the throng at the Pentagon-organized America Supports You Freedom Walk that I decided to try to find pictures. I went to the official America Supports You website, where I found a picture of a crowd that, in fact, looks significantly smaller than the road they've got blocked off for it.

http://www.americasupportsyou.mil/


If you click on the picture on the right hand side of their homepage, you get a very large high-resolution version of that image (it's too big to post here). I blew it up so I could get a better look at the identical T-shirts they're all wearing. At that size, you can also see that the two women in the lower left-hand corner are clearly holding hands.

It's touching to know that even though the U.S. military still won't let gay people serve openly, they're big enough to let us saunter along with them on the Propaganda Stroll.

I got five bucks says if this tidbit makes the 'blogosphere,' they're gonna get cropped out of that photo faster than you can say 'don't ask, don't tell.'

C ya,

The Plaid Adder

[liveoaktx]

1. Yup, and give me five because I saw video of two women holding

hands in the walk.

[liveoaktx]

4. Vid Clip from Walk

Walking

Blowup of walkers

[otohara]

7. Girls Hold ing Hands

my son's girly friends are all huggy kissy with each other. It's what they do now.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

10. This appears to be a mother and daughter. nt

[Mnemosyne]

2. Take away those forced to attend

and I'd bet there wouldn't be 100 people there.

The women in the photo holding hands may be mother and daughter, imo. And you are right Plaid, it will most likely be cut. Couldn't have anyone thinking queers were allowed in their vile parade.

It would be hysterical to use a cropped section and say even the lesbians support the troops. It would piss them off big-time. Just a thought.

The pics on the site only go to show how few people are willing to stand up for the "war". I wonder how many showed up just for the concert?

Thanks Plaid.

[Kali]

3. geez big enough picture?

<fingers drumming on table> I'm still waiting for it to load...(very slow connection.




there is is (5 minutes later)


Yep they are holding hands. Weren't federal workers ordered to go to this thing or was that just a rumor?

[The_Casual_Observer]

5. The whole deal must have been a flop

The C-Span coverage that I saw showed an enormous empty parking lot and what looked to be a few hundred people slowly heading up a path. I would guess that all of them were Dod employees that were coerced into attending. There were probably 20-30 people at the Arlington wreath ceremony, probably because there wasn't any free food there.

[sandnsea]

6. Let's compare

Cindy's rally, caption reads "Hundreds of people participate in last night's candlelight march through Oakland."




Wargasm (coined by Americablog) Thousands of people

[Suich]

8. Somebody posted in another thread that they were employees

and families of Lockheed.

[Algorem]

9. Rumsfeld's one hep cat holding his coat over his shoulder like that,like

classic mobstar Frank Shitonya did in the 60's.

[nine23]

11. Perhaps the women were just holding hands in "solidarity"?

Or another - though highly unlikely - scenario may be that they're not from the US. It's certainly NOT uncommon to see two women holding hands in other cultures (Europe, Asia, Japan, etc.).

My partner's from France. She holds hands with her good friends all the time, both here in Canada and back home. I'm actually somewhat perplexed that anyone would immediately jump to that conclusion...

Not trying to "start" anything, it's just that it's a non-issue where I'm from...:)

[titoresque]

17. no it is a woman and a child

the girl looks to be about 12.....my 13 year old daughter looks older.
Must be a mother and daughter.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

21. That looks like a mother and a daughter. nt

[Warren DeMontague]

12. Wow. Most of the lesbians I know wouldn't be caught dead at that thing.

Go figure.

[TahitiNut]

13. He's sure no Martin Luther King, Jr.

:eyes:

[dweller]

14. what did he tell the children?

:eyes:

dp

[walldude]

15. A regular "sea of people"

:eyes: :eyes: :eyes:

[Stephanie]

16. They are all in uniform? They are in matching t-shirts.

Who paid for that?

[LibDemAlways]

18. Those t-shirts were probably

part of the incentive to get people to show up on a Sunday. As for who paid for them, us more than likely.

[walldude]

19. They all got little dog tags too

:eyes:

Check out the thread with the Mykeru video. At the end he says this:
"Support the troops? If they really wanted to support the troops they would have taken the money they spent on that concert, the tee shirts and those fucking dog tags and bought the troops some body armor."

[sinkingfeeling]

20. It took approximately 15 minutes for all of the walkers to leave the

Pentagon parking lot on Sunday morning. I watched on C-Span. I would guess there were no more than 5,000 total. Since it was a 'freedom' walk that was pre-registered, the DOD knows exactly how many people signed up.

[justiceischeap]

22. Nice to see some non-conformists in the crowd

Those not wearing the identical uniform.