Arizona Republic: Loud Lady In Pink Wants Us To Red

[Hissyspit]

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/2008/09/14/20080914Montini0914.html

Loud lady in pink wants us to see red

Sept. 14, 2008 12:00 AM
For a few moments during the final evening of the Republican National Convention, millions of TV viewers were fixated on two Arizonans.

One was Sen. John McCain, the party's presidential nominee, who was four minutes into his acceptance speech. The other was Elizabeth Hourican, a 38-year-old activist with the anti-war organization Code Pink, who walked down the steps of the arena shouting "Women say no to war!" while wearing a pink slip with the phrase "McCain = more war" printed on it.

In response to the outburst, campaign volunteers on the convention floor led the delegates in a chant of "U.S.A! U.S.A! U.S.A!" until security guards escorted Hourican out of the hall.

McCain paused, smiled and said, "My friends, my dear friends ... please, please don't be diverted by the crowd noise and the static."

As the crowd cheered he added, "Americans want us to stop yelling at each other."

Unfortunately, that hasn't happened. Not from what I've seen in campaign ads or what I hear from the talking, or shrieking, heads on TV.

A week after McCain's convention speech, I reached Hourican by telephone. There was still shouting in the background. This time, she was in Virginia, participating in a Code Pink protest at a McCain campaign event. She said that the senator's motorcade had just driven by.

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Code Pink members call themselves non-partisan, pro-peace activists. In Denver, at the Democrats' convention, several of them were arrested during protests. Members also interrupted a symposium featuring House Speaker Nancy Pelosi by shouting "She's a liar." and "Do your job" in protest of the continuing Iraq war.

"Four years ago, I was lobbying for moderate Republicans in Arizona," said Hourican, who worked as a caterer in Phoenix. "Now, I advocate for peace and justice. America can do much better. We need a more active citizenry to stand up when our government is running afoul, like it is now. The chicken hawks are running the war and poor kids are paying the price. We need to speak up for our troops. One percent of our population is being deployed and redeployed, and there are tremendous costs to them and to us."

Many of us write off individuals like Hourican, who put their political and philosophical passions into public actions that we find annoying, embarrassing and rude.

We call them kooks.

But which is more ridiculous, a woman in a pink slip shouting about the war, or nicely dressed television commentators speaking solemnly about lipstick on pigs?

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"The war is costing us $5,000 a second," she said. "And while our casualties have gone down in the surge, that isn't so with civilians. Maybe Americans don't care about Iraqi civilians but our policy is only creating more instability in the region and more hostility toward America."

Maybe you agree with her. Maybe not. But consider how little we've heard from the candidates about topics like that.

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