Malice
Member
Just to avoid confusion, as I have said before, I am much more liberal than the average gun owner. On with the story.
So, some of the kids in my town who were freshmen and sophomores (high school) when I was graduating and are now ready to do so themselves call me up today. A couple of this group have family in Iraq and they are obviously worried sick about them. So, to co-incide roughly with 9/11 and 1,000 dead Americans in the war, they decide to hold a vigil. As I am an experienced activist, they invite me to come along to help them.
The idea is, we hold up signs to passing motorists on their commute home. Then, when it gets dark, the candles come out. Pretty standard stuff. I get there and there about 20 high-school aged kids out there and a few older people there. Pretty good turn out for my heavily conservative area of Texas.
So, I help them set up, tell them what they can and cannot do, etc. Basic rules:
If someone honks and waves, or give you the thumbs up, or otherwise shows support, flash them the peace sign or wave or somthing. If someone honks angrily, shakes their fist, thumbs down, flips you the bird, yells obsenities at you, you IGNORE THEM TO AVOID CONFLICT!
We had about 8 signs. Six of them said "We love our troops: Bring them home!" or "We support our troops! (yellow ribbon drawn on)" or "We support our troops, not the war!." The other two of them were more heated, and said "Forced democracy is no democracy," and another said "7,000 wounded. 1,000 dead. No reason. Bring them home!"
As we set up all these kids tell me how worried their parents are. I chuckle, remembering when I stood on this very street corner a few years ago and my parents warned me not to trip into the street and get hit or somthing. But not this time. "My parents are worried someone will pull over and try to attack us or shoot us or somthing." There is a murmer of agreement and nodding heads. I am shocked and appaled. But I tell them not to worry about it. I however, am very worried about it. SINCE WHEN DO PARENTS HAVE TO FEAR FOR THEIR CHILDREN TO STAND UP AND SCREAM FOR WHAT THEY BELIEVE IN!?!? What kind of place is America when a parent has to warn their kids to "be carefull" at a peacefull support vigil?
So we start, we get plenty of nods and thumbs up, mostly positive stuff. There was the occassional middle finger or "#$%* Kerry!" What Kerry had to do with this I really dont know.
But a few things really stood out. First, several people screamed at us to "Get a life!" What? To me, a bunch of teenagers spending their friday night showing their support for their family members and fellow young Americans instead of wasting time at a football game fills my heart with joy. I am so proud of those kids and I was proud to be there.
Second, one guy, who was stopped at the light in front of us rolls down his wondow. (We are a mix of whites, arabs, asians, and blacks.) With his 5-year -old looking daughter in the seat next to him (criminal negligence anyway if you ask me) he screams at us, "Go back to your countries you trash!" Then another guy does somthing similar saying "You filthy liberals, get out of this country you dont belong here!" I wish they had been joking. Morons.
Then, the very worst thing of the night happens. A man in his car swerves across 2 lanes of RUSH HOUR traffic, slams on the breaks, screeches to a stop in front of us, puts his emergency blinker on, and climbs out of the car. He crosses in front of his car and steps up onto the curb screaming incoherently about us "hippies" in a VERY threatening stance. So as the responsible sponsor of this shindig I decide to break my own rule and stop ignoring him. I could not ignore the things he was literaly screaming into my 17 year old 5'-2" arab female friends face. I wont even repeat the words here. I step in between them and calmly tell the guy to please get back in his car because he is blocking traffic. The guy wheels on me like he is gonna SLAP me, and when he sees I am half again his size and half his age, and can tell by my stance that I am not fooling around, he catches himself and re-thinks it. Still screaming at us, he gets back into his car muttering something about getting his gun for "these sand *******." At this point I do not really know what to do. I feel kind of responsible for these less-experienced companions of mine, expecialy because they are all kinda looking at me like "what do we do?"
So, I tell the kids that I am not going to leave but if you dont feel safe feel free to go. At this point one of the girls whos older brother *and* stepdad are in Iraq and the girl who just got harassed start crying like hell, but no-one leaves. I kept an eye out, but the guy didnt come back. We finished up the night. Man, I am proud of those kids. We can rest assured that the future of America is in good hands with people like that around. (Sometimes I forget I am just a few years older
)
But I am still shaken up about this. I mean, I expect some hostility when I am holding a sign that says "drop bush not bombs." But come on. It seems like people in this country are hostile to ANY kind of plitical expression. They do not even read the signs. I swear I could hold up a sign that says "We love kittens!" And people would yell "get a job you hippies, I am voting for Bush!" They dont care what you have to say, they are just pissed that you are saying ANYTHING.
WHO BOOS AT A SIGN THAT SAYS "We love our troops!" with a yellow ribbon painted on it!?!!??!
:banghead:
So, some of the kids in my town who were freshmen and sophomores (high school) when I was graduating and are now ready to do so themselves call me up today. A couple of this group have family in Iraq and they are obviously worried sick about them. So, to co-incide roughly with 9/11 and 1,000 dead Americans in the war, they decide to hold a vigil. As I am an experienced activist, they invite me to come along to help them.
The idea is, we hold up signs to passing motorists on their commute home. Then, when it gets dark, the candles come out. Pretty standard stuff. I get there and there about 20 high-school aged kids out there and a few older people there. Pretty good turn out for my heavily conservative area of Texas.
So, I help them set up, tell them what they can and cannot do, etc. Basic rules:
If someone honks and waves, or give you the thumbs up, or otherwise shows support, flash them the peace sign or wave or somthing. If someone honks angrily, shakes their fist, thumbs down, flips you the bird, yells obsenities at you, you IGNORE THEM TO AVOID CONFLICT!
We had about 8 signs. Six of them said "We love our troops: Bring them home!" or "We support our troops! (yellow ribbon drawn on)" or "We support our troops, not the war!." The other two of them were more heated, and said "Forced democracy is no democracy," and another said "7,000 wounded. 1,000 dead. No reason. Bring them home!"
As we set up all these kids tell me how worried their parents are. I chuckle, remembering when I stood on this very street corner a few years ago and my parents warned me not to trip into the street and get hit or somthing. But not this time. "My parents are worried someone will pull over and try to attack us or shoot us or somthing." There is a murmer of agreement and nodding heads. I am shocked and appaled. But I tell them not to worry about it. I however, am very worried about it. SINCE WHEN DO PARENTS HAVE TO FEAR FOR THEIR CHILDREN TO STAND UP AND SCREAM FOR WHAT THEY BELIEVE IN!?!? What kind of place is America when a parent has to warn their kids to "be carefull" at a peacefull support vigil?
So we start, we get plenty of nods and thumbs up, mostly positive stuff. There was the occassional middle finger or "#$%* Kerry!" What Kerry had to do with this I really dont know.
But a few things really stood out. First, several people screamed at us to "Get a life!" What? To me, a bunch of teenagers spending their friday night showing their support for their family members and fellow young Americans instead of wasting time at a football game fills my heart with joy. I am so proud of those kids and I was proud to be there.
Second, one guy, who was stopped at the light in front of us rolls down his wondow. (We are a mix of whites, arabs, asians, and blacks.) With his 5-year -old looking daughter in the seat next to him (criminal negligence anyway if you ask me) he screams at us, "Go back to your countries you trash!" Then another guy does somthing similar saying "You filthy liberals, get out of this country you dont belong here!" I wish they had been joking. Morons.
Then, the very worst thing of the night happens. A man in his car swerves across 2 lanes of RUSH HOUR traffic, slams on the breaks, screeches to a stop in front of us, puts his emergency blinker on, and climbs out of the car. He crosses in front of his car and steps up onto the curb screaming incoherently about us "hippies" in a VERY threatening stance. So as the responsible sponsor of this shindig I decide to break my own rule and stop ignoring him. I could not ignore the things he was literaly screaming into my 17 year old 5'-2" arab female friends face. I wont even repeat the words here. I step in between them and calmly tell the guy to please get back in his car because he is blocking traffic. The guy wheels on me like he is gonna SLAP me, and when he sees I am half again his size and half his age, and can tell by my stance that I am not fooling around, he catches himself and re-thinks it. Still screaming at us, he gets back into his car muttering something about getting his gun for "these sand *******." At this point I do not really know what to do. I feel kind of responsible for these less-experienced companions of mine, expecialy because they are all kinda looking at me like "what do we do?"
So, I tell the kids that I am not going to leave but if you dont feel safe feel free to go. At this point one of the girls whos older brother *and* stepdad are in Iraq and the girl who just got harassed start crying like hell, but no-one leaves. I kept an eye out, but the guy didnt come back. We finished up the night. Man, I am proud of those kids. We can rest assured that the future of America is in good hands with people like that around. (Sometimes I forget I am just a few years older
)But I am still shaken up about this. I mean, I expect some hostility when I am holding a sign that says "drop bush not bombs." But come on. It seems like people in this country are hostile to ANY kind of plitical expression. They do not even read the signs. I swear I could hold up a sign that says "We love kittens!" And people would yell "get a job you hippies, I am voting for Bush!" They dont care what you have to say, they are just pissed that you are saying ANYTHING.
WHO BOOS AT A SIGN THAT SAYS "We love our troops!" with a yellow ribbon painted on it!?!!??!
:banghead:
