Just after 3 PM I manage to insinuate myself into a crowd of frigid protesters, the bulk of them earnest twentysomethings—the men with spare, patchy beards and severe eyewear; the women in retro-knit ski caps and mid-length denim twill jackets buttoned over bulky wool sweaters.
To keep my cover, I participate in a poorly orchestrated chant of “hey, Bush, whaddya say? How many kids have you killed today?”—then try my hand at firing up the tiny crowd by punctuating the chant with a loud response, “Probably, like, several!”—a refrain that is quickly picked up on by fifteen or so anti-Bush diehards standing around me trying to keep warm.
Later, as Condi Rice goes by on foot and waves to the crowd, a mousy women to my right shouts, “do your master’s bidding, Aunt Jemima! Make the world some fucking war pancakes, bitch!”—a suggestion her daughter, who looks to be maybe five or six, seems to find quite hilarious. For my part, I give them both the thumbs up, then add that “Blacks have no business in leadership roles to begin with, y’know?” —a sentiment that is at first met with a confused look, then finally a cold resigned smile.
“Anyway,” I say, backing my way into the crowd, “fight the power, little sisters”—and then, like Saddam Hussein, I’m gone.*
Glad to see that you’ve managed to add just a little bit to ABC’s relentlessly gloomy coverage of the Inaugural Parade.
After all, it’s all about the protestors, baby! (And my secret word is even “students”!)
I can almost smell the patchouli.
To expand my horizons I watched the A.N.S.W.E.R. protest instead of the inagural.
It speaks volumes as to the level of discourse to say that Ramsey Clark was the most level-headed speaker there.
And while CSPAN was diligent to not show a crowd overview, you could tell the protestors numbered in the dozens by the fact that every camera shot of the crowd was of a single person, and they showed the same people multiple times. (I’m sure that there were some that were best left off camera)
TomB, I think that was actually the same person, a quick-change artist who—not realizing the crowd was going to be quite so sparse—only brought a couple dozen changes of clothes.
Gotta give him credit for doing his best.
(That was a “him,” wasn’t it? It’s so hard to tell sometimes…)
The woman on Fox News (didn’t catch her name) mentioned that “To the side of the road are some… Bohemian… looking people protesting the war.”
I thought that was pretty quick thinking, as it was clear that what she was thinking was something along the lines of “dirty hippies.”
…”frigid” as in “cold”, or the other thing?
Looks like at least a couple of the protestors are doing a “Nixon.” Wazzup wi’dat?
Him?
Nah, I prefer “it”.
There are some things better left uninvestigated.
Unless Jeff got a good look.
Beck, you blew the punch line.
The Fox correspondent was Jeff’s latest date, and the story was that there were some, er, bohemian looking people walking one way with anti-war signs and all that, and some other people who, as she put it, “looked more like us,” walking the other way with signs that said, “Shut up, hippies!”
Beautiful.