January 23, 2005
I'm back...
Just got back from a DC inauguration trip late last night. A cancelled flight followed by a delayed one led to an arrival in Tampa just a few hours later than planned, so things weren’t too bad travel wise despite the snowfall.
My traveling companion and I arrived in Washington early Thursday, and hit the ground marching. With thousands of others, we walked down toward the Capitol from Adams Morgan. The march ended near the parade route, and security was restrictive, which created a bottleneck at the entrances. Fascists Supporters of the president, ticket holders easily identifiable by their expensive furs and “W” paraphernalia, were lined up waiting to get in. This presented an opportunity for heckling that I simply couldn’t resist.
I spent a few minutes inquiring as to why the younger ones weren’t over in Iraq, supporting the troops by taking their places, and informing the older ones that they had blood on their hands. This actually went over pretty well. I pissed off a lot of assholes.
We then meandered over to a public entrance on Pennsylvania where the atmosphere was heating up. As some “anarchists” mounted a traffic control box and tried to ignite an American flag (ironically, the anarchists weren’t quite organized enough to really get it burning), a steady stream of GOP types (remember: furs, American flags, and W W W W W.... fucking everywhere) streamed by toward another ticket holder’s entrance.
Myself and those in the growing crowd near me amused ourselves by making life as miserable as possible for them. A gauntlet of sorts was very informally formed, and, according to the WaPo, some were offput enough to forego the parade and watched on TV instead. Good.
At one point, I was almost on autopilot as I routinely peppered the attendees with rude but entirely justified adjectives like fascist and chickenhawk and war monger. Suddenly, a large GOP goon with a young child in tow turned abruptly and challenged me. He was offended by my remarks, and I guess he wanted to teach his 6 year old son a lesson in how to deal with a God and America hating progressive protestor.
After allowing him to spew some venomous bile at me, and giving him ample time to turn back and head towards the gates, I realized that he was waiting for a response. He was right up in my face at this point, and threatening to hit me, so I taunted him some more.
I clasped my hands behind my back and encouraged him to attack me physically. I told him that since he was about 50 pounds heavier and 4 or 5 inches taller that it would be much like his President invading a much weaker counter simply to prove some meaningless point. I also reminded him that his son was with him and that the kid would probably love to see his asshole daddy arrested and taken to jail right in front of him.
At his point, some progressives in the crowd started yelling at ME to leave this hulking bully alone for the sake of HIS kid. Now, this guy brought his child into this unfriendly crowd, and instead of simply ushering the kid through to the gates, he decided to stop and confront me simply because I was using my American right to freely express myself.
Throughout all of this, anyone could see that the kid was mortified, and I did feel kinda sorry for him, especially since he’ll probably grow up to be just like his dad, if he doesn’t die in a folly of a war first, but I did not pick this big asshole out of the crowd. He stopped himself and his kid to start a shouting match and threaten me physically. I saw no reason to back down for the kid’s sake.
And others running the gauntlet were a little pissed too.
"They need a new law for these protesters: 'You cross the line, you do the time,' " said Kenneth E. Boring, 80, still apparently irritated by the experience as he waited to leave Reagan National Airport.He and his wife Dottie, 59, of Dalton, Ga., are members of Republican Eagles, the elite GOP fundraising group, but they watched the president's speech from the Willard InterContinental Hotel. The security line was too long, they said, and made longer, in their opinion, by the protesters.
"It's time to put a stop to all this nonsense, protesting and causing confusion," Boring said.
......Justin Moidel, 17, who lives in the Pittsburgh area, attended the swearing-in with friends, but after venturing outside the security gates for food, the group ditched plans to return for the parade because of the angry protesters and daunting lines at the weapons check.
"I liked being part of history, and the passage of power," said Moidel, who said he considers himself a conservative Democrat. "But the long lines and being protested against. . . . There was one lady who yelled at me, 'Are you prepared to die?' I guess she thinks Bush is an aggressive leader who will get us into war."
Uh, Justin, you’re 17. You’ll be lucky if you don’t get drafted into the war which our aggressive leader has already gotten us into, you fucking moron. And Ken: no matter how much you were inconvenienced by me and others like me, you’re going home to a warm safe bed. American soldiers and Iraqi civilians wont be experiencing a feeling of safety for quite some time, and it’s all because your president lied his way into a needless war.
Anyway, the heckling was great fun, because pissing off republicans is something I’ll never tire of.
We left the heckling area just as a phalanx of riot-geared strorm troopers was preparing to close in on the protestors. GOP convention experiences taught us to move quickly and get the hell out if we didn’t want to spend the rest of the weekend in jail. Fortunately, few were arrested, but pepper spray was liberally used, and I think we left at just about the right time.
Friday, we joined a few dozen other activists and helped deliver a
70 foot long spine to the DNC. We think it’s time the DNC got a backbone and started acting like an opposition party instead of simply rolling over and acquiescing to every GOP atrocity. Personally, I woulda rather delivered a big pair of balls, but the spine, provided by some activists from Seattle, was quite impressive and made for a great visual.
