From: "Heather" <Heather-AT-teknopunx.co.uk>
Subject: My Visit to the Pro-War (Kill'em All) Rally
Date: Tue, 11 Mar 2003 23:17:59 -0000


from a.nother list
H
My Visit to the Pro-War (Kill'em All) Rally

Last night, a local talk radio station organized a "It's not about
disrobing, but disarming" rally in support of the upcoming war on 
Iraq. 

As some of you may know, I had decided to go make my pro-peace voice 
heard, even if I was the only one.

Friday afternoon, I got my sign ready. One side said "Honor Vets, Wage
Peace" and the other said "Support our Troops - Stop The War". I also,
thanks to some friends, had about 20 copies of enlistment forms with 
the address and phone number of every recruiting office attached to 
each one.

I got to 24th street and Camelback around 5:45ish, having a difficult 
time finding the bar they were having the rally at. I walked about 7 
times around the intersection, getting honked for and honked at. 
Sometimes flipped off and yelled at, but kept on undeterred.

Then as the sun set, I decided to head into the belly of the beast... 
off to Nixon's and the "kill 'em all" rally".

At first the security wasn't going to let me near the place, because 
of my sign. Then, after pointing out to him that there were other 
signs larger than mine, and talking to his supervisor, he let me 
pass. There were probably 200-300 people there... a pretty decent 
sized crowd, but still only 10% of the usual Phoenix area peace 
demonstrations.

To be honest, I was shaking and a bit nervous. I heard there was 
another pro-peace demonstrator there, and I saw him, so I was able to 
relax a little. Two was better than one.

I have never been so mocked in my entire life. I stood there proudly,
quietly, not getting angry, not yelling, holding my sign. Some of the 
others stood in front of me and held their signs in front of mine, so 
I just raised mine higher. Fortunately I'm 6'2" and had a long stick 
on mine. One 20-something held his "America.. Love it or Leave it" 
sign in my face and yelled at me. I asked him if he came up with that 
all by himself or if he had someone else help him. I was called every 
name in the book by some folks. An older veteran threatened me 
telling me that it was because of him that I could be out there 
today. I thanked him for his service, and then produced my DD-214 and 
VA letter stating I, too, was a disabled veteran. He
seemed flustered and left.

A lady who lost her husband in Korea called me a jerk. I asked her if 
she ever wanted anyone else to go through what she went through and 
that I was sorry for her loss and grateful to her husband for his 
sacrifice. She muttered "asshole" and walked away.

Some younger (early 20's) pro-death types then challenged me. I stood 
my ground and asked them if they thought we should really be going to 
war. They said "Hell Yes!" So, I pulled 5 enlistment forms from my 
back pocket and said I would go with them to sign up to fight. Their 
response "I can better support the war by staying here and paying my 
taxes." I thought. So I asked them if they thought it was ok to send 
other people's children to die in their place. Flustered, they left.

I did, not to completely slam them, did have long calm involved 
debates with a few ASU college Republicans. They seemed shocked of 
the news that Saddam Hussein has never done anything without 
expressed or implied consent of the US. 

They didn't know that the original disarmament resolution (678?) was 
designed to create a WMD free buffer zone in the Middle East... and 
that included Israel. They talked democracy in Iraq, I talked ethnic 
divisions that would never allow that to really happen. 

They had no clue about the tension between Turkey and the Kurds. They 
didn't realize that France lost 1.4 million people in WWI and 
hundreds of thousands more in WWII and that is what led to their 
internal strife dealing with Nazi Germany. 

The also didn't know that France has been dealing with terrorism for 
over 20 years now.

The event hosts mocked me openly over the microphone. They tried to 
chase me away with chants of "USA, USA". One guy even challenged 
this "commie pinko, fag-loving hippie" (my favorite insult of the 
night) to donate $20 to the Red Cross. A challenge he placed on all 
Vets. You should have seen all the jaws drop when I put my sign down, 
took the envelope, pulled $20 out of my wallet, sealed the envelope, 
and gave it back to him. 

"See", I told them, "I do support our military. I just do not support 
the war with Iraq." The biggest vomit point of the night came when 
they played that damn Toby Keith song and all of them sang along... 
really loud during the "We'll put a boot in your ass, it's the 
American way" part. Someone asked me what group I was with. I 
said "me and my two children... that's who I'm here for". She
actually smiled when she learned that I was there by my own volition
(sp?)and shook my hand and left.

All in all it was a very..... unique experience. Even one of the most
fervent pro-war people told me that he secretly hopes it does not 
come to war so that no more veterans like he and I would be created. 
We thanked each other for serving, shook hands, and parted ways. 

This was a guy who had a sign that said "No mercy for the merciless". 
Priceless, huh? And, no surprise here, absolutely none of the 20-
somethings in favor of the war took my challenge to enlist in the 
military. None. Zero. Zip, zilch, nada.

As I was leaving, a woman and her 3 kids came up to me and handed me 
one of those pocket book copies of the Constitution. I thanked her 
and told her to keep it as it would become a collectors item once 
Dubya and Ashcroft were done eliminating the parts they didn't like. 
(This brought me chants of 'asshole', but ya know what... it's true. 
Patriot I and Patriot II make this fact.)

About 8:30, I got back to my car, put my sign in the trunk, and 
headed back home. Yelled at, mocked, taunted, teased, and threatened 
I consider it to be a success. I didn't lose my temper and I didn't 
make an ass of myself.


Christian S.
Mesa, Arizona