[antimedia] antimedia: I can't go to bed until....

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Posted by antimedia:
I can't go to bed until....
http://www.antimedia.us/posts/1174365650.shtml


   ....I tell you about [1]this and you shouldn't go to bed tonight until
   you read it. A fantastic accounting of what took place in places that
   I wasn't and therefore didn't witness.
   Here's a sample.

     Finally, the march began. It was a motley collection of
     organizations and interest groups. The parade was led by a
     collection of anti-war military veterans, followed by the radical
     feminists of Code Pink. Then came a group of âdrummersâ who were
     really just banging sticks on the bottom of some empty pails,
     succeeded by the mandatory contingent of masked anarchists. Further
     back were lots of hippie-throwbacks, a good number of college
     students, some refugee from an anarchist rodeo twirling a lasso
     around himself, and a variety of people waving Lebanese and
     Palestinian flags. There were a few American flags as well,
     although nearly all of these were defaced with peace signs,
     political slogans, or sardonic renditions of corporate symbols.
     The counter-demonstrators lined the first few hundred yards of the
     parade route, sometimes on both sides. Waving American flags, the
     vets gave the marchers a generally good heckling; âGo impress your
     professors!â was my favorite epithet. Despite their fetish for the
     right to âdissent,â the war protestors are unaccustomed to
     opposition, aside perhaps from a lone College Republican or two
     that might show up with an American flag at a campus protest. But
     these counter-demonstrators were different. They were combat
     veterans who still bristle at the memory of being jeered by these
     kinds of radicals when they returned from Vietnam. The marchers
     seemed not only nervous, but even ashamed -- to prove their
     patriotism to the vets, they began chanting âU.S.A.! U.S.A.!â This
     was probably the first time that chant has ever been heard at an
     anti-war rally.
     I fell in with the anarchists, since thatâs where the action
     usually is. There were around 100 of them, although the number of
     face piercings exceeded that by a factor of 10, even with most of
     their nose rings and tongue rings hidden by masks and bandanas.
     Their banners proclaimed slogans like âDestroy all governmentâ and
     âNo war but class war.â The vets yelled out to them âCome over
     here!â and âShow your faces!â Declining either invitation, the
     anarchists responded by chanting âWhose streets? Our streets!â
     But the chant lacked conviction, seeing as the only thing
     protecting the anarchists from a smackdown by the vets was the line
     of police officers separating the two sides. I spotted a group of
     four anarchists carrying an upside down American flag and wondered
     how far theyâd get with it. It turned out to be about 50 yards.
     Then, a vet managed to infiltrate the parade and snatched the flag
     from them, causing all four members of the revolutionary vanguard
     to run scurrying away.

   Read the whole thing. Trust me. It will warm the cockles of your
   heart.

References

   1. http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=19862