As the Sundance Kid once said to Butch Cassidy: “who are those guys?’ As I watched the demonstrations against the Republicans in New York City I could not help but wonder the same. Who are these people, and further what do they want? In a time of war there is plenty to demonstrate against … we have enemies who would take away their very right to demonstrate … but they are not in Madison Square Garden … they are in Iraq, Afghanistan, and throughout the Islamic radical world. We have been told by various sources that the demonstrators are ‘main stream’ America. and are ‘passionate’ in their beliefs. Passion is defined by knowledge on the given subject one spends his/her passion … i.e. sports teams, rock stare, etc. Yet when asked by Fox News: ‘against what are you demonstrating?’ One demonstrator gave away the agenda by answering: “I don’t know I haven’t been given my assigned protest yet.†These protestors seem not to know what they are protesting. Further, that begs the question who gives them their marching orders and what is the ‘glue’ that holds these people together.
One way we can identify these people is by their signs. The protesters have been carrying an assortment of ‘signs’. They ranged from ‘impeach Clarence Thomas’ to ‘We are all Palestinians’, from gay rights to abortion rights, and from save the environment to nuclear disarmament. Of course we saw the “Bush lied†signs and those demanding immediate withdrawal from Iraq. That was to be expected. But just what is the common thread for these other groups?
A group called: ‘United for Peace and Justice’ has claimed responsibility for organizing these demonstrations. I searched the web for this group and found their rather anti-American webpage. I perused the area under ‘campaigns’. They had several listed. The first two were expected: the Republican Convention and the Iraq Campaign. No surprises there. They were followed with more diverse topics such as the “anti-military recruitment campaignâ€. There they exclaim: “many of the nations schools are faced with becoming feeder institutions of the U.S. Military or risk loosing Federal Fundingâ€. Now isn’t that a mainstream idea.
Yet another popular dinner table topic follows: “Global Justiceâ€. They bragged how their interventions at various economic events have had a negative effect on the economy as they attempt to “build bridges between anti-war and anti-global movements.â€
The next was an anti-nuclear campaign in which they claim: “that the world was destined … to a perpetual state of war so long as the United States maintains its bloated nuclear arsenal.â€
They weigh in heavily on the Palestinian Israeli conflict. Here they manage to totally ignore the terrorism visited on Israel in favor of chastising them for their occupation of Palestine under the heading: “Occupation: Wrong in Iraq, wrong in Palestineâ€. Of course we are just to ignore the school bus bombings, and the hostage situation of the grade school in Russia … we must be certain that these terrorists are given their right to murder. This brings us to their final ‘campaign’: civil liberties. There they claim that since 9/11 ‘People of color’ have been deported due to terrorist activities. They make it ‘clear’ that although they may have been terrorists; it is more pertinent that they were people of color. As if they were deported because of their color, rather than their support of terrorism.
Appallingly, there was another major group represented at these demonstrations … it was the Democratic National Committee. They were literally marching hand in hand with these demonstrators. It is becoming increasingly obvious that these groups have but one thing in common, their abhorrence for President Bush. Legitimate groups of the past have been united by a campaign for America’s common good; not an irrational hatred for an individual. Hatred has always been detestable in this great nation. It is what has made this nation great. It is why we fought the civil rights fight, why we have included gays under the umbrella of ‘the minority’; in short it reflects the compassion that is America. As Sen. Kerry runs away from his anti-American testimonies against his ‘band of brothers’ in Viet Nam and his radical record as the most liberal Senator in the past twenty years