Lisa Guliani
The Living Force
Victor Thorn and I attended two advertised Pennsylvania WCW protests today.
The first was announced to be taking place at 11 am in Pittsburgh, which is about 3 hours from where we live.
So we got up early and hit the road, reaching Pittsburgh just shortly before the scheduled time.
We went to the event that was supposed to take place at Point State Park, in Pittsburgh.
WCW urged everyone to wear red shirts, to symbolize the splattering of blood by the Bushies.
Well, we have learned in our experiences at many past protests that it is NOT really a good idea for groups to wear the same T-shirts or wear clothing, etc.. that can be easily "picked out" - this has happened to us at a past OKC protest, where Thorn was removed from a spot where he was covering the speeches by Clinton and Cheney, BECAUSE the law spotted his shirt.
The shirt was given as the reason for his removal, bogus as that excuse is.
Anyway, so we didn't wear red shirts.
But when we got to the park at 5 minutes till 11, nobody else wearing red was there either.
We walked around, finally spotting ONE woman there for the protest.
We asked where everyone else was, and she didn't know.
We waited.
By 11:30 am, some people straggled slowly toward us, but with no sense of purpose or urgency.
We saw a crowd gathered in another part of the park and walked toward them, thinking they were there for the protest.
Nope. It was a school field trip. They were a little "young"...
The organizer of this protest never showed up, if you can believe that.
People were just looking around at one another, not knowing what to do.
So, Thorn and I suggested that everybody walk out of the park and get out on the streets, since no signs were allowed inside the park and there was a police presence - anticipating the "mass resistance" that had been previously announced.
Yeah. right. What mass resistance?
Well, we stood just outside the park and unfurled our banner, the same banner we use at every protest we participate in - It says 9-11 WTC controlled Demolition. It gets LOTS of attention, provokes questions and significant interest from passersby and from moving traffic, and gets people thinking and talking.
A couple of the WCW protesters initially helped us hold this banner up.
After a little while, the rest of the anti-war people (maybe 3 dozen) decided they did not want to stand and protest alongside of us, because of our banner.
This is typical crapola from the lefty anti-war crowd, who consistently refuses to touch the issue of 9-11 at all.
Ya know, 9-11 has NOTHING to do with the war....LOLOL.
So, it ended up that Thorn, some nice person named Harry and I were standing alone at the corner of a busy intersection holding up the banner and we did this for about an hour or so.
People came up to us, one person was hostile and arguing from a (not surprising) lack of information, but overall, nobody hassled us in any way.
Simultaneously, the 33 other people who bailed on us and refused to stand and protest with us, were standing across the street on an opposite street corner, banging a little drum and holding small squares of yellow paper in front of their chests, singing some low chant.
After a few minutes, they didn't even want to be on the opposite street corner from us, and they moved on to another location.
So we followed behind them with the banner and ended up on another busy corner, and stood there for awhile.
This was the great day of "MASS RESISTANCE" in Pittsburgh, Pa.
I guess the good people of Pittsburgh are not very "anti-war".
Event # 2 - State College, Pa. - 5 pm.
We got back to State College at 4 pm and headed downtown to see if the events here locally would turn out a larger number of people. There were about 20 or so people at this event, at the busiest intersection in town.
I was the only one protesting.
Everybody else was sort of just standing there, but at least they were holding decent sized signs.
They tried to get into a couple of chants, but they felt stupid, so they stopped.
One lady asked if anyone wanted to speak through the bullhorn, and nobody volunteered, so I did.
So I pulled an Alex Jones....LOLOLOL.
Only, I didn't talk about the police state or Bohemian Grove.
I talked about how the bogus war is based upon the lies of 9-11.
I tied everything back to 9-11, to the neocons, etc..
I also started yelling some things ike "Americans for Literate Presidents!" and hurling various other catchy truth bombs. It's a protest, not a tea party. when I go to a protest, I protest.
Everybody hears me, bullhorn or no bullhorn. It is very invigorating and I come away with a good feeling.
It's not exactly scream therapy, but hey, it works.
The other people there just stood there holding their signs. Another lady spoke into the bullhorn from some written statement. In between, I hurled out truth bombs, and everybody else held their signs - the whole time.
Then, a Channel 6 news reporter walked up with a big camera and tripod and started asking the protesters questions and she went down the line.
She clipped the mic on me and asked me some questions and then did the same with Thorn.
We never hold back with mainstream reporters, but we stuck to stuff we figured would have the best chance of making it onto the news at 6 and 11.
Even so, we figured they wouldn't run our comments.
We were half right.
They did run our comments, but only some of them.
But they did show us there close up with our signs and they did allow our comments to be aired.
I just watched the 11 pm news.
Both Thorn and I were on there.
They edited out most of what we had to say, but we still got in some good stuff.
I am happy that they aired that much.
I am glad that there were some people that showed up at both of these locations.
However, there was no "mass resistance".
I resisted. Thorn resisted. Harry resisted.
The rest of the protest people either walked away, banged on a tiny drum or stood mute.
This is the first time I've seen a protest so badly organized, so aimless, so directionless, so passive, so...flatline.
And we make it a point to go to a lot of protests around the country, big and small.
We've been part of the recent BIG protests in NYC and Washington, DC.
What is not surprising is how the anti-war crowd behaved. They refuse to listen, to research, to show any receptivity, any guts, any pulse...when it comes to 9-11 and the war.
They want to pretend that 9-11 has nothing to do with the war in Iraq, or Afghanistan, or the bogus war on terror.
They content themselves with poor renditions of "Give peace a chance" and "bang, bang, bang" the drum.
Nobody walks up to them to ask them questions, nobody engages in dialogue, nobody even cares to look at them doing this. People walked right by them today and didn't even give them a glance.
It was pathetic to see. But there they were, comfy in the safe zone, away from the "dangerous truth stuff".
If this is giving it your all for truth, then you don't really want to get out your measuring cup.
A thimble, maybe.
We walked away from this day with a heavy feeling. It was not encouraging to see so few people out there, and literally, afraid to protest.
They are afraid to speak up, to speak out. They'll stand there and make fun of Bush or Condi Rice, but they won't step up and out of the politically correct zone - not one inch, not one toe.
I was wondering why they had even bothered to stand there at all.
Flatline.
At least the news aired our comments and people got to hear what we had to say, something different from the usual schtick.
I sure hope other WCW locations had a different, more encouraging outcome.
Because these two protests fell with a resounding thud.
I've never seen anything like what happened today in all the time I've been going to protests.
It was like being in an un-reality. It was sad beyond description.
It was NOT "mass resistance".
Lisa
The first was announced to be taking place at 11 am in Pittsburgh, which is about 3 hours from where we live.
So we got up early and hit the road, reaching Pittsburgh just shortly before the scheduled time.
We went to the event that was supposed to take place at Point State Park, in Pittsburgh.
WCW urged everyone to wear red shirts, to symbolize the splattering of blood by the Bushies.
Well, we have learned in our experiences at many past protests that it is NOT really a good idea for groups to wear the same T-shirts or wear clothing, etc.. that can be easily "picked out" - this has happened to us at a past OKC protest, where Thorn was removed from a spot where he was covering the speeches by Clinton and Cheney, BECAUSE the law spotted his shirt.
The shirt was given as the reason for his removal, bogus as that excuse is.
Anyway, so we didn't wear red shirts.
But when we got to the park at 5 minutes till 11, nobody else wearing red was there either.
We walked around, finally spotting ONE woman there for the protest.
We asked where everyone else was, and she didn't know.
We waited.
By 11:30 am, some people straggled slowly toward us, but with no sense of purpose or urgency.
We saw a crowd gathered in another part of the park and walked toward them, thinking they were there for the protest.
Nope. It was a school field trip. They were a little "young"...
The organizer of this protest never showed up, if you can believe that.
People were just looking around at one another, not knowing what to do.
So, Thorn and I suggested that everybody walk out of the park and get out on the streets, since no signs were allowed inside the park and there was a police presence - anticipating the "mass resistance" that had been previously announced.
Yeah. right. What mass resistance?
Well, we stood just outside the park and unfurled our banner, the same banner we use at every protest we participate in - It says 9-11 WTC controlled Demolition. It gets LOTS of attention, provokes questions and significant interest from passersby and from moving traffic, and gets people thinking and talking.
A couple of the WCW protesters initially helped us hold this banner up.
After a little while, the rest of the anti-war people (maybe 3 dozen) decided they did not want to stand and protest alongside of us, because of our banner.
This is typical crapola from the lefty anti-war crowd, who consistently refuses to touch the issue of 9-11 at all.
Ya know, 9-11 has NOTHING to do with the war....LOLOL.
So, it ended up that Thorn, some nice person named Harry and I were standing alone at the corner of a busy intersection holding up the banner and we did this for about an hour or so.
People came up to us, one person was hostile and arguing from a (not surprising) lack of information, but overall, nobody hassled us in any way.
Simultaneously, the 33 other people who bailed on us and refused to stand and protest with us, were standing across the street on an opposite street corner, banging a little drum and holding small squares of yellow paper in front of their chests, singing some low chant.
After a few minutes, they didn't even want to be on the opposite street corner from us, and they moved on to another location.
So we followed behind them with the banner and ended up on another busy corner, and stood there for awhile.
This was the great day of "MASS RESISTANCE" in Pittsburgh, Pa.
I guess the good people of Pittsburgh are not very "anti-war".
Event # 2 - State College, Pa. - 5 pm.
We got back to State College at 4 pm and headed downtown to see if the events here locally would turn out a larger number of people. There were about 20 or so people at this event, at the busiest intersection in town.
I was the only one protesting.
Everybody else was sort of just standing there, but at least they were holding decent sized signs.
They tried to get into a couple of chants, but they felt stupid, so they stopped.
One lady asked if anyone wanted to speak through the bullhorn, and nobody volunteered, so I did.
So I pulled an Alex Jones....LOLOLOL.
Only, I didn't talk about the police state or Bohemian Grove.
I talked about how the bogus war is based upon the lies of 9-11.
I tied everything back to 9-11, to the neocons, etc..
I also started yelling some things ike "Americans for Literate Presidents!" and hurling various other catchy truth bombs. It's a protest, not a tea party. when I go to a protest, I protest.
Everybody hears me, bullhorn or no bullhorn. It is very invigorating and I come away with a good feeling.
It's not exactly scream therapy, but hey, it works.
The other people there just stood there holding their signs. Another lady spoke into the bullhorn from some written statement. In between, I hurled out truth bombs, and everybody else held their signs - the whole time.
Then, a Channel 6 news reporter walked up with a big camera and tripod and started asking the protesters questions and she went down the line.
She clipped the mic on me and asked me some questions and then did the same with Thorn.
We never hold back with mainstream reporters, but we stuck to stuff we figured would have the best chance of making it onto the news at 6 and 11.
Even so, we figured they wouldn't run our comments.
We were half right.
They did run our comments, but only some of them.
But they did show us there close up with our signs and they did allow our comments to be aired.
I just watched the 11 pm news.
Both Thorn and I were on there.
They edited out most of what we had to say, but we still got in some good stuff.
I am happy that they aired that much.
I am glad that there were some people that showed up at both of these locations.
However, there was no "mass resistance".
I resisted. Thorn resisted. Harry resisted.
The rest of the protest people either walked away, banged on a tiny drum or stood mute.
This is the first time I've seen a protest so badly organized, so aimless, so directionless, so passive, so...flatline.
And we make it a point to go to a lot of protests around the country, big and small.
We've been part of the recent BIG protests in NYC and Washington, DC.
What is not surprising is how the anti-war crowd behaved. They refuse to listen, to research, to show any receptivity, any guts, any pulse...when it comes to 9-11 and the war.
They want to pretend that 9-11 has nothing to do with the war in Iraq, or Afghanistan, or the bogus war on terror.
They content themselves with poor renditions of "Give peace a chance" and "bang, bang, bang" the drum.
Nobody walks up to them to ask them questions, nobody engages in dialogue, nobody even cares to look at them doing this. People walked right by them today and didn't even give them a glance.
It was pathetic to see. But there they were, comfy in the safe zone, away from the "dangerous truth stuff".
If this is giving it your all for truth, then you don't really want to get out your measuring cup.
A thimble, maybe.
We walked away from this day with a heavy feeling. It was not encouraging to see so few people out there, and literally, afraid to protest.
They are afraid to speak up, to speak out. They'll stand there and make fun of Bush or Condi Rice, but they won't step up and out of the politically correct zone - not one inch, not one toe.
I was wondering why they had even bothered to stand there at all.
Flatline.
At least the news aired our comments and people got to hear what we had to say, something different from the usual schtick.
I sure hope other WCW locations had a different, more encouraging outcome.
Because these two protests fell with a resounding thud.
I've never seen anything like what happened today in all the time I've been going to protests.
It was like being in an un-reality. It was sad beyond description.
It was NOT "mass resistance".
Lisa