I’ll bet the guy holding the first sign knows from first “hand” experience…

Now I know what you’re thinking, “Oh God, he’s going to talk about Dub-yah.”  You couldn’t be any further from the truth.  Why would anyone in their right mind protest the leaders of their country?  I mean isn’t that why we elect our leaders to keep our BEST interests at heart when they make our decisions for us?  If you disagreed with your leaders, would it not be better to stay on the same level and right them?  Numbers don’t lie.  If you had enough backing then you prove you’re right.  Magically, things might change.

But no, I simply want to make a simple observation, war protesting just sucks now.  What happened?  Have we as a culture forgotten how to be creative in the face of adversity and disagreement?  More specifically, to borrow a line from an old song “Where have all the flowers gone?  Long time passing…”  I couldn’t sum it up better; the protest song has become all but a lost art.  Who can we look for to fill the void, the Dixie Chicks?  Heh, I’ll admit they are cute, but cuteness does NOT mean talented by any means.  The last time we needed protest songs we could look for the Beatles, Donovan, Edwin Starr, John Lennon, Bob Marley, Steel Pulse and the Grateful Dead just to name a few.

That’s a crappy ratio if you ask me.  But it does prove the point that there really is no reason to protest the current involvements of our great nation.  Rather, I suggest we protest the lack of support.  I truly believe that nothing can be achieved since our collective heart just isn’t into protesting now.  So I have this bit of advice to offer to protesters out there, get more creative or ship out.  (Preferably to New Zealand where they always need more liberally protesting types of people.)  Bon Voyage!

     In 2004, I moved outta DC because the place is pretty much a hell-hole of arrogance and one-upmanship.

     Leading up to the Iraq war, the entire town was behind it save for a few bus loads full of Neo-Nazi Skinheads wearing WWJD bracelets.  Personally, I’m pretty sure Jesus wouldn’t’ve been shaving his head, wearing Swastikas and threatening to kill all the Jews, but maybe that’s just me *rolls eyes*.

     As weeks progressed and the conflict escalated, politicians who’d voted for the war a few weeks prior began spouting rhetoric about how they were always against the war…

     It wasn’t long before the War Protestors started going moonbat-loopy.

     I remember being harassed one morning on the way to work at the Fairfax metro, when I simply walked past the guy trying to hand me his anti-war flyer.  He started screaming, “Fascist motherf&$#er!  You’re a g#$!%m babykiller!”  The rock-salt was down to keep us from falling face first in the slush, but that dear protester decided to see if he could help me fall a little easier.  I turned around and gave him a small shove back, and he finally shut his damn mouth.

     Arriving at work, I was met with another obnoxious punk at the top of the D.O.T. steps.  He was screaming, cussing at everyone who wouldn’t take his flyer.  On Federal Property.  And the D.O.T rent-a-cops wouldn’t get rid of him…

     He was still there at lunch, screaming, shoving people.  And DC people, generally, when threatened, tend to turn Zombie and ignore what’s going on.  They get shoved, they shut down, and continue trying to walk like nothing’s happening to them.

     I am not that way.

     I observed as Mr. Moron accosted an old woman, shoved her down, and busted her purse open.  Her coins went everywhere.  Being typical of the area, people just walked around the bloody-kneed old lady, ignored the screaming moron and went about their business as if it was perfectly normal.

     I ran to her aid, attempted to help her up, and received a short-lived tirade from the moron … short-lived because when he got in my face for trying to help her off the ground, he got a love-pat and a gingerly toss down the Metro escalator.

     And when trying to help the old lady gather her loose change, she simply ignored me, unwilling to make any eye contact, unwilling to accept the money I’d picked up for her.  And nobody else would pick it up.

     There were numerous other stupid incidents which made me loathe to ride the DC Metro after a while (an Asian lady who continually attempted to push me in front of the train, a man who attempted to climb me — standing on the back of my leg and holding my shoulder — trying to push his way into an overstuffed Metro car, the group of suit-and-tie-clad Howard Dean supporters screaming “DON’T TOUCH ME! DON’T TOUCH ME! DON’T TOUCH ME!” and biting passengers for accidentally brushing against them in another overstuffed car), but I digress.

     This is typical of DC.

     It’s a relatively tiny land area chock-full of asinine, and overflowing with WTF.

     Knoxville protesters tend to be at least a little less moronic.  The culture here is very different to DC, in that most people are usually — at least somewhat — nice to each other.  They still scream sarcasm, and use all the silly catch-phrases which don’t apply (general misuse of words and such).  But for the most part, they’re not hitting people.  They’re usually not throwing things at passersby.

     “The smell of patchouli in the air so thick it makes my eyes water,” said Lissa Kay as she filmed this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1pxJe0rFNA

     You can also see that they enlisted the aid of many of Knoxville’s homeless population in exchange for free doughnuts.  I guess they needed to show numbers, and really didn’t think about how demeaning it would be to bribe people to their cause using food…

     Especially when many of the protesters claim that our government was doing that to rural Iraqis…

     Can you say, “Reprehensible hypocrites!” boys and girls?

     I knew you could.