Wow. All I can say is wow. Well, maybe a little more...My alarm went off at 5:15a. I pillow-hugged for another 15 minutes then jumped into the shower and started to think about the day ahead of me. Yes, I was going to protest McCain first then run off to start a busy day of work.
Even in the car with Mad I thought it would be just another peaceful protest. Just like the 8 or so we'd already had. Yeah, there'd be people who'd shout "baby killer" and slip snide comments in but these people were angry, nasty and down right vicious.
Hey, I'm not a experienced political protester; I'm not a paid activist. I'm a professional, educated businesswoman who just cares about this country and wants to do her part in making sure Obama, the right answer for this country, is rightfully elected.
Since I started what is now known as Colorado Women Against Palin five weeks ago, I've learned a lot about the process, our rights and how to activate people's passion productively. But what I've also learned is a frightening dark side to humanity and "real" Americans.
This election has gotten heated and as the McCain campaign continues to flails, the RNC and its supporters have gotten more and more desperate. Does desperation bring out the timid, hidden racist? Yes, I'm afraid it does.
Our previous protests have all been without incident. In fact, the police were very good at protecting us. But as you can see in the above photo, we were verbally and nearly physically attacked. Where were the police? (they never did help us) I called 911 to get this man off of us. He was grabbing at our signs and pushing us around; not understanding that this was not "his" rally as he kept saying but ours. We are all part of the process and that's what's (supposed to be) beautiful about democracy.
I still believe it's beautiful and I'm optimistic that America will one day be the true UNITED States of America that our forefathers wanted but Palin and McCain need to quit dividing us into "real" Americans and "anti-Americans". This crowd clearly bought into the GOP's rhetoric and repeated things like "Obama's a Muslim" or "Obama's a terrorist" or "he was born in Kenya", "socialist" (the new buzz word) and "communist" (retro buzz word).
They eat up fear like candy; stealing another bite whenever possible. The difference, in my opinion, is that those of us holding the signs embrace a completely different emotion than those standing in line - HOPE.
And that's what this election has boiled down to. Do you vote on fear or do you vote on hope?
Check out these media links. There are more to come, I'm sure.
http://cbs4denver.com/
http://cfapp2.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/videos/detail/tensions-flare-outside-mccains-rally/
http://www.examiner.com/x-231-
http://coloradoindependent.
[excerpt from the Colo. Independent's liveblog:]
9:44 a.m. - This reporter just spotted a woman wearing a t-shirt that read “Lipstick is not a vice-presidential qualification.” I wonder if the person wearing it thought this the Obama rally in Denver on Sunday? Maybe she is planning some type of outburst when McCain comes on stage. When McCain came to the University of Denver in June a number of protesters were escorted out after rising out of their seats and screaming for the end to the war in Iraq.
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