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2007-09-19 -Short Attention Span Theater-
‘Massive’ anti-war rally on California Capitol steps bombs
Jamie O'Neill, Sacramento News & Review

. . . As a freelance writer, I pitched my services to cover a peace rally on the west steps of the state Capitol building last Friday, September 7, and the editor went for it.

As it turned out, there wasn’t much of a story there, but it was impossible to tell in advance that the event would be such a flop. . . . Some organizers had predicted that 3,000 peace activists were going to show up, but the people on the steps of the Capitol to protest the war never numbered much more than 200 souls, and of that number a couple dozen were either speakers or organizers.

Without a trace of irony, one of the first speakers at the event shouted into the microphone, “This is what democracy looks like,” and then tried to lead the pathetically small crowd in chanting those words, but the effort died. . . .

An hour into the event, a woman passed me with a disappointed look on her face and said, “This is pitiful.”

And it was. “We are not insignificant,” a speaker read from his prepared speech, but the numbers assembled before him gave lie to his words. And the repeated references to the will of the people seemed pointedly indifferent to the fact of the rather listless group that milled around, carrying the same sorts of banners and placards that might have been seen a couple of generations ago in much larger and much younger gatherings. . . .

. . . Perhaps a lesson that can be drawn from last Friday’s rally is that what once worked to turn the nation against the war in Vietnam isn’t going to play in re-runs. . . .

"Read the whole thing--it's the feel-good story of the season!"
--James Taranto, Wall Street Journal
Posted by Mike 2007-09-19 06:32|| || Front Page|| [11135 views ]  Top

#1 “We are not insignificant,”

When ya gotta say it, it ain't really true...
Posted by tu3031 2007-09-19 08:51||   2007-09-19 08:51|| Front Page Top

#2  the rather listless group that milled around, carrying the same sorts of banners and placards that might have been seen a couple of generations ago in much larger and much younger gatherings. . . .

Says it all, doesn't it. The anti-war movement is on a par with erectile dysfunction commercials, pandering to the Peter Pan impulses of aging hippies.
Posted by RWV 2007-09-19 09:25||   2007-09-19 09:25|| Front Page Top

#3 So once they are all dead can we go back to ruling the world? I am looking forward to steak, cigars and all the gasoline I can drink for five cents a gallon.
Posted by Excalibur 2007-09-19 09:33||   2007-09-19 09:33|| Front Page Top

#4  ... but the people on the steps of the Capitol to protest the war never numbered much more than 200 souls

IMO, most of these creatures are soulless.

Posted by gromgoru 2007-09-19 09:37||   2007-09-19 09:37|| Front Page Top

#5 The broken refuse of the 60's peace movement.

They can't die soon enough.
Posted by DarthVader">DarthVader  2007-09-19 11:06||   2007-09-19 11:06|| Front Page Top

#6 Yesterday or the day before NPR did a bit about the fading of protests against the Iraq war. They admitted apparent progress, then had aural snips from one pro-war young man saying how Iraq is part of the war on terror, and we'll probably need to be there another ten years, then a female anti-war baby boomer who said (approximately), "I'm against this war just as I was against the war in Viet Nam. But I won't protest because I remember how the returning Viet Nam veterans were treated, and I will not do that to our young men and women in uniform this time. And besides, if we pull out suddenly, it would be very bad. Much as I hate it, we're going to be there another three years or so."

Yes, I was shocked, too.
Posted by trailing wife 2007-09-19 11:42||   2007-09-19 11:42|| Front Page Top

#7 Why are Anti-War folk involved with Bombs?
It kind of sounds like a conflict of interests.
Posted by 3dc 2007-09-19 11:50||   2007-09-19 11:50|| Front Page Top

#8 I have this "theory" (OK it's dumb) but it goes like this.

To get the greatest generation we needed to take on a type of good person debt, and we needed to pay it back by having really low quality people in the next generation.
Posted by Bright Pebbles 2007-09-19 13:53||   2007-09-19 13:53|| Front Page Top

#9 So Fruity Pebbles, is that your official theory?
Posted by Hupavilet Panda7295 2007-09-19 15:29||   2007-09-19 15:29|| Front Page Top

#10 He did say it was dumb, Hupavilet Panda7295.

So you're positing a Law of Conservation of Character, Bright Pebbles? Personally, I think that the Baby Boom generation manages that without going outside its own ranks. They are a generation of extremes, eschewing as much as possible the middle of the bell curve.
Posted by trailing wife 2007-09-19 17:17||   2007-09-19 17:17|| Front Page Top

#11 I'm patenting my theory after I patent my perpetual motion popcorn machine and anti-grav lawnmower.
Posted by Bright Pebbles 2007-09-19 18:23||   2007-09-19 18:23|| Front Page Top

#12 My German is a little rusty, but I believe the title said STINKY/SMELLY AMER HIPPIES FOOLISHLY DEMONSTRATE AGAINT WAR.
Posted by JosephMendiola 2007-09-19 19:59||   2007-09-19 19:59|| Front Page Top

#13 Laugh Out Loud
Posted by Muggsy Phump4546 2007-09-19 22:48||   2007-09-19 22:48|| Front Page Top

13:26 Frank G
13:12 Regular joe
13:12 mossomo
13:11 swksvolFF
13:08 Abu Uluque
13:00 swksvolFF
12:59 Regular joe
12:55 Skidmark
12:53 Skidmark
12:52 Abu Uluque
12:50 Abu Uluque
12:49 Skidmark
12:48 NN2N1
12:46 Skidmark
12:44 Bobby
12:43 Abu Uluque
12:41 Bobby
12:38 Skidmark
12:31 swksvolFF
12:30 Skidmark
12:22 Abu Uluque
12:19 Abu Uluque
12:17 Abu Uluque
12:17 Skidmark









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