Start The Demonstration Without Me
By Mitch Berg
I went down to the Dunn Brothers at Lake and Bryant this morning, and was gratified to meet some people; Amendment X from Savage Republican, regular commenter BillH, a photographer whose name eludes me, and Mark, a charter member of “Old Friends of Mitch going back about thirty years. Fortified with Dunn’s finest, we walked over to Lake and Lyndale, by the Army Recruiting station (to the relief of the capo di tutti barristi, who clearly was not in favor of completing the mission.
There, we met Diamond Dog from Freedom Dogs and American flag, and Doug (missed the last name), who brought signs. Finally, walking up Lake Street from the other side of the protest, of all people, James Lileks – bearing video and still cameras and the pithiest counterchants in the business.
We stood in front of Greek To Me, across the street from the main body of the protest.
Most of the media must have been concentrated up at Loring Park, where the protest was supposed to end; all we had at Lake and Lyndale was a single cameraman from Channel 5 who, to Stanley Hubbard’s credit, crossed the street to film and talk with us.
After half an hour of highly-scripted chanting (a nice girl walked around at the beginning of the gathering, handing out a photocopied sheet of “Antiwar Chants by MN Socialist Alternative).
A cute redhead with a pierced nose and a carpenters apron festooned with fascist flair walked through the crowd selling buttons. Among them were a bunch of Che Guevara buttons.
“One dollar”, she said, perkily.
“You do know that Guevara was a mass murderer, don’t you? He ordered the execution of children?”
She grinned, looking a little dazed, and walked away to more fertile sales ground.
After half an hour or so, the “protesters” began walking down Lake Street toward Hennepin. After a block or two, their organizers – equipped with bullhorns – began urging the crowd to move out onto the westbound lane of Lake Street, causing a big, carbon-guzzling traffic jam behind them.
We counterprotesters, being ecologically conscious, stuck to the sidewalk.
The entire mob of them walked through Calhoun Square, chanting at the top of their lungs (Lileks and I followed them), and then came out the Hennepin side, heading north . The counterprotest met them at the corner, and as the bullhorns bellowed “Who is the terrorist?” we answered “Ahmadinejad!” over their feeble “Bush Is The Terrorist”.
More observations as they return to me…
March 18th, 2007 at 2:42 pm
I did notice that the channel 5 guy went to talk to the least intimidating of us. Lileks had his press pass out so they didn’t talk to him. We also noted the cognitive dissonance of socialist trying to make money by selling buttons.
March 18th, 2007 at 2:49 pm
Mitch.
It was grand counter-demonstrating against the idiots today.
You seem to have missed the memo, however, that I not write at Freedom Dogs blog and have changed my name to Diamond Dog.
See you at the next rally.
March 18th, 2007 at 2:52 pm
I always find the cognitive dissonance of socialists trying to sell stuff intriguing. At least when I was a young commie, we took free will offerings rather than require payment. Of course that’s why the old idealistic commies went broke.
March 18th, 2007 at 2:53 pm
I should clarify: my name used to be pinkmonkeybird.
March 18th, 2007 at 3:03 pm
Doh! Forgot the new name.
Will correct.
March 18th, 2007 at 3:41 pm
Sounds like you guys had fun today.
LL
March 18th, 2007 at 3:45 pm
The thing is, and I noticed this last year with the PW’s, the lefties don’t know how to respond to guerilla tactics. They do not come out looking good at all.
March 19th, 2007 at 3:18 pm
cognitive dissonance of socialist trying to make money
Some of we socialist leaning types believe that you should be able to benefit from the “sweat of your brow”. If you are willing to work harder, longer and with more care, you should be able to see some degree of benefit from it.
My personal socialist leanings relates to the things that I would say “can’t be owned” – land, minerals, water, air, sunlight, etc. In these things, I believe in stewardship or other “rights granted by society” but not ownership.
I’m not really interested in debating whether this is a good or bad way to look at things right now – I’m sure there will be plenty of opportunities to do that in the future.
I merely wanted to note that not all people who consider themselves socialist are necessarily against all forms of capitalism.
November 21st, 2011 at 11:50 am
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