Counter-protest debrief

I do owe you all a review of the counter-rally, I know! However, I fear I must report that it was not the such a groundbreaking event after all. In fact, it was probably the most relaxing part of my day. This is indicative of two facts: 1, my day was, on the whole, very busy and 2, the protest and counter-protests were anything but spectacular. I will have a picture or two up in a second, though.

Here's some initial details.

We were there before the other side even showed up. It started with just three of us--Christy (CR president), Lisa and I. We hung out our signage and watched as the crowd across from us grew. There were only a few at first--we kind of ignored each other.

The number of red-shirted conservatives standing out there grew to about 8 or 10 at one point. The short of it is, while we did get our share of "evil" and other even less kosher comments, the majority of people who actually paid us mind had something positive to say. I think the most amusing thing about the whole event was to call out to people and compliment them when they were wearing red. Of course, few knew we would be wearing it, so this would often elicit grimacing and desperate comments like, "oh no, that's not why I'm wearing this."

The protesters themselves were nothing but civil. In fact, there were a few who came over with their signs and we even decided to have a few pictures taken together. I really can't do anything but commend them for being so gracious. At one point when one of their speakers was making an oration from the middle of the crowd, they all started cheering and waving at us. We cheered and waved back (we were celebrating anyway so why not?), and later found out that they had decided we needed a round of applause for coming out and exercising our freedom of speech (thanks Dems!).

There were other interesting happenings. Some students who said they were Democrats came over and said they thought the protesters were being sore losers, were giving the party a bad name and thanked us for standing up to it.

Then there was the police officer who checked up on us to make sure we weren't having any trouble. She asked us if we were planning on going to the down-town rally and we told her no. She commended us for that decision because it was expected to be much more serious (and it was). She then pointed out the emergency phone for our use: "just press the red button." You'll find that mildly ironic when you see the pictures.

In the end, the other crowd dispersed before we did. As a result we gained some sense of majority status before the day was out. I felt like repeating the question from National Treasure to a Democrat: "Is this what you feel like all the time?"

Ok, it's back to work. Sorry to be so tardy in this update.