Photos by Bubba Commentary by Waldo Pepper Commentary by Cody Commentary by Patriot J The SatinPatriot Blog Additional reports, comments and photos of this mission will be added as they are submitted and approved. Submit your reports and comments to webmaster @ gatheringofeaglesnc.org Communists, Anarchists, and Pot Advocates Gather to Encourage America's Enemies by 'Patriot J' On a fine Saturday in Washington DC a diverse spectrum of America, and humanity, gathered across from the White House to exercise their freedoms of assembly and speech. Though a cool breeze graced the day, it was not the source of the chill running up and down my spine. No, the goose bumps resulted from my exploration of the free market of ideas present that day. With thousands gathered to express their displeasure with the current state of affairs, I felt duty bound to hear the arguments of my fellow citizens, to give them a fair chance to make their case. With admittedly low expectations, but steadfast in purpose, I plunged headlong into an hour and half of dialogue with anyone and everyone who could engage in constructive dialogue. I quickly realized that I had waded into a morass of communists, racists, anarchists, marijuana advocates, disgruntled lesbians, wayward youth, violent revolutionaries, and the occasional average citizen. From this experience, I am disappointedly left to conclude that, though the protest was packaged as antiwar, it was really an effort to undermine the democratic structure of our Republic. Communists. The event teemed with communists and socialists doing their best to paint the town red. Exhibitors provided a plethora of information about Marxism, revolutionary movements, and the evils of capitalism and democracy. The purveyors of this information could not explain how the reading materials available from Tehran, Iran would help end the war, or explain the appropriateness of selling a magazine called "The Militant" at an anti-war rally. When directly questioned about the 100+ million killed by Communism's greatest advocates, Stalin and Mao, I was assured not to worry, as lessons had been learned and communism would now be peacefully spread. An older hippie speaking via megaphone apparently disagreed with this amicable position, instead calling for the military to turn their guns against the government and for the youth to infiltrate the military to subvert it from within. The "antiwar" protester next to him openly suggested that killing the military, police, and elected officials would be the most effective route. This open militant went on to complain about how "they" shut down a DC hospital to make way for a new baseball stadium. The hospital in question predominantly serviced DC's poor. Clearly a supporter of the down-trodden, he followed this with stalwart advocacy for detonating a nuclear bomb in the White House. Vaporizing the White House would apparently change the system. When asked though, he did not seem to care that about the health effects this nuclear option would have on DC's poor. The logic went as follows, closing a hospital was bad, nuclear detonation was good. Overall, the communists present advocated the overthrow of our current government by any means possible, including violently, but once achieved, peace and prosperity would ensue at once. After this I can began to suspect the communists were not alone in their "peace and love through violent revolution" antiwar position. Racists. Given the level of violence already being preached, I suppose I should not have been surprised at the amount of racism present. Most of the racism present was focused on, to give provide a flavor of the arguments, Whitie "The Man" McHonky, with a smattering of those omnipotent Jews and their control of everything. In discussing the Jenna 6, one young lady thought it only appropriate that white students had been assaulted. In a racially charged situation at a high school, black students are the minority and had been harassed. A group of black students jumped some white students and are being criminally prosecuted. Though, admittedly unaware of any of the facts, she presumed the white students deserved it, because they were white. Moving on, another book vendor offered books about the struggle for black freedom. Though agreeing that there were working poor of all races he could not produce any books pertaining to their plight. Apparently, only the black poor are worth advocating and the others just don't merit discussion. The man and his system only oppress the blacks, and since the man is naturally white, whites, Asians, Latinos, American Indians, Indians, and others should feel guilty. Yet, the vendor steadfastly believed racism of any kind was wrong. The Jews were also a source of open contention. I was unaware that Jews were behind everything and are the root cause for the war. If America stopped supporting the Jews, our enemies would simply stop attacking us, and we could end all wars. By this point, I began to feel slightly infected by the lunacy on display. The next element of this infestation I studied was the anarchists. Since I lacked all black clothing, home made riot gear, and a bad haircut, they did not offer a warm embrace. The most they were willing to release were comments stating their positions against social injustice and that protests needed something more to be effective. A noble stand for anarchists. Now, in comparison to the anarchists I have witnessed rioting, this group could at best be described as posers. These anarchist wannabes were about every cliché possible, disaffected college students, smug in their knowledge about raging against the machine, waving black flags, wearing frowns etc….yawn. The first observable crack in their façade was the boyish young man wearing a dress. Something about a dweeb in women's clothing that just destroys any sense of menace and credibility. Also, a scrawny 15 year old looking idealist shouting high pitched panic does not generate a fearsome aura. All in all, the group looked and acted like a collection of star trek geeks that had gone bad. Yet, despite all of their aggressive posturing and their attempted intimidation, they were, for every interview, "whole heartedly trying to effect positive change." Note to Virginia Commonwealth University and SUNY Orange, you may want reexamine the charter for your SDS club, as their academic and civic contributions amounted to banging on plywood spray painted with obscenities. Also there for meaningful civic discourse were the predictable amalgam of political street performers, marijuana legalization advocates, and angry lesbians. From an interview perspective this proved difficult. I had hoped to hear engaging ideas about diplomatic and military strategies, but getting the attention of the Santa Claus on stilts, the Cheney controlling Bush puppets, and the guy dressed up as Skelator (or Death) proved difficult. Fortunately, the marijuana advocate made himself available. As far as alternate strategies go, his "peace through weed" plan to stop the flow of Iranian forces and foreign Jihadis from destabilizing Iraq, presented a truly new avenue for conflict resolution. For more alternative avenues to achieve military and diplomatic success, truthfully, I must disclose, I did not even attempt to engage the angry lesbians, the young women performing interpretive dances, males who had adorned themselves with a pink crown, and anyone wearing a khiafka or black flag of Islam bandana. Within the free market of ideas emerged a small but prominent subset of 9-11 conspiracy theorists. Perhaps they had well researched facts to support their case and could sustain a rigorous adventure into lucid debate. Sadly, neither objective materialized. I did however observe a group of people able to vehemently defend nothing more than the rumors and slogans on their T-shirts. They could not reconcile the conflicting beliefs that while the current administration has an impeachable level of incompetence, it contains enough evil genius to mastermind a monumental conspiracy. Further the 9-11 conspirators believe a President whose intellect they ridicule was responsible for orchestrating the largest covert operation in modern history all for the purposes of acquiring oil for his corporate masters and Zionist overlords. I'm not even sure how to appropriately address this, other than to say by this point I was crawly out of my skin to due prolonged exposure to this insanity. Finally, after much delay, the protest got moving, and I marched with it. Nothing new emerged by way of new ideas and I decided to test the theory that the assembled crowd had little interest in examining the views of their supporters and were just motivated for external action. Still within the parade, I removed the gray shirt I had been wearing over top of my "Jihadi Killer" t-shirt. This T-Shirt features in a marine manically mugging for the camera with a squad automatic weapon with the words Jihadi Killer on the front and back of the shirt. I marched exposed for fifteen minutes without reaction. Eventually, the parade's lethargic pace forced me, and others, to walk ahead of the main body. I joined the Gathering of Eagles and United American Contingent walking in protest in front of the anti-war group. By this point two anti-war individuals walked along harassing our group. I attempted to grab these bulls by the horn, and engage them in dialogue. Despite three block worth of effort, all they were able to provide was the constant refrain of "shame, shame, shame" interrupted with the "read a book." This was delivered at full volume, with rage, and from a foot away as I literally walked side by side with them. In my attempts to initiate civic discourse, I was blunt to the point of "please tell me what your position is." To which I frequently got "shame, shame, shame" at full roar. Having made every effort, I abandoned this and started thanking those of our supporters along the parade route. I thanked every vet I saw for their service. In the midst of this I got caught in between the anti-war parade marchers and counter protesters. I, and my Jihadi Killer t-shirt, strolled down the corner to cross over the picket line and join the counter protesters. Where I once walked unnoticed, all of the sudden, I was now a murder and an evil man for supporting the killing of Jihadis. I attempted to ask my accusers what they would have done with Mohammad Atta, Jihadi leader of 9-11, but by this point they had reached a full frontal frenzied assault on reason. The parade marchers mutually supported their crowd, including the communists, anarchists, Islamists, and drug supporters while attacking everyone else as a war mongering death merchant brainwashed by a fascist. This continued all the way to the Capitol, where en masse, the anti-war crowd laid down and sent a collective message to U.S. enemies that they were in fact ready to lay down and call it quits. Equally amusing and frightening was the prone woman speaking to the camera of a Russian news agency. Smiling and waving to the camera, she professed her love for Russian people and wished love to everyone there. Perhaps most troubling of all were the number of youth in attendance spewing out slogans they saw on posters, but with little knowledge beyond the slogans. After reaching the Capitol, I ended my day of shopping at the market of free ideas. Despite exhausting attempts, I left with an empty basket. I suppose I expected too much in trying to solicit ideas on national security from a crowd who shared solidarity with the stoned woman wearing an orange feather boa.