Irregular Times Diaries: Unfit Discussion

Yesterday, I took part in an anti-war demonstration on a busy street corner in Davenport, Iowa. There were about sixty of us. That may not sound like a lot, but on the Cosmic Sociological Scale, three-score Midwesterners holding signs in public–where people can see you– is the equivalent of three million Chinese students in Tiananmen Square standing in the path of onrushing tanks. It’s all relative.

A reporter from the local paper interviewed a few of us. Then he dragged his camera crew to the opposite corner where counter-protestors were waving flags. He interviewed–get this–all of them! Can you believe it? Isn’t that just the way the damn conservative press works; they’ll give a couple of progressives a quick few minutes, then spend the rest of the day interviewing every pro-war conservative in sight!

To be fair, must rephrase that: when he finished with us, the reporter walked over to the counter-protestors and interviewed both of them. 

Yep. There were only two. A middle-aged couple, one waving a flag, the other a ”Support Our Troops” banner. I know how they must have felt. Three years ago, it was the progressives who were the small, forlorn group at this intersection. Passers-by derided us, shot obscene gestures at us. Some stopped their cars to scream epithets.

But yesterday, the passing traffic gave us more than a few thumbs-up, enthustic waves and and honking horns. It’s an interesting inversion: it is the pro-war minority and president who are ”out of step with the American People.” We who disagree with the president and his war are the majority.

I don’t know how things are going where you live, but here where the corn grows and the Mississippi flows, the silent majority is finding its voice.