....LMB: "Blockin' Out the Scenery, Breakin' My Mind"....
March 20, 2004
Went to today's Iraq invasion anniversary protest in Hollywood. Left a little early because, well... medical thing. Partway through the march I noticed that my throat seemed to be swelling shut for no apparent reason, and opted to head back home. It was kind of scary, but I'm mostly fine now; I can speak and breathe and swallow properly. I'm guessing it was an allergic reaction to either the sausagey sandwich I bought from a street vendor or from a quarter of a kiwi I got from the Food Not Bombs folks. I haven't know myself to be allergic to either before, so I don't know what's up, but in typical Jake fashion, I'm choosing not to worry about it.
Anyhow.
While at said protest, I tested out the new camera attachment for my groovy little internet decvice. The pictures aren't the greatest quality, but I did get some nice shots of some of the more creative protest signs. I'll label/describe the sign below each photo in case they're hard to read.
"Bring My Brother Home. USMC CPL Sean Reynolds".
"Vote Republican" t-shirts for sale. Yeah, it's a cheap shot, but still kinda funny.
"Leave Teeth Marks on Barrells of Guns". I really don't know what that was about. Packs a visceral punch, yet I'm not sure what they're referring to. Yes, I know they mis-spelled "barrels".
A picture of the Grim Reaper saying "I Support Everyone's Troops". One of my favorite signs from the whole march. I think all my future protest signs will have to be of the biting and ironic variety.
"Bush hijacked 9/11 and flew it into Iraq". Interesting, nice metaphor. And very big. The poor guy had to keep struggling to keep the it aloft, and stop the cardboard from folding in on itself.
"Bush/Cheney 1984". This depicts Cheney in sort of a Nazi uniform and Bush dressed as Napoleon. A lot of the detail is lost in the photo, like how the swastikas on Cheney's uniform are replaced with Enron logos, and some sort of patch on Bush's shoulder (I forget what it said, but it was funny).
These next few will need a little explaining:
For reasons still not entirely clear to me, a friend of mine decided to organize a contingent made up of fans of musicians Morrissey and The Smiths. The group cleverly called itself "Louder Than Bombs," after a Smiths album. All their signs had song lyrics, either in their original forms, or slightly tweaked to spread an anti-war message. Some of the best were "If it's not love, then it's the bomb, the bomb, the bomb, that will bring us together," "Come armageddon," "Hang the newsmen," "Shoplifters for peace," and "They do the military two-step down the nape of our necks." (Trust me, if you're a Smiths fan, these are all very funny)
They also sang Smiths and Morrissey songs, with lyrics switched up to denounce war. Creative and amusing, yet I still have no idea why they choce to take this theme and run with it.
(Hmm, I'll have to play some Smiths on my radio show Monday to commerorate this weirdness.)
And finally, we come to the best sign at the protest. Not only the best sign at the protest, but the best sign EVER.
Across the street from the initial gathering point for the protesters was a small throng of counter-demonstrators. The counter folks were small in number, maybe 30. Some were pro-war and pro-patriotism, some were right-wing conspiracy theorist Freepers (their signs denouncing the peace movement as communism in disguise), and a handful of ever-present Jesus freaks ("you're all wasting your time caring for your fellow man and striving for peace, when you could be worshipping Jesus!"). The Best Sign Ever was held by a Jesus Freak (it's the one on the left).
The top of the sign reads "Support President Bush".
Below that are pictures in silhouette of: a fighter jet; a tank; a machine gun; a pistol; an attack helicopter; an atomic bomb; and a missile emplacement.
Below that, the sign reads "Trust Jesus".
Wow. Wow.
Wow.
That man breaks the sound barrier of crazy, and I salute his courage to be that insane in public.
It was a good time, I saw lots of friends on a nice sunny day. I myself carried no sign, but everyone did seem to like my Democracy: We Deliver t-shirt.
I had no illusions that I was making a difference, but I'll admit that sometimes it feels good to go out and speak your mind, even if you don't think it's going to change a thing. And by my rough estimate, maybe 10,000 folks did just that.
Consider that you may have an allergy to monosodium glutamate (MSG). As I'm sure you know, it's a common food additive and most definitely in the sausage you ate. For me it causes headaches, but a constructing feeling in the throat is also a common side effect.
Posted by: Mike R. at March 20, 2004 11:53 PMI don't think that's an atomic bomb in the crazy religious dude's sign. It's still whacko, just not quite so whacko as if it were an atomic bomb.
Posted by: Churk at March 22, 2004 07:53 AMthe jesus freak's sign reminded me of one of my favorites ever, held by a christer at a fred phelps (godhatesfags.com) demo at the first day of school at harvey milk high school here in nyc.
it said, in similarly large, friendly letters: FAGS DOOM NATIONS.
what can you say but 'well, i hope so'... this anarchqueer wanted to steal it and carry it myself...
(by the way, tell kittie that daniel says hi...)
Posted by: glitz at March 23, 2004 09:06 AMapparently the same Jesus freak was a counter-protestor at a protest in D.C. last fall..
http://www.deanofcincinnati.com/modules/PNphpBB2/files/bushisjesus2.jpg
Posted by: at March 24, 2004 04:58 AM
