A few days ago, the "West Seattle Neighbors for Peace & Justice" had another
"Function at the Junction". These are two-hour visibility rallies at Alaska Junction, a busy intersection.
This is Seattle, so most passers-by showed support, honking, thumbs-up, etc. A few looked disapproving, and one guy sped around the corner in his truck, shouting "Bush is great, you fools!" (shudder)
Several curious children passing by asked their parents what's it about? Their parents didn't answer (in my hearing) but I simply said, "We're against the war". Now I realize I should've said, "We're for peace and justice." (Framing!)
One incident worth mentioning:
Just as the rally dispersed, a 30-ish guy approached a few of us with a beatific expression, and the tone of the evangelist who is spreading the "Good News": "Let me ask you one question," he began. "Aren't you excited about the elections in Iraq! Just think of it! Elections! In Iraq! Almost a miracle!"
I said, "No I'm not. Because I think they're bogus..." He looked amazed. "The Iraqis I know are very excited!" he said. "Let me just engage you for a few minutes in dialogue, may I? I think people who disagree don't exchange views often enough!" So we did...
Where to start? This guy, let's call him "Sol", had swallowed the Koolaid and then some. We had a 1/2 hour, very civil but almost surrealistic, exchange with him...which I wish I had a tape of...
He repeated the Repub talking points. The costs of war, in lost & damaged lives and destruction and dollars, that are so indefensible to us, were brushed off by him as both highly exaggerated, and regrettable, but acceptable, costs. Saddam's horrid "mass graves," as always, were brought up, as if the graves we add aren't as many, therefore an obvious improvement. This wasn't about money or oil, he asserted. "We" are now accomplishing a wonderful thing for Iraqi people's future.
Shortly we find out this soft-spoken, emotional, wildly gesturing guy is an extreme Zionist...he reads from a paper pulled from his pocket: quoting an extreme Jew-hating screed advocating violence that was aired widely, he says, on some Arab network, saying: "THIS is what we're up against, don't you see?"
I'm not sure how the two subjects are directly related, but apparently the common thread is crushing terrorism.
One of our group, "Stan," is also Jewish. Says his family lost members in the Holocaust, and he's very knowledgeable, so he's able to engage Sol credibly. Stan, however, is very left-wing and tends to side more with the Palestinians. Another of our guys, "Tom," agrees, said he spent time working in Israel and saw with his own eyes that their policy re Palestine is wrong, probably genocidal, and makes no sense--he feels atrocities have been committed on both sides. At this, poor Sol clutches his heart and reels backwards as if struck: "Oh, no! No! How can you say that!"
Sol insists we should check out the website where he gets info. One of those experts quoted was one Tom recognizes as a neo-con from the Heritage foundation.
Anyway, Sol finally leaves to meet friends. I said: "Is it just me, or is that guy not quite all there? But at least he didn't blast us."
Stan says people often used to back away from him for his passionate leftist views, before he learned to moderate his approach, so he's somewhat amused to see someone who way more intense than he is!
He says Sol seems so into a quasi-fantasy world that it's almost cruel to clobber him with contradicting facts, but he wouldn't believe them anyway. That the extremists among both Zionists & Palestinians he's met are so invested in their victimhood identity that it's near-impossible to get them to bend on any point. I say I've noticed that on every I-P forum I've ever seen. I no longer read those forums--they're always two opposite circular arguments that go on forever.
I said it's getting to be that way between pro-Bush & anti-Bush world views. That if someone really were (wrongly, of course) convinced that BushCo is both sincere and right, and buys into their view of the world--then hard-core dissenters like US would surely be seen as over-the-top alarmists and/or dangerous, despicable, or at least completely misguided Amurka-haters. Which they do, as we know.
We went home with that disturbing thought.
I'm thinking at the next rally, we need more postive images and slogans for the public, not only antiwar, which is an important, but a painful theme. I hope to have someone wear a statue of Liberty costume and someone carry a sign with the name of the group, using Lady Liberty on Alki beach as a symbol, since we have such a statue, a mini-version of the one in NY.
By the way, here are the pictures from last week's big Anti-Inaugural Rally if you missed them.