The dozen or so people who showed up to make a mockery of our Bring Their Buddies Home vigil at the Temecula Duck Pond on Sunday did a good job of confusing anyone passing by - and I guess that was their objective. In contrast to our 80 participants, who simply stood silently for two hours, dressed in black, each wearing the name of one of the troops who had died in Iraq, these folks arrived with signs that didn't make much sense and didn't seem to do much honoring of anyone. If anyone passing by could figure out that we were two separate groups, I'm certain they would have found our vigil far more impressive.
Fortunately there was some media there and they seemed to get the message. While the local Fox News predictably didn't let any mention of me or my campaign slip into their Sunday night TV news report, they did give proportionately more airtime to interviewing the veterans in our vigil over the opposing viewpoint. I'm guessing that they couldn't get anyone "outside the fence" who wasn't an embarrassment. In the Press Enterprise
http://www.pe.com/... I was mentioned and quoted and they said that both groups demonstrated without confrontation or incident. I consider that a big win!
We'd gotten word the night before that several groups were planning to disrupt our event by infiltrating us. It was clear that this wasn't going to be a repeat performance of the positive event we had in Carlsbad in November. In Temecula some people were feeling threatened by the idea that Liberals would honor our troops. If the public saw us as patriotic, then all of that rhetoric about us all being traitors would sound pretty foolish. Maybe that's why they felt compelled to disparage us and our event.
I knew this was going to be an opportunity to teach by example that non-violence is possible. But on their website there were suggestions to bring signs with messages that were directed specifically toward me that had me concerned for my safety. In the words of Congressman Ackerman, I'm a pacifist, but I'm not suicidal. I forwarded the Protest Warrior's website to my liaison at the Temecula Police Department and they sent two very nice officers to stand there the whole time. I'm sure that helped to inspire our confronters not to directly confront.
A group of us arrived at the pond early to go through a training session for peace monitoring. Hal and Gary from the Peace Resource Center gave an excellent class in techniques for keeping the peace that I think should be taught in every school - something to add to the Department of Peace program.
When a group of three people arrived carrying flags and wearing red white and blue, I correctly concluded they were part of the "other point of view." I went up and introduced myself and assured them that we all agree on one thing, that we want to show our troops that we support them. I invited them to use the half of the pond where the Veterans' Memorial was, since they had indicated something about it on their website. "Where are you going to be?" one lady asked.
"We'll go on the opposite side so we don't get in each other's way," I answered. Her response was more of a "Humph!" than an actual word, but I got the message that they didn't like my idea. I wished them well and walked back to where my group was setting up.
About a dozen people protesting our vigil lined up along the road parallel to where our vigil lined the walk around the duck pond, with a picket fence between us that prevented direct physical confrontation, but that didn't stop them from shouting jeers and taunts at us. One guy was dressed in a Saddam mask and striped jail pajamas and kept shouting, "Jeeni, I love you!" Unfortunately his mask and his behavior frightened the young daughter of one of our participants. I presume he was trying to make it seem like Saddam Hussein was happy that we were holding our vigil, although I can't imagine why. But knowing how powerful our thoughts are, and how much more powerful our spoken words are, I'm hoping that he was subconsciously programming his brain so that when election day comes, he will feel a strange compulsion to vote for me!
I'm really proud of everyone who participated in our vigil, they were a positive reflection on my campaign and proof that human beings are capable of remaining peaceful in a most trying situation. This was certainly an opportunity for us to follow in the footsteps of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
As the vigil was winding down, I went down the walkway, thanking each of the people who had participated. One man looked like he was about to cry. "Those guys standing out there should have this experience of wearing the name of someone who had died in the Iraq war," he said. I noticed that the page he wore listed the age of his soldier as 19. For two hours, this soft-spoken man had been contemplating the loss of someone's child just at the threshold of adulthood. Meanwhile, just on the other side of the fence, a man was holding a sign that said, "Liberalism is a Mental Disorder".
I wondered if the man holding that sign knew anyone who had died in Iraq, or anyone who had lost a loved one there. After the vigil, as I was helping to pack up our papers, that man walked by and I engaged him in a short conversation. Using a little humor to break the ice, I asked him if he might consider voting for me. His response surprised me, "I really don't like Issa, but I could never vote for a Democrat - you people are so misguided." Our brief conversation didn't change anyone's mind. I hope that at least he had a chance to see that the liberals participating in our vigil are not suffering from mental disorders.
Someone who had been in the vigil wrote in an email today that he actually felt empathy for our "counterparts" - that he thought perhaps they behaved the way they did for the same reason battered wives stay in an abusive marriage. That might explain their denial, but how do they justify their lack of compassion? I'm really trying to understand, but defiling a vigil isn't something nice people do, no matter what you think of the participants.
One of the more courageous people in our vigil, who has a gift for witty sarcasm, stood out with the people protesting our vigil while he held a sign that read: Killed in Action 2218. He struck up a long conversation with a guy known as Lt. Smash who often shows up to counter local peace events. While I had requested that our participants remain silent and avoid confrontation, their dialog seemed to be going along just fine - which had the people standing around them pretty puzzled.
By 4:00 the sun was going down and the air was getting chilly. A young man from the other side of the fence came up to me and asked if I was Jeeni. When I said yes, he handed me a flyer. He had an odd expression on his face, it almost seemed apologetic. I was surprised to see my photo on the flyer and then realized that it had a series of quotes from past CPR4Democracy blogs I'd written over the past two years. I recognized the first quote, glanced at the other side which had more quotes and a photo of the Carlsbad Bring Their Buddies Home event. Someone had made up a flyer to appear as if it was coming from my campaign and had taken quotes from different things I've written, out of context.
"Is everything here quoted accurately?" I asked the young man who seemed to me to be no more than 15.
"Yes," he replied, I suspect expecting me to be angry.
"Well, if it's accurate, then I guess I can't object to it." I stated, folding the flyer and putting it in my bag without reading any more. The young man left quickly and I thought to myself that they had sent a kid to do their dirty work.
So now I know that we're starting to ruffle some feathers and threaten the status quo. I thought about Dr. King, who knew that his life was being threatened as he stood on that balcony in Memphis. For a second, I thought I heard his words in the evening air, "I have seen the other side of the mountain."
Nobody ever said it was going to be easy.