From the Trenches

Big Brother actually took the week off from work to fight the good fight in NYC this week. He sent me this yesterday:

Very weary from marching out in the heat and humidity, so pardon the typos and probable incoherence.

First things yesterday, had church, as I'm a soloist in a fairly liberal Lutheran church off Times Square. Had two GOP delegates from W. Va visiting. Pastor's sermon was on moral etiquette (inviting the homeless and poor to your banquets, as they cannot repay you), so he let everybody know that we had delegates visiting and that coupled with the soloist being there with his protest placard at the ready to leave early for the protest would be an opportunity to practice some etiquette. The sign of peace at offertory was a model of Christian love and acceptance. I hope.

The big protest march was very satisfying. Lots of people - "freaks" one radio commentator called us (probably some Clear Channel outlet). But half a million of us couldn't all be freaks. Only incident I saw was a counter demonstrator attacking a protestor on 34th St, then diving into Macy's with protestors and police in hot pursuit. That must've livened things up at the cosmetic counters! My "LIAR" signs were a big hit. The three of us carrying them - friend Matthew, Andrea from church, and I - had a lot of media fotogs shooting us. Haven't seen us in print or on line yet though.

Took a break afterwards, recuped on pepperoni pizza and beer, then headed up to Times Square for the Broadway protest. Missed the Minnesota delegation going into Phantom, but got a good interview in with some outlet from Maryland. A lot of arrests around Times Square though as the protestors were blocking a coupla the big hotels' driveways.

Noon today, Monday, arrived in Union Square just as the "Still We Rise" protest march set off. Was officially there with PantsOnFire.com/truemajority.org, passing out Pants on Fire matchbooks to the media and the protestors. Had a good interview with the Jersey Journal and a vid interview with some other guy. Ran out of matchbooks, so had a quieter time of it until I came across a guy preaching Jesus Christ through his megaphone. Kind of lost it on him, shouting him down that he had no business equating support for Bush with faith in Jesus Christ. Lost count of the folks with press creds asking for the spelling of my name and gave two or three (four? five?) vid interviews, some more official than others.

Things're overall pretty peaceful. The police have been very well behaved. In fact, I keep saying that something's definitely being run wrong in this country, if the cops are on the side of the protestors. Even went by some firemen in Brooklyn today who voiced their support. Firemen!

Big Brother