Posted on 03/20/2005 7:14:50 PM PST by Loopy Picklefink
Lots of pictures, and even video! It might take a while to load, so you can read this summary of the event while you wait. :-)
Today, several FReepers, the Central Florida Chapter of Protest Warrior, and many others went out to counter protest an anti-war/anti-troops protest led by the group "Not in Our Name", of who Martin Sheen and Susan Sarandon are a part of. We wanted to show Orlando that we supported the troops and the president. The PW Chapter leader Zachary Bauer had spent a long time organizing the event, and Matchett-PI of FR had been passing on the details to FReepers.
The protest was from 12pm-2pm on the corner of International Drive and Sand Lake Rd. For those who are not familiar with the Orlando area, this is a huge touristy area. Universal is around here, and I-Drive in general is filled with tourist traps. This intersection is huge, right nearby I-4, and gets a lot of traffic. I could not get there until about 1pm because of church, but we ended up being out there until 3. I counted around 30 people at one point on our side, but more people arrived later on, so I would say around 40 people came and went throughout the afternoon. The lefties seemed to have a few more than we did, but pretty close in size. We had a mixture of all ages, from a little girl who was probably 7 or 8, to older retired folk. The other side was mainly young college-aged folk.
Unlike some of our past protests, the liberals were pretty calm and subdued. No union thugs to threaten us or crazy people screaming in our faces. For the most part, the left stayed on one corner of the intersection, and us on the other. A few curious lefties came over to chat throughout the afternoon, but they were fairly nice, and didn't really seem to be trying to pick a fight. FReeper OldGlory chatted for a long time with a young girl about the war, social security, and I'm sure plenty of other stuff!
The car responses were good, and I think we had a lot more positive responses (car honks and screams) than the anti-troops group did. In one of the videos I am posting, you will see this. Protest Warriors made some fantastic and hilarious signs.
Everyone had a great time just hanging out. There were 6 FReepers there, but plenty of soon-to-be FReepers who were instructed to visit FR and look for this post. So hello to you all! We also went out afterwards for a late lunch at Uno's.
If any of you who were there have any specific stories at the event to mention, please post! I was busy mainly going around taking pictures, and didn't really have any "encounters" worth mentioning.
You will see the libs' signs in the pictures, but some might be hard to read, so here is a list of some of the left's sign phrases:
All U.S. Troops Out Now. Empty Bases Worldwide
We Support Our Troops Who Resist
Support our troops-bring them home
Honk to bring the troops home now!
Hail to the Thief
Friends Don't Let Friends Bomb Civilians
How Many Lives Per Gallon?
War is Expensive, Peace is Priceless
We are all in this together
No war for Oil.
U.S Out of Iraq Now (in smaller letters: "Bush says 'bring them on...' We say 'Bring Them Home.'"
Empty Warhead Found in the White House (with a pic of Bush touching his head)
Hey Kids, Got war? (with a pic of a milk carton pointing to a bad pic of Bush)
Who Dies for Bush Lies? From the poverty line to the front line.(with pic of Coffin)
A sign with Bush and Cheney drawn as Beavis and Butthead figures: "Hehe, you said Dick. Hehe, you said Bush."
See the truth about Falluja (with blood dripping from the word Falluja)
A shirt that said "Bush is a douche-bag."
It was kind of hard taking pictures of our side, because everyone was right on the edge of the corner holding their signs out. The liberals were on the far opposite corner, but with my camera's zoom, we were able to get some close-ups of their signs.
Group shot of the liberals:
Group shot of our side: 
To see a 5 megapixel full size version (to read the signs), click here.
Here are the FReepers at the event. I unfortunately forgot the FR names of everybody, so please post and say who you were! Of the names I know, in the back, Old Glory on the left, and Mcmuffin on the right. In front, Matchett-PI on left, me(Loopy PickleFink) center. 
Protest Warrior's left (Zach is the chapter leader), with Freepers on the right. 
OldGlory holding up a PW sign. 
Half of our corner: 
More of our side: 
We had lots of people there! 
Central Florida News 13 came out and did a story. CFN13 is a local 24-hour news station. 
Now for some libs! 
From far away, We thought the guy on the right was a girl! 
Now back to our side....Two Protest Warriors. I love the left sign! 
Some funny signs 
Hehe: 
FReeper Matchett-PI 
Guy on right in blue is a FReeper (please post your FR name!) 
FReepers OldGlory and Matchett-PI enjoying the day. 
A cop who was there to watch for trouble. He said he was on our side. 
Another favorite sign of mine: 
Two FReepers- ??(Post your FR name!) and OldGlory 
Many of us went out to eat afterwards at Uno's. We had good conversation and everyone told lots of stories of past FReeps and protests. 
BRAVO BUMP.........and many thanks to all who participated in this great FREEP!
Hope to be able to be with you all at the next one!
GREAT job!!
BTTT!
Great pics, Loopy!
It was great to FReep again with some of Florida's finest FReepers and meet Loopy and Viking too!
The libs are loathsome. (Duh!)
Florida FReeper FRegards!
(((ping)))
You are welcome any time. Hope you will be able to keep in touch whiole you're over there. You'll be in our thoughts and prayers. There's no way to thank you enough for your service to our country.
The Kehoes are sorry we couldn't make it.
Hope to see you soon Jan.
5.56mm
Missed you! Hope you can make the next one.
I downloaded the Quick Time player, and was able to see the video clips just fine. Thanks, Lauren!
Woo Hoo!!! :)
Missed you!!
I'm so glad you were out there!!
You all look great!!!!
Many Thanks MiLady!
You all did a great job! The pictures of your group are great and quite a contrast to the group across the street.
Send some of that warm Florida sunshine up here!
You guys did a great job!
I do have one observation: the FR and PW signs seem too wordy. They're clever, but ultimately they're trying to express ideas while the libs' signs are all about emotion. Our side needs some good simple two- and three-word slogans.
My suggestions:
VICTORY FOR FREEDOM
SMASH TERRORISM
NEVER FORGET (with a picture of the Trade Center)
Save the longer, clever statements (like "other than..." or "Ted Kennedy's Car..." for leaflets).
Another observation: the signs seemed to be kind of a grab bag of positions. Anti-Green, pro-War, anti-Teddy, anti-ACLU, etc. That's a characteristic of liberal demonstrations I think it would be better not to emulate. This doesn't mean I'm suggesting a bunch of identical signs (that just looks dumb) but maybe event organizers could encourage participants to keep to a common theme.
Great work, guys! Keep it up!
"Defending Cowardly Liberals" sign...
plus the Halliburton/Ted's car were my favorites.
Great job!
bttt
You are TOOOOO much! That is a RIOT!! LOL
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