Posted on 03/23/2007 5:34:34 PM PDT by Lady J USA 1981
Student's photo of war protest stirs controversy Posted by The Oregonian March 22, 2007 18:24PM Categories: Breaking News Apparently, "Portland hates America."
At least that's what conservative commentator Michelle Malkin of Los Angeles told the world on her Web site this week. Why?
Well, Malkin -- along with a Google-worthy list of her friends on the blogging right -- were goaded by the photos uploaded to Linfield College student Rachael Palinkas' online Facebook album.
An aspiring journalist, Palinkas snapped them during Sunday's anti-Iraq war rally and march in downtown. In one image, black-masked protesters burn a uniformed effigy of a U.S. soldier as a young girl cuddles up to her father and watches.
It didn't take long for the picture to explode in the blogosphere, with conservatives using it as reason No. 1 to oppose those who oppose the war.
"U.S. soldier burned in effigy," declared the Drudge Report on Tuesday. "What passes for an anti-war protest in Portland," huffed WhackyNation. "Brainwashing the next generation of troop-haters," said Shock & Blog.
Palinkas just wants them to stop.
"What they're doing is wrong," she said. "They're twisting my pictures and misrepresenting what happened on that day."
In the past few days, the 19-year-old mass communication major said she has learned the power of a picture. And the power of people with an agenda on the Internet.
Palinkas said she posted 240 photos from the peace rally and march that reportedly drew 15,000 people to her Facebook site. Almost all of them showed "people laughing, talking, dancing, marching" at what she called a "family-friendly" event.
"No one is linking to those photos," Palinkas said.
Palinkas attended the march with a group of college friends. Shortly before the march, she noticed that a group of about 30 black-clad people had broken away from the crowd in the South Park Blocks. Shocked to see them burning a uniformed effigy of a U.S. soldier, she started snapping photos. She also took pictures of them lighting an upside down flag afire.
Although she is opposed to the war, "I thought what they were doing was wrong," Palinkas said. "I had never seen anything like it. That's why I took the photos."
She said she has recieverd more than 150 emails about the photos. After the Drudge Report posted a link, she got hate mail from people who thought she was part of the radical group. Among other things, they said, she "should be tried for treason" and should be deported. In response, she told visitors to her Facebook page, "I don't support this."
Late today, Palinkas removed her Facebook album from public viewing so that people without permission could not use the photos.
Conservative Portland radio host Lars Larson posted three of the images on his Web site. "If you think recent anti-war protests are harmless free speech .¤.¤. let me give you a few more images to consider," he posted.
Larson, who supports military action in Iraq, gave no apologies.
He said he used the images because he felt they were the most newsworthy part of the protest. "I'm showing that some members of this community advocate killing soldiers," Larson said.
After spending months planning what was for the most part a civil demonstration, organizers say they are aghast.
Kelly Campbell of American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization, was frustrated. "We had a massive, peaceful demonstration against the killing and destruction going on every day in Iraq, a positive experience for thousands of people from different walks of life."
-- Joseph Rose: 503-221-8029; josephrose@news.oregonian.com
Just another foreign country that hates America.
They forgot to mention the pictures of this woman defacing a statue of Lincoln.
I'm always curious about these people's "thinking." Do they really think the "killing and destruction" will stop if we leave?
I live 14 miles south of Portland
My Appologies to the world for Kalifornia North....Republicans are spat upon in this state.
Sigh
Portland is where the hippies settled after the sixties.
I missed that pic, got a link? TIA
And Eugene.
Brings up a sign we had at GoE:
"You never marched against terrorism."
Damn. And I was going to go to Portland on vacation for their micro-brews
Whiners.
The Neo-Confederates here on FR would be saying, "You Go, Girl."
Damn shame these "foreign" countries are right here in OUR OWN.
"I missed that pic, got a link? TIA"
This is the second thread about the pictures, but there are no pictures to be seen, so who knows what this is about?
I think that's their point... the destruction of America. We can be silent no more.
I didn't bookmark the link but it was on Free Republic or Drudge where I saw the picture of the Lincoln statute defaced.
They forgot to mention this too:
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=24896_A_New_Low_for_the_Anti-War_Movement&only
This splinter group of protesters showed its support for “peace” by burning a U.S. soldier in effigy. It exhibited its supposedly pacifist nature by knocking a police officer off his bike — an action that brought out the police riot squad.
Perhaps the most disturbing scene of the afternoon, however, involved the man who pulled down his pants in front of women and children and defecated on a burning U.S. flag. This disgusting act actually elicited cheers from some members of the crowd, but we hope that the emotion it produces in the community is one of revulsion.
No, what you did was wrong, you just got caught and exposed as a sellout and a whore.
I have the pics, just don't know how to post them here. Some help? anyone?
Don't change the title from that at the source. Thank you.
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