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Posted on 09/29/2001 6:54:09 PM PDT by basil

Under the clear blue Texas sky today, 17 freepers, as well as about 15-20 other people gathered at the state capitol in Austin TX. We were there to show our support for the USA and President Bush. Nearly everyone had at least one American flag, and most of us were dressed in red, white, and blue.

Now for the "bad" news. There were several hundred of the unwashed masses there--one radio report that I heard on the way home put the number of the crowd at about 500. I would say 300 was more like it--not that it makes any difference.

Our signs said things like God Bless America, United We Stand, Evil Thrives when good people do nothing, some pro Bush signs, and various others I can't think of at the moment. We were, of course, orderly and polite.

After watching the anti-freedom people for a while, in a way, I was glad that they came out, and that the TV cameras were rolling, getting lots of footage of them. What better way to show the public what maroons these guys are? To give you a hint--their parade was led by a woman in a tutu and fairly wings, who danced around on stage. We saw lots of other strange manner of dress--some of it so bad that I came to the conclusion that maybe these people don't own mirrors!

Personally, the worst ordeal for me was to have to listen to the pure tripe and lies coming from their speakers. We tried not to interrupt them, as the first amendment belongs to them, too, but once in a while, we just couldn't help ourselves, when they said some really outrageous things! There was a guy there who gave his speech in Spanish (my, how very inclusive they are!)--but the trouble with that was that one of our freepers, Mene mene terkel upharsin is bilingual, and he interpreted what they were saying. He was furious! and told us that it was all a bunch of lies about Mexico. Hopefully, he'll add a reply and tell us some of it.

The nicest people around today were the police officers, particularly the Capitol Police Force. (We may have made freepers out of some of them, as I was able to sneak a couple of them FR cards before the other side arrived.) Of course they have to maintain neutrality to all sides, but it was hard for some of them not to let us know that they agreed with us. The last thing we did before leaving was to chant: Thank you police!! a few times. They really seemed to appreciate that. Three of them even escorted us back to the gate when we got ready to leave, because the rally for the other side was still going strong.

All in all, I was happy with the way things went. I would of course, loved to have had more people show up--but there were many conflicting events going on in Austin today, not the least of which was the football game between Texas University and Texas Tech University.

Here is a list of freepers in attendance today: JobShopper, DrewsDad, Groundhog, and Mrs Groundhog, basil, the bat lady, gracey, thesarce, blastus and his son, anymouse, mene mene terkel upharsin, his wife and three sons, roxylady, mikla, Tarawa, slopoky, and austinTparty. And last, but not least, we got a real surprise when 2kool2Be4gotten joined us--he's from North Carolina, and has freeped in D.C. several times. He asked that we be sure and say hello to Kristinn, Angelwood, Mr ConfettiMan, and Clinton's a Liar for him.

Thanks to all freepers who helped us with this effort. Keep those Eagles Up, as we will need to be doing this more and more in the future. In fact, we are now discussing having our own rally--not just getting together to be countering something the other side is doing.

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