Every Friday evening in Bandon at the intersection of Hwy 101 and 42S dozens of citizens exercise their 1st Amendment rights. For over two years I have participated, first with Women In Black (WIB) which hold a silent vigil on the southeast corner. More recently I have stood with Veterans For Peace (VFP) on the northwest corner where I often hold a sign which reads, “Refuse to fight a war begun by men who refused to fight a war”.
On the southwest corner stand the ‘flag wavers’ as we refer to them. They are the ‘support the troops AND the mission” crowd and the stand as a counter to WIB and VFP. On occasion these Friday rituals have turned confrontational These last two weeks have seen an escalation of the bad feeling between the groups and last Friday, a woman driving a white SUV drove recklessly onto the lawn between a parking lot and the sidewalk. She jumped out of her vehicle and tried to wrestle a flag held by one of our group away from her.
While we regularly endure taunts such as the one here when the atmosphere becomes violent it is time to call in the police. 911 was called and it was twenty minutes before an officer responded even though one Bandon PD vehicle drove past and two Coos County Sheriffs drove past. Members from our side intervened and removed the assailants hands from the flag. The flag wavers ran across the street to protest our members telling her to leave telling our male members they shouldn’t being yelling at a woman. Throughout all this a passenger in the SUV was video taping the entire event.
This matter will be going to court as the Bandon PD have stated that they will be citing the woman seen in this photo from the previous week.
Tempers are flaring as the occupation of Iraq drags on and on and people like these appear to be deliberately trying to incite a riot.
I had a photo of Bush with troops, intently watching movement of troops, only problem? He didn’t know he had to remove the lens covers. Oh, well, maybe next time.
Get it off your chest…
Any thinking adult want to follow this idiot into battle? Jeez. Isn’t smart enough to know how to use binoculars, yeah, a real genius. Takes one to know one I guess.
To: themguys
You claim that you come from a long line of patriots. I would bet that your ancestors would be totally ashamed of your current stand.
I would also bet you any amount of money that for every veteran you can come up with who served his country in combat and is now protesting, I can come up with ten who did the same thing and are now supportive of our efforts to fight terrorism, in Iraq, in Afghanistan, wherever.
Your arguments, your sources for your arguments, ie. John Kerry, your claim of a patriotic ancestry, etc. only brings shame to your arguments and to your ancestors. They have all probably rolled over in their graves because they are ashamed of you.
And why quote me figures on the dollar, oil, etc. when these things are not important to you? Quite frankly, my life has not changed much since we went to war in Iraq. I have not been hurt. I do not know of any starving people around. I can remember similar arguments under former administrations. Hell, even in Bandon, during the Clinton Administration, there was talk about suspending sports at Bandon High School and curtailing some of the bus routes. What makes you think that the world is so much worse off because of George Bush? I listen to the radio and almost every day during the summer there was an advertisement about children under the age of 18 being invited to free lunches in Coos Bay.
You seem to be a very negative person, if you want my opinion. Is there nothing for which you might be willing to fight?
If you will recall, during the Vietnam War much of the same arguments you are now making were made about Vietnam, we were there for the rubber – or oil, for whatever. And then, because of protestations of people like you, we ultimately pulled out and left millions of people at the mercy of the communists.
I think you just hate the US. Why don’t you go live someplace else if you dislike this country so much?
And don’t wave this COMBAT VET thing at me; there are a lot us around who served in combat who are ashamed of people like you. Just stay on your medications and calm down.
Scott and ornat, another article you won’t be allowed to see on Faux news:
Kerry Blasts Boehner Over Troop Deaths “Small Price” Remark
By Greg Sargent – September 13, 2007, 11:49AM
As we reported over at The Horse’s Mouth, GOP House leader John Boehner went on CNN yesterday and said that the blood and treasure being expended in Iraq would be a “small price” to pay in exchange for defeating Al Qaeda and achieving stability in the Middle East.
Now the first Democrat has stepped forward to fault Boehner for the remark: John Kerry. The Massachusetts Senator has posted a piece over at The Huffington Post responding to our story and demanding an apology from Boehner. Kerry writes:
What a stunningly cavalier statement about the lives of the young men and women who serve our country.
Whether you support or oppose the Bush escalation, no American should ever for even a moment think the cost of war is small.
A single life is a large price to pay for any endeavor. Sometimes, in our national interest, we choose to pay that awful price, but we must always make sure that the policy is worthy of it.
Visit our wounded warriors at Walter Reed hospital and ask whether the price they paid was small. Talk to the mothers, fathers, husbands and wives of those who have been killed and ask them to measure the price of war. Young lives stopped short, children who won’t have a mother or father there as they grow up, when they graduate, when they get married — that loss is many things, but it is not small.
Where is Representative Boehner’s apology? And where is an Iraq policy equal to our soldiers’ tremendous sacrifice?
Kerry has opened the door. It’ll be interesting to see if other Dems follow suit.
So, Scott and ornat, how do you respond to this?
This from a COMBAT VET, isn’t it strange how most combat vets aren’t cheer-leading for more war and death?
See Scott and ornat?
There can be peace, the Dove signifies Peace, and…..well, um, uh…………………..
well, anyway, I tried.
This is the direct result of this occupation Faux News will NEVER, EVER tell you Patriots.
How’s this going to be for our troops when they return home?
This disaster of a government has bankrupted this country, and there ain’t no way out, Scott, what you say?
12 buzzes
buzz itOil Prices Surge to all-time-high, Dollar Falls to all-time-low vs. Euro
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/12/business/12cnd-econ.html?_r=1&hp&...
sent by svengali since 17 hours 31 minutes, published about 10 minutes
The dollar fell to an all-time low against the euro today and oil prices surged to a record, suggesting that a weaker American economy will be accompanied by higher prices for energy and other imported goods. The dollar has also been falling against the British pound and the Canadian and Australian dollars. The Japanese yen is up about 4 percent against the dollar for the year.
tags: economy, repubs can’t run government
no commentscategory: Republicans
Keep a sittin thar and wavin them flags, boys, Bush hasn’t squeezed every cent he can, yet. But he will.
Scott, you are obviously well-read. Maybe you fell asleep and didn’t finish the book.
Can you explain why, when Saddam was 17 years old he was a hit man for the CIA, and then was set up by the US government with the weapons and the chemicals and the means to fight Iran, no one noticed he was nuts? As has been said: “Saddam was a bastard, but HE WAS OUR BASTARD”. You are aware of that little bit of history, right? Your tax dollars created Saddam, and Osama, and Noriega,and your tax dollars are used to fight them, and all the while, the Bushies and their cohorts are making huge, huge profits from both ends.
Oh, and you do remember then, that the reason Iran has a problem with US foreign policy, is that the US CIA used Iran as their VERY FIRST TOPPLIING of a Democratically elected President, his name was Mossadeck(please excuse my spelling,) This happened in 1953, and we installed The Shaw of Iran at that time in Iran. How’d that work? Please study ALL of history, not just what is convenient to you.
Oh, I do argue, my father did not spend 2 1/2 years on a minesweeper in the Pacific during WWII, whose ship was the second one to sail into Tokyo Bay to clear the bay so MacArthur could come in for the surrender of the Japanese, to defend the freedom of the Bushies to wage wars for profit.
I come from one hell of a long line of Patriots, sir, and I do fight for the future of this country which they fought and died and bled for.
Just in case you think you hold the patent on Patriotism, my family has volunteered(quite unlike anyone sending our kids to die today)from the War of 1812, Rev. War., Civil War, Spanish American War, WWI, where my Grandfather was a POW in France, my uncle Dale got his intestines blown out on Heartbreak Ridge in Korea, my step-father was a member of the OSS, my brother was married, with a child on the way and volunteered service in VietNam.
I don’t need no lecture from you on Patriotism.
That is so lame, scott… using your argument why didn’t we prevent the hutus from slaughering the tutsis in Rwanda? Why aren’t we in Darfur? The answer is because the natural resources of those countries have already been plundered, Iraq on the other hand…
It is the current government that is disrespecting the troops. The current administration has placed our nation in grave peril and our troops in dire distress.
Fight for the troops by bringing them home where they are needed and wanted and loved.
I do not understand you people who claim we had no good reason to go into Iraq. This is sort of like saying that when someone is beating his wife and kids we have no right to interfere. If you recall, Saddam Hussein had a long history of torturing and doing horrible things to his own people when he was displeased with them. If you had read the reports by Amnesty International and the UN reports of Saddam’s attrocities you might well think differently. To stand by and do nothing when a tyrant such as Saddam continued to do the kinds of things he did is not only cowardly it is highly immoral. The US should never stand by and watch when tyrants like Saddam exist.
And do not lay all of the atrocities that have happened since we went into Iraq at the feet of the US. Most of the killings there have been Arabs killing Arabs.
“The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.” It is an unreasonable stretch to argue that the political purposes constitute “dire distress.” We recommend that people who wish to express their political views find a way to do so that is respectful of the flag. Remember that to some the flag represents the government of the US and its policies; but it also represents the promise as yet unfulfilled of the Declaration, it represents our freedom of speech, our freedom to practice or not practice religion as we choose, it represents American values, it represents one nation in its glory, it represents hope for a better future, and importantly it represents the sacrifices made in all generations to protect our freedoms.
When you fly the flag upside down you are disrespecting all of the past men and women who have paid the ultimate sacrifice for this nation.
You cannot say you support the troops when you choose to disrespect them in this way.
“True patriots” would never send our kids into a war based on lies and profit.
Not one of the men behind this disaster had EVER been in combat. I make a real big distinction between “vets” and “combat vets”. You would do well to do the same. Not one of them is or ever will be a combat vet. These are the men that started this US debacle (that means mistake):
Bush, George and Jeb
Cheney
Rumsfeld
Pearl
Wolfowitz
Limpball
Hannity
Fleischer
Hume
OReilly
What you say boys? Heard enough? I could go on.
And you still want them to send OUR kids to die for them and their profit?
Cheneys income from Halliburton increased 3400% since the war, how’s your financial portfolio doing?
Hey Scott, kinda like this?
“Officer, I only raped her cuz she was wearin such provacative clothes!”
Kinda like that?
Geez, grow up and discuss the issues why don’t you boys?
Oh, and just so you know, the old woman who “enticed” The Man Who Brought Down The Soviet Union” is not a member of VFP. It’s a public sidewalk, remember?
Stay on your side of the street and those BIG, BAD, OLD WOMEN won’t need to TEMPT NOR ENTICE you boys any further.
I think the VFP fly the fly upside down knowing full well it drives true patriots up the wall. It is a very provocative act. Then when the VFP get the desired result they call the police and claim to be victims. It is a nice tactic.
Scott, you are right about the fact that was left out about the flag being flown upside down. That is what started this in the first place. Why wouldn’t they put it in…. because it would show they are not peaceful, they are trying to insight someone to be confrontational.
The right to protest, the right to fly the flag upside down, rightside up or sideways is American Democracy in action. We should all be proud of that. Our First Amendment rights to free expression supersede indignant feelings over a flag.
Scott, don’t think people that fly the flag upside down are not as patriotic as you. Those people know full well what that flag represents. Those people are out there because, just like you they care.
Are you condoning violent behavior because someone flies the flag upside down? It is a distress signal – many of us believe our nation is in distress.
I think you failed to point out that your representative was flying the flag upside down. Are you afraid of the truth?