Saturday, January 26, 2008

The Big CRW Rally

The things I do for you.

I was way off in dreamland, enjoying myself, when my wife's voice came out of the distance: "Honey, wasn't there something you wanted to do this morning?"

I opened my eyes, saw the clock ... there was something. The guys are coming to work on the floor ... it wasn't that. Ah, the Citizens for a Responsible Whatever are having their rally downtown. Eight o'clock on a Saturday morning, brilliant idea. The pretense is that they're going to present their stupid petition to Ike Leggett to get him to sign it. Listen, I've met Ike, he seems like a regular guy, he's not going to work at eight o'clock on a Saturday morning. This is pretty much designed to fail.

Somewhere in the back of my brain a voice told me that I'm the blogger for Teach the Facts, and I have to get some pictures of this.

I hop out of bed, throw on some clothes. She tells me to turn on the coffee-maker -- of course I forgot by the time I got downstairs.

Grabbed my camera, out to the car. Driving down the street, I got stuck behind somebody going slow, which was probably good because the city had one of those speed-camera-vans set up about a block from the house. Excited as I was to go to the CRW's big rally, I may have been going a legal speed as I passed the van.

Downtown, I couldn't remember where the rally was going to be. I figured I'd just look for the crowds, the Channel 7 van, throngs of reporters in their fedoras, press passes sticking out of their hatbands. Then I remembered they wanted Ike's signature, it would be at the Executive building.

Amazingly, I found a parking place downtown at that hour, even with the rally going on. I locked my car - you know how the crowds can be in downtown Rockville, especially on a Saturday morning -- and went looking for the rally.

Do you remember that zen thing, "What is the sound of one voice chanting?"

As I walked toward 355, I could hear a voice coming out of a PA system. It was a man saying something like, "Hey ho, we know, this gender bill has got to go." Maybe the PA was too loud and drowned out the roar of the crowd, I don't know, but that was the only voice I could hear.

I found the rally.

Listen, I was once in a band with a singer who would tell people he had a "multi-dollar light-show." This was like that. Underwhelming.

I didn't want to get close enough to actually count them, but finger-pointing from a distance it appeared there may have been a dozen people there. They looked cold, and different ones kept waving at me as I took their picture. They seemed like nice enough folks, I wanted to bring them some coffee, but you know how it is, you hate to encourage them.

Here's the deal, in case you haven't been following. Montgomery County has passed a new bill that added some words to the existing nondiscrimination law. When it goes into effect, you won't be able to discriminate against somebody because of their gender identity. Somebody's different from what you expect for a guy or a girl, whatever, you have to treat them like actual human beings. They come into your restaurant and behave themselves, you have to serve them, stuff like that. Let me do a little bit of math here ... 0.0012 percent of the county's population turned out to oppose this new law, more than one hundred-thousandth of the people.

These people used to be offended when I would refer to them as "nuts." Now it doesn't bother them. Everybody knows. They're against this new law, and I don't think they even know why any more. They're against it because the libruls are for it, maybe. They're against it out of force of habit. They don't understand why somebody would question their own gender, and they don't want to know, they're against it. And so here they were, double-digits of them, out in the freezing cold listening to a guy with a PA chant stupid slogans, waving to the opposition. There is absolutely no point to it, no momentum. Seeing them this morning I can't even resent them, I can't say they are hateful -- they are such losers that you can't really attribute such a strong emotion to them. They're just ignorant and stupid and sad.

I drove home a different way so I wouldn't pass the traffic camera. Somebody had turned the coffee-maker on.

11 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Elinor Walker says: You rock, Jim. Thanks for your reporting. Hope you got a nice warm cuppa joe upon your return.
Shame on any news outlet that reports on that "rally" without noting the lack of upport/audience.

January 26, 2008 10:46 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks for this early morning scoop -- you deserve a nap!

0.0012 percent of the county's population turned out to oppose this new law, more than one hundred-thousandth of the people

Wow, the CRW is really making some headway now! Twelve whole people want Ike to change his mind on an antidiscrimination bill he recently signed into law.

CRW = a radical fringe group.

January 26, 2008 11:36 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I actually drove past there myself this morning just to check things out. I was with a friend, we just chuckled and kept driving and went out for breakfast. What is really sad, though, is that these people keep trying to publicly show how discriminatory and hateful they are. I hope they don't plan on changes jobs in the future because a lot of bosses who hire new people now do "Google Checks"... and their names will come up related to these hate-based groups. Any smart employer would not even shred an ounce of thought to hiring one of these people. Sad, sad, sad.

Thanks for the post, Jim.

January 26, 2008 12:41 PM  
Blogger Tish said...

Jim, thank you so much for checking this out. After "monitoring" the big rally at the Germantown Swim Center I didn't expect this one to be a blockbuster, but it's good to have a count and some pictures.

January 26, 2008 1:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I wonder what CRW(eirdos) think of this????

www.nbc4.com

IRASBURG, Vt. -- Parents in Irasburg, Vt., said a teacher crossed the line between church and state when he gave out a handout entitled, "Why Jesus is Better than Santa Claus."

Parents also said that the handout is reflective of a pattern of religious-themed material being given by Irasburg Village School language arts teacher Wally Rogers.

Mel Downs, a father of a seventh-grader at the school, said Rogers has the Ten Commandments on a classroom wall and religious-themed books on the shelves. Downs said he contacted the American Civil Liberties Union, which sent a letter to the school's superintendent.

Downs said he doesn't want other people teaching his kids religious beliefs contrary to his own.

The school's principal, Paul Simmons, said the Ten Commandments poster and questionable books were removed from the classroom. He also said he's observed Roger's class several times and never heard him speak about religious material.

The school board is currently investigating religious links on Roger's Web page on the school Web site. They also issued a reminder to all teachers that religious beliefs should not be shared in the classroom.

On Friday, several parents said they will keep their kids at home until the matter is resolved.

January 26, 2008 1:17 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Where was Ike Leggett???????????

LOL LOL LOL LOL

Ted

January 26, 2008 2:42 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think he (Ike) decided to be a normal person and take Saturday off :-).


Hopefully the CRW(eirdos) will decide to become normal again get some good therapy.

January 26, 2008 2:53 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

CRW(imps)Rally was a big ole bust.

January 26, 2008 4:47 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

What's so sad is TTF's obssession with this small group of people.

January 27, 2008 10:02 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

What's so sad is "this small group of people" who support CRW are so misquided by hate that they are willing to get up early on a Saturday morning to work toward re-legalizing discrimination against some of their neighbors instead of some worthy goal like helping out at their local public school.

MCPS Mom #1

January 28, 2008 7:04 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Andrea-not anon
Even small groups of evil/evil minded people have done harm. The Recall/Shower people have attracted larger well-funded groups of bigots to support them. Our small group started and attracted others to fight them. "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." (Edmund Burke). This is what they and n.m. Anon hope for- that good people will do nothing so that hatefulness and bigotry can take a foothold. You need to stop these things when they are small- just like when you see one little roach- you know the bigger ones are next.

Speaking of obsession- N.M. anon can't get enough of us.

January 28, 2008 9:07 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home