Last Night in Dallas, TX

The protest came off last night and it was a great turnout for deep in the heart of Texas!  The DMN covered it:   http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/washington/elections2004/stories/110204dnpolbushcro wn.250b6.html.  It's terrific to see so many Democrats showing up in Dallas, Texas for something like this and the Frost people weren't even there!  More below the cut for the curious, but I'm off to work the polls!

A friend's description of the event:

you all should have been there.  It was worth every minute we spent.  Several cars went from flower mound / lewisville. We made our way to mockingbird station and there were already crowds of people lined at the MAJOR intersection of I 75 and Mockingbird. On the corners and at the median... It was a head turner to be sure.  We joined the crowd, with our yard signs, handmade rally signs, and 2 giant signs. Chanting persisted "1 more day" coutnering "4 more years" "no more bush" "kerry, kerry, kerry..." "bush lied, people died" There were certainly 200 people rallying. Cars stopped at red lights were astounded. The honking was exhilerating. It was largely supportive. Isn't hard for many of us to imagine enthusiastic,
supportive honking?!

A few incredible drivers by literally threw trash out the window at us. As Jill mentioned, one lady was so moved that she stopped her car in the U-turn lane and popped through the sun roof to express her disdain for free speech by yelling how she would NEVER hire any of us... Her husband jumped out of the drivers seat to protect her from us... ??? what was that about???
Remarkably, we were able to march to the entrance of the Moody Auditorium. Hundreds of people were standing in line awaiting admission. What a perfect audience for our undying enthusiasm and energy!

"1234, we don't want your daddies war"
"George bush, CIA, how many kids will you kill today?"
"outsource Bush"
Notice the change of chanting phrases. Emotions were running high.

News media was present, but blatantly minimizing our presence.  (liberal media, my a*s)
A handful of Bush supporters stayed vigilantly outside "counter-protesting" us.  After 2 hours of this, the event was apparently over. Security
created a pathway for them to exit the buildign, but interestingly many of them were paraded among us. This was an interesting intensity.
"communists"
"John stole Teresa's money"
"W stands for winner"
Whatever...
As both protestors and attendees began exodus to the parkign lots several blocks away, it was comforting that civility ensued. With each step taking us further from the protest site, the bitterness and hostility lightened. Dozens of Bush supporters shared the same sidewalk with dozens of protestors in peace! An astounding use of good judgement.

Although there were still clusters of protestors chanting on corners etc.  Several bottles of water and cups of coffee later, we beg sleep to
come, hoping to awaken Tuesday morning with voices returned to normal. Lots of important phone calls to make to those swing voters. Only to wear ourselves at yet again Tuesday night in the name of Democratic Victory.

•  WTF!?

  Protests in Dallas?!

  I'm shocked, shocked.  

  BTW, I was born and raised in Richardson and recently moved up to NYC.  They really know how to protest up here.

  Glad to see some of it is going on down there.  It's crazy what public transportation can do for a city (thinking of Mockingbird station...)

  by wah on Tue Nov 02, 2004 at 05:14:01 AM PDT

•  good work

  Way to go ... keep it up in 1933 Berlin.

  by AggieDemocrat on Tue Nov 02, 2004 at 05:22:08 AM PDT

•  Recommended

  Good to see some contrarian action. Took a lot of bravery. I hear its a misdemeanor in TX to be against Bush.

  by Donkeytale on Tue Nov 02, 2004 at 05:58:17 AM PDT

  •  Other crimes

    It is a misdemeanor to have a brain.

    It is a misdemeanor to be a woman.

    It is a felony to be a woman with a brain.
    

    by hestal on Tue Nov 02, 2004 at 06:02:52 AM PDT

    •  Its ok for a woman

      to have a brain in TX as long as she also has big hair and big titties. The faker the better.

      by Donkeytale on Tue Nov 02, 2004 at 06:08:35 AM PDT

•  It was a great time!

  I still have the "FIRE THE LIAR" chant running through my head.

  I arrived around 6:20pm - the event was scheduled to begin around 6:30, according to the word I had received. We headed over to the NW corner of Mockingbird/75, where a handful of of people were already gathered, and got busy.

  As time went on, the crowd grew and grew. Soon, we had covered the original corner, which started on the highway off-ramp and turned right to the next street. Protesters then had to find spots on two other two corners of the intersection.

  At one point, early on, a policeman approached us and asked if anyone was in charge, or if this was an impromptu gathering. If someone was in charge, I sure didn't know who it was. One guy replied that it was impromptu. The policeman faded away.

  Spirits were high. Lots of chanting and laughing. We got lots and lots of horn honking. Mixed in was the frat-boy jeers (it was always the frat boy crowd - we were near SMU, remember) that we sucked, or fuck us all, or Bush rules. We smiled and waved in response, or began chanting "One more day!"

  What was really interesting was the reactions from those in the cars. There were people who absolutely refused to look at us. These were usually older folks. The Bush 50+ years old base. They looked exactly how you envision them. Absolutely close-minded to anything that doesn't fit their mindset. Some of them actually seemed frightened of us.

  Another funny thing was how many people talk on their cell phones! What was great was the ones who rolled down their windows and stuck the cell phones out so the person on the other end could hear out chanting! We also had lots of cameras and video cams stuck out the windows towards us to record the event.

  Unlike the original poster, I didn't have any trash thrown near my area. That's happened at another visibility event, but I didn't see it at this one. Just goes to show you how large our numbers were, and how me on my original corner couldn't see all that was happening on another corner.

  Also, I wouldn't say that the news media minimized our presence like the original poster. While we were on the corners, early on, I saw two different news cameras walking the protest line filming us, and at Moody Coliseum, where we were gathered, they whipped out their cameras and got that on tape. I got home in time to watch the coverage on WFAA (the local ABC affiliate), since Monday Night Football pushed the news back until after 11:00pm, and saw the footage of both the intersection protest and the later gathering at Moody. They estimated our numbers at 300 people. They only need seconds of film for their broadcast, so their film was appropriate, I thought.

  It's safe to assume that more than 60% of the attendess to the Bush event passed our corner.  This was a major intersection.

  At around 9:15pm, after about 3 hours of the street corner protest, we marched to Moody Coliseum at the SMU campus, which was about two-three blocks from our original site. We lined up along the row of the TV crews and began chants, over and over. It was exhilarating!

  I finally had to depart around 10:00pm, and leave the rest to the young crowd. The crowd was filled with all ages, but the young people (I'm 37, so young to me is anyone from 18 to their 20's) were doing a great job, and made up a majority of the group. Way to go, students and young ones! Our country's future in in your hands!

  I left my Bush/Truth arrow sign at the corner of Mockingbird and 75, with protesters who were still out. My back hurt, my feet hurt, but damn I felt good!!!

  by think2004 on Tue Nov 02, 2004 at 06:13:23 AM PDT