Today I break from my traditional format. Today I’m going to tell you a simple story in plain words. In words that come from a heart humbled by the amazing people who filled my day and who make this country great.
It was cold this morning, cold and misty. Of course it was; this is March in Western WA. I had been fighting a head cold all week. It felt like I might have finally turned the corner on it, but I was about to put that progress at risk. It didn’t matter. I had to head out into the mist and the cold because there was something out there that I needed to do. So I bundled up, put on my flag patterned sweater, stuffed my pockets with Kleenex and cough drops and headed out the door.
I live in a military town. Actually, its more than your average military town… we have an Army Post, an Air Force Base, an Army Medical Center and just up the road we have two Naval Bases. So my little county is pretty Pro Military and pretty proud of our men and women who serve. Most of us have family in service or are good friends with service members. As a result of that, we don’t take to kindly to folk from the wacky left fringe coming down from Seattle or up from Olympia to harass our boys and girls. That might fly in Seattle or Olympia, but here in Tacoma…. Well, we don’t take kindly to it.
Word had gone out to those who tend to show up for such events, that some college kids, with more mouth and less wisdom than most folks have, were coming up to Tacoma to pull a Berkeley at our recruiting station at the mall. So a group formed to protest the protestors and support the troops and the recruiters. Now mind you, I’m all for free speech and having your say. I just want to be able to have my say, too. And these are the kids who make it a habit of denying other opinions a voice in their town. They’re the kids who set a police car on fire last month after a concert on campus and called if “free speech”. So it mattered that someone was there to just keep the balance. And I was delighted when I got there, about an hour early, to see the place already filled with flags and banners of support for the troops.
It often happens at these events that the people coming down from Seattle or up from Olympia don’t understand that they are moving out of their echo chamber when they come here. They don't seem to recognize that they will be confronting people with opposing views for a change. This crowd, however, this crowd, I think, knew exactly what they were doing. There are recruiting centers in Olympia. The only reason to come to the center in Tacoma is to be in the faces of the soldiers themselves. The soldiers and their families were the specific target of this rally, I suspect. Anyway, it often happens in Tacoma that when the protestors, the “darksiders” as I like to call them, show up for their event they are outnumbered many times over. They often come, wander around a while looking confused by the presence of counter protestors, get back on their buses and go home. Sometimes they make a valiant show for an hour or so, then give up because no on can see them through the ranks of the supporters of our troops. So to see the support crowd forming up this big, this early, I was thrilled. My phlegm clogged lungs expanded and I gave a great sigh of thanks for the fine folk of Pierce Co.
Then, within moments of my arrival it happened. It often does at these things, and every time it happens I feel a thrill of delight and relief… Rolling Thunder!!! A cadre of bikers a block long came pulling up in front of the recruiting center and we all started cheering. Black leather and bright colored embroidery proclaiming such things as “Semper Fi” “Legacy Vets” or place names in Viet Nam where the wearer had served told us that our small band would be loud and safe. The men who had fought our past wars were arriving to be sure that honor was shown to the men and women fighting this one. Soon, the Vets from even earlier wars started arriving. Graying, a little frailer looking, but straight and tall, they were carrying flags for the young men who are shouldering the fight this time. I stood there, with my old flag, the one that used to hang in front of our quarters on Army base after Army base for over 20 years, and I was so proud; of these people, of the men and women they came out to honor and of that old Flag and all its years of service. Cold, damp, windy and perfect. The day was just perfect.
About noon the police units began to form. The darksiders permit went into effect at 12:30. At about 12:45 the police called us all together and gave us the same instructions they always give us. No pushing, no shoving, no marching into the roadways to block traffic. Then they acknowledged that we weren’t the ones that they have that kind of problem with, but they have to give everyone all the same rules. While we were speaking the darksiders showed up. They dashed for the open doorway to the recruiting center, but were deflected by the police and so all 12 of them huddled in front of the window and loudly protested by… the insurance company… down away from the recruiting offices…. Where all the support the troops people were already standing. They must HATE coming here and always getting the short end of the stick. (she said with a smile on her face)
Over the next hour or so the make up of the crowd began to shift. More darksiders showed up, very few more, and our crowd was less and less dominated by black leather as it filled out with more people. People who had driven by earlier and come back to stand for the troops. Men, women, children and even a few sweet faced dogs joined our group. I stayed on the edge of the street away from the darksiders. I had no need to listen to them or to talk to them. I had actually considered acting as a biological weapon and walking around amongst them breathing my cold germs on them… but this cold is too nasty to share even with them. So I stood by the driveway and waved the flag and waved at the people who drove by and honked in support of the troops.
At one point the darksiders started a chant denigrating our soldiers and the young woman standing just down from me started to tear up. The big biker standing between us chatted with her for a moment then gave her a hug. As he got called away for a moment, I stepped closer and asked if she was alright. She told me that her husband is on the ground fighting in Iraq to provide these people the right to call him a murderer and a butcher. Her children were across the way with their grandmother listening to it and she was worried that it might hurt them. So I also gave her a hug, told her that he was right and they are wrong and that democracy is messy. Everyone is free to speak in a democracy, even if they say stupid things…. We laughed and cried, for just a moment, I pulled out one of my Kleenexes and then the big biker came back over so we moved apart again. Her children came over and stood with her then and she started smiling again before they all went home.
As she left I looked across the mall driveway and that’s when it began to happen… well, that’s when I began to realize that it had been happening. I looked across the drive at a small group of young men who had gathered. They looked like soldiers, short hair cuts, clean shaven, but they stayed across the drive in the mall parking lot. Soon another such group formed. Then a third. The biker waved at them and called them to join us, but they just demurred and stayed where they were. I was not sure what was going on, with my cold building behind my ears as the meds wore off and the wind and cold turning my fingers and nose numb it seemed my brain had stopped working properly. Then one young woman walked up to me. She asked how it was going. She was young. I wasn’t sure if she was with us or with them so I just gave a simple answer. I told her that about a dozen or so darksiders had come up to protest and were being drowned out by the rest of us. Then, in a light hearted manner I told her she could go join them if she wanted to do so. She laughed out loud with the biggest grin and confessed that she was delighted by all this and only worried that her car might be vandalized as her beret was sitting on her dashboard. She was a soldier. I assured her that the police in riot gear had formed up in front of the darksiders the minute they appeared on the scene and that they were keeping them fairly well in check. Then she told me that the chain of command had passed word that the soldiers on Post were to avoid the mall today, that it might make trouble if they went there. However, she needed jeans and, frankly, she was not, NOT going to be told to stay away from the mall!! You gotta love women and our priorities! The big, friendly biker vet standing next to me heard this and we both assured her that she and any soldiers were not going to cause trouble for anyone and that we’d be honored to have them beside us.
All those clusters of young men on the other side of the drive suddenly made sense. They had been told what was going to happen and warned to stay away. Being human, and knowing that they were in the land of the left here in WA State, they came to see what was being said about them, but wanted to honor the request not to cause trouble by being at the event. With that understanding that big old biker started calling to the clusters of soldiers forming on the other side to come on across and join us. He told them we WANTED them with us and were proud to have them. I gave our lady soldier a big hug and told her how much we appreciated them and how proud they make us. As she went off to shop, the boys started walking around the group talking to people and saying thank you. Thank you. They were thanking us. These young men with scars on their bodies from the fight for our freedom and in their eyes from the things often said of them here at home and they were thanking us. I stood there on the edge of the crowd, my ears ringing and my fingers numb and I wanted to cry for the sheer humility of those young men. Then the laughing started. The grins got bigger and the smiles got wider. Somehow the chants of the darksiders and the responses from our crowd seemed to fade into a blur in the background. I stood there in that mall parking lot with strangers who had become neighbors and I watched those young warriors and those old warriors shaking hands and slapping backs and laughing and I knew, once again, why it was that I had felt compelled to come out here today.
The darksiders lasted about two hours of their scheduled 5 hour protest, then they packed it in and scuttled back to their cars and bus. They cut and ran. But that’s okay. As the soldiers left, old and young, they all stopped to say thank you to each other and shake hands one more time. It was a good day.
And one of the police officers happened to mention that the same group has taken a permit out to protest next Saturday on Freedom Bridge at the entrance to the Army Medical Center on our Army Base. He knew that because he’d been tasked for duty on that event as well. Guess where I’ll be next Saturday with my old flag and my red white and blue sweater?!!
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