It was a great gathering - some said it was more like a Roman agora or New England town hall meeting than a protest. We met in front of the Danish Embassy, held up our signs and chatted for a while. After a while the police ladies arrived and told us to move along to Dag Hammarskjold plaza, which is the traditional place where protests are held. Since most of the attendees hadn't been to a protest for years (if ever) they didn't know the rules.
Michael Weiss of Snarksmith organized the rally. Judith Weiss and Libertas helped publicize it. About a hundred people showed up, which is pretty good considering that it was wicked cold. In Dag Hammarskjold plaza, most gathered into a circle and spoke their minds. There were no featured speakers, and given the impromptu planning, megaphones weren't allowed. As a result, it was equality in action, one of the most democratic rallies I've ever been to.
Passing truck drivers honked their horns and waved. We waved back.
Joggers read the signs aloud as they ran by, a few people wandering into the meeting and asked what was going on. As far as I know, no one criticized the cartoons or free speech.
The people who would criticize our rally, the supporters of Sharia had said their piece..
..in the same plaza a few weeks ago.
I spent last night getting two posters printed up.
Judith is holding hers, which was created by both Dr. Sanity and Jeremy Brown - [photo thanks to Resplendent Mango]
A friend holds the other, which featured Van Gogh's Cafe Terrace on the Place du Forum, subtitled "the Freedom to Create" contrasted with a photo of a Taliban kid proudly displaying a bouquet of recently severed hands, representing "Islamic law" - [photo thanks to Resplendent Mango]
My husband didn't think the severed hands sign was quickly 'gettable', so I drew up another one, featuring a Jessica-rabbit style Tex Avery babe, with and without burkha.
It read "No Burhkas for Free Cartoons". He agreed that this was more gettable. [photo of me and Lisa Ramaci-Vincent thanks to Resplendent Mango]
The award for the most creative sign ever has to go to Drew W., who stuck a DAK ham at the end of a metal stick. He searched for hours to find that ham - maybe because the other DAK hams had sold out? - [photo thanks to Resplendent Mango]
Best creative concept: free Danish Cheese.
The most revealing quote had to be: A writer/editor: "I work for a pretty left-wing shop, and they wouldn't like to see me appearing at a free speech rally."
Judith has more here, including a photo of Lisa Ramaci-Vincent as she spoke about her husband, journalist Steven Vincent, who was murdered in Basra. At the beginning of the rally, she spoke, saying "I came to warn you first-hand of the dangers of Islamic extremism" She reminded us of what she'd lost.
Her short speech reminded me of Rudy Giuliani's, given about a month after 9/11:
Let those who say that we must understand the reasons for terrorism, come with me to the thousands of funerals we're having in New York City--thousands--and explain those insane maniacal reasons to the children who will grow up without fathers and mothers and to the parents who have had their children ripped from them for no reason at all.Do you know any reason why we should tolerate more Sharia, terrorism and intolerance? I don't either.
[More at Instapundit, Kesher Talk, Invisible Hand, Atlas Shrugs, GOP and the City, Blogmeister, Resplendent Mango.
Congrats on the rally!
Hope it'll be seen at many more rallies..
My cold cut sign featured a package of turkey breast on the flip side from the ham. I'm not sure how many hours I spent looking for those DAK products, but few New York groceries carry them, it seems. I always remember seeing DAK products in the supermarkets of my youth, but New York's Key Food, Met Food and Gristede's had none. I finally found them at Shop Rite. And even though they'd been taped to a metal stick for a couple hours and waved about at the rally, the ham was just fine when I ate it over the weekend. I still haven't gotten into the sliced turkey breast yet, but I assume it's no more the worse for wear than the ham was.
In fact, it was one of the nicer rallies I've been to, maybe because it wasn't so scripted. They're going to be having more of them around the country. I hope a trend is starting..
a woman, or the feminine in men and women, seeks to share deep awareness of the world
in a sacralized communion. the presence of soft candle light, wild flowers, and the
rituals of dressing for the occasion are simply metaphors acknowledged and “lived out”
in honor of the moment. in honor of life. in honor of shared awareness of the infinite
in a moment.
In modern times, people have sought ways to cultivate, buy, wear, or just be around
flowers and blooming plants, partly because of their agreeable smell. Around the world,
people use flowers for a wide range of events and functions that, cumulatively, encompass
one's lifetime
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The period during which a developing fetus is carried within the uterus. In humans, pregnancy
averages 266 days (38 weeks) from conception to childbirth. Traditionally, pregnancy duration
is counted from the woman's last menstrual period, which adds roughly 2 weeks to gestational
age. This is how physicians arrive at a pregnancy length of 40 weeks (280 days).
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the most popular of a class of games called vying games, in which players with
fully or partially concealed cards make wagers into a central pot, which is awarded
to the player or players with the best combination of cards or to the player who makes
an uncalled bet. Poker can also refer to video poker, a single-player game seen in
casinos much like a slot machine, or to other games that use poker hand rankings.