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Right Wingers to Rally for Family Values & Flags at People's Park March 3
Here's info on the rally and "teach-in" planned by the "Bay Area Patriots Association." Anyone up for an action?
Bay Area Patriots Association
Tel/Fax: (559) 344-2424
Web: http://www.geocities.com/bapasf
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Bay Area Patriots Association, Conservative Activists
Plan Teach-In, Rally in Berkeley
The Bay Area Patriots Association (BAPA)
(http://www.geocities.com/bapasf) announced today an
upcoming rally and teach-in at Berkeley's People's
Park on Sunday, March 3rd at 1:00 PM.
BAPA, a non-profit organization, is dedicated to
promoting patriotism and traditional American values.
BAPA was formed by founder Wayne Pickering in reaction to the censure of the displaying of flags in Berkeley.
Pickering said in a prepared statement, "It is our
collective opinion that this decision is a disgrace to
our nation and culture. We believe it to be our duty
to show support for our nation and for our
commander-in-chief, especially in liberal enclaves
like Berkeley and San Francisco."
BAPA is organizing a series of rallies and teach-ins
at communities throughout the Bay Area. The first is
at Berkeley's People's Park on Sunday, March 3rd at
1pm.
The rally will consist of political speeches, traditional music, question-and-answer sessions with leading conservative thinkers, patriotic poetry, and song. A wide range of conservative media and political personalities have been invited. Family-oriented
entertainers will also be present.
Future rallies are planned for San Francisco's Dolores
Park (near the Castro district), Marin County, and
Santa Cruz.
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Wayne Pickering, President - BAPA
Tel/Fax: (559) 344-2424
Email: bapasf@. yahoo.com
VENUE INFORMATION
People's Park is located in the City of Berkeley, a
few blocks South of the University of California
campus. The Park is bounded on the east by Bowditch
St., on the south by Dwight Way, and on the north by
Haste St. On the west, the park is a short half-block
from Telegraph Avenue.
Tel/Fax: (559) 344-2424
Web: http://www.geocities.com/bapasf
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Bay Area Patriots Association, Conservative Activists
Plan Teach-In, Rally in Berkeley
The Bay Area Patriots Association (BAPA)
(http://www.geocities.com/bapasf) announced today an
upcoming rally and teach-in at Berkeley's People's
Park on Sunday, March 3rd at 1:00 PM.
BAPA, a non-profit organization, is dedicated to
promoting patriotism and traditional American values.
BAPA was formed by founder Wayne Pickering in reaction to the censure of the displaying of flags in Berkeley.
Pickering said in a prepared statement, "It is our
collective opinion that this decision is a disgrace to
our nation and culture. We believe it to be our duty
to show support for our nation and for our
commander-in-chief, especially in liberal enclaves
like Berkeley and San Francisco."
BAPA is organizing a series of rallies and teach-ins
at communities throughout the Bay Area. The first is
at Berkeley's People's Park on Sunday, March 3rd at
1pm.
The rally will consist of political speeches, traditional music, question-and-answer sessions with leading conservative thinkers, patriotic poetry, and song. A wide range of conservative media and political personalities have been invited. Family-oriented
entertainers will also be present.
Future rallies are planned for San Francisco's Dolores
Park (near the Castro district), Marin County, and
Santa Cruz.
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Wayne Pickering, President - BAPA
Tel/Fax: (559) 344-2424
Email: bapasf@. yahoo.com
VENUE INFORMATION
People's Park is located in the City of Berkeley, a
few blocks South of the University of California
campus. The Park is bounded on the east by Bowditch
St., on the south by Dwight Way, and on the north by
Haste St. On the west, the park is a short half-block
from Telegraph Avenue.
For more information:
http://www.geocities.com/bapasf
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clearly this is a reverse freak out the squares type of event that probably one person has planned, and maybe 2-3 people will show up. Seriously - can you imagine any conservative packing up their kids and heading over to people's park in their Ford expedition? It might be vaguely amusing to watch, but they're so unspecified that there wouldn't be much to protest.
In every county of California, including San Francisco and Alameda, two of the few counties that managed to defeat Prop. 22 on the March 2000 ballot, there was sizable support for Proposition 22, the anti-gay marriage initiative, and Proposition 22 easily passed with 61.4% of the vote. The Democrats, like Gray Davis and Al Gore, came out against gay marriage, as well as against Prop 22, the latter just being for votes. Our peace demonstrations remain small as Americans have yet to count the body bags and have yet to connect the dots between social service cutbacks and increases in military spending. The last time we had a pro-abortion march in San Francisco was just before Bill Clinton was elected (and my memory tells me the demonstrations were more than 10 years ago). Those of us who can easily remember when there was no gay liberation movement, no right to abortion and no mass peace movement understand that we must have peaceful, pro-peace, pro-gay rights and pro-abortion pickets of these reactionary rallies to protest these fascists while their rallies are small. That is certainly the lesson of Nazi Germany and it is a lesson we absorbed in our own personal experience right here in the USA.
For the Prop 22 vote, see:
http://www.ss.ca.gov/elections/sov/2000_primary/measures.pdf
The Yes on Prop 22 (anti-gay) vote:
Alameda County: 146,146 or 44.4% Yes
Marin County: 32,022 or 37.2% Yes
San Francisco: 62,371 or 31.9% Yes
Santa Cruz: 31,717 or 40% Yes
Sonoma: 70,572 or 47% Yes
California: 4,618.673 or 61.4% Yes
But, hey-- you're entitled to your radical opinions! I just think they're offensive.
But here's what I think - while it's important to stop reactionary groups when they are small, we all could probably list hundreds of other situations or groups in the bay area that are more worthy of a protest than this person. I mean, where do you start. I think all we could really do is legitimize or bring advertisement to their group. Since I live so close, I might walk by. Right wing and wealthy communities all around the state drive away their mentally ill people and they come to Berkeley and San Francisco. Many wealthy right wingers have zero contact with mentally ill homeless, and are completely shocked when they encounter them - for instance, someone who was considering coming to Cal where I work decided not to come because we took her to lunch on Telegraph and she saw a couple homeless kids. I bet those people show up at the park and get so scared by some folks near the free bin that they run for their SUVs.
We are living in an era when the Democrats and Republicans together are actively promoting fascist laws in Congress to silence dissent and promote war. We have a president, illegally "elected," who is openly anti-abortion and is now trying to get the fetus declared a person for purposes of health insurance, thus effectively repealing Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision of 1973 that made legal our right to abortion. There is no gay liberation agenda being promoted by the federal government.
It is imperative that these fascist rallies be taken seriously and peacefully. We have history with us, and our collective, creative intelligence to make our position clear: We are for peace, gay rights and abortion.
The logic was simple, straightforward, and boring: The flags in question were 'parade' flags, pretty damn big, and they look dandy when a fire truck is moving down University Ave. at four miles an hour in a parade. Removal was requested because of questions about vehicle safety; i.e., can the driver of the fire engine operate the vehicle safely with a flag that size partially obstructing views to the rear)? It was decided to not find out the hard way, and have fire engines display smaller flags.
Told ya it was boring.
Mean Dean
PS#1: My favorite quote regarding stars 'n' bars on cars: "If you really were a patriot, you'd already own a fucking flag."
PS#2: Does it really surprise anyone that FOX news was the one to, um 'contrive' this news item? Murdoch, you schmuck, you're the Cal Worthington of media.
I'll try to drop by.
But... their flyer says they're having a 'clown for the kids', which means they're probably going to have food and a picnic etc. You know what that means - all the homeless people don't give a damn about their message but they're going to ask for the food because they're hungry. So a situation will arise where these dorks are harrassing the homeless ---which will be very christian of them of course. "What would jesus do?" and all. They'll end up making themselves look bad or stupid w/o much effort on our part.
What were the people passing out flyers doing or saying?
Still, here is a list of more worthy things to protest this next weekend:
1. Chevron. Since our last protest during the WTO meeting in November, there have been about 3 incidents where the oil refineries in contra costa county have had accidents and released mass quantities of sulfur trioxide or other chemicals in the air over the poor communities surrounding their plants. The life expectancy near the plants is up to a decade or more shorter, and very high percentages of kids have asthma. So basically they're killing people. not to mention the broader political connections between oil refining here and our screwed up foreign policy.
2. due to the budget shortfall - which is partially affected by the energy crisis last year which was partially caused by ENRON manipulating the market, the state has to start cutting things. K-12 in Berkeley is having to cut all sorts of teachers and programs, and so do the community colleges. Gov Davis has been emphasizing leaving the UCs alone because he knows where his butter is coming from, but I doubt it will stay for long. But you know what's not getting cut at all: the prison budget. The reasonf or this is that the CCPOA California Correctional Peace Officers ASsociation is the most powerful lobbying group in the state and they are incredibly vindictive against anyone who doesn't do as they say - so more money goes to them even though crime was leveling off at the end of the Clinton administration resulting in fewer prisoners.
3. our screwed up economic system. We are in a recession, and while you keep hearing about out of work technology workers, the people really eating it are the bottom of the rung minimum wage workers who are losing their jobs right now. I've been noticing an increase in street crime lately which probably results from that. the 5 year lifetime state assistance limit is going to kick in for a lot of people this year and they're going to be homeless, and they're also probably going to be homeless on my block here in Berkeley rather than showing up at the walnut creek homes of these Patriotism association idiots. I could go out with a camera and show you dozens of homeless and crazy people within a block of where I live.
If it weren't for God loving patriotic organizations like BAPA, our nation would soon fall prey to the type of vice that we so commonly see parading around in the streets of San Francisco.
I have children, and by God, I want to be sure that they grow up *right*- I want them to understand how important it is to be a Patriot. I want to teach them how important Family Values are, and how important it is to be able to bear arms to defend this great nation against hostile terrorists. But most importantly, I want them to know that they have the right to display the American flag!
Without great Patriots like Wayne Pickering to help us defend against this invasion of immorality, our nation would soon fall into the hands of bleeding heart liberals and find itself in the immoral grasp of homosexuality.
By God, you can count me and several others in to stand PROUD next to Mr. Pickering on Sunday, March 3 when BAPA rallies at the People's Park in Berkeley!!
GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!