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Edited on Sat Jan-19-08 04:50 PM by wintersoulja
When the small group of Fresno area Free Republic friends and owners come out to counterprotest Peace Rallies and at times the regular appearance of peace activists in one location of Fresno, there almost always ensues some sort of lunacy, and Im going to plumb my faint memories and tell some of the stories and some of the special occasion events that I hope I'll never forget, that demonstrate the core beliefs and actions of the home front Freep team over the last several years. It probably is important just to put into perspective the mental state and social behavior of its founder and local activists.
Its sort of like the Bill Hicks joke about the Elite Republican Guard. The Republicans made this shit up about there being any guard. Much the same with the famous hate group, Fresno's Free Republic.
Imagine, if you must, a major commercial intersection, the busiest in Fresno it was said, 6 lanes wide, 4 equivalent corner sidewalk locations, and two parking lots on the SW and SE corners. In 1990 in anticipation of the Persian Gulf War, people began gathering on the SE corner sidewalks to protest the military options escalation and the bombings to come. In those days there was INTENSE opposition to the peace advocates, despite the fact that crowds in those days were very healthy and would range from dozens to hundreds, every night. Bus and car loads of people would come by jeering, traffic was almost totally hateful, these were difficult protests. Churches from 45 miles away would bring busloads of CHILDREN to counterprotest and witness the incredible tension and abuse, learning to participate that way thanks to their church.
Fast forward to post 9-11-01 Afghanistan and Iraq invasions.
Ten years later the corner is back in use and predictably a group formed on the other side counterprotesting the peace advocates. This was the Free Republic, itself, and the guy in the wheelchair was Jim Robinon, who showed fairly regularly if not always, and along with their friends would often spend a lot of their time simply hollering at us, cute names Ive long since forgotten, and one I never will. One bright night a few years back there was a healthy turnout on both sides, and public sentiment was more equally divided still. Some whackjob was on a megaphone for an hour. All he did was yell "Jew Haters" over and over again. Close enough to torture, but it was too dark for me to make out who the guy was that was doing it. "Jew Haters" for an hour. I really wanted to know who that guy was that was shouting that horrible slogan. Another gag that took place commonly back then is they would send younger people across the intersection, the crosswalks keeping the rhythm of events as people came and went through the protest. As these kids would mingle and walk through, they would pick up signs that were brought by peace advocates, run into the intersection or out into the street and tear them up laughing and running off. The freepers could be counted on to have dozens of people on their corner on good nights, but they did that by bringing children. Families rather than sunday school kids, mostly.
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