Real courage
A hat tip to Bridget Whitley, who stood up bravely Saturday in front of a rightwing pro-war rally on the state Capitol steps organized by Clear Channel station WHP 580 in Harrisburg, Pa. She displayed a sign calling for support of our troops by bringing them home, and was set upon by some of the thugs these rallies tend to attract. They ripped up her sign. The whole thing was witnessed by a Patriot-News reporter, who wrote about it in Sunday's paper.
Rallies like this change nobody's mind. They are ultimately built on the lie that the Vietnam antiwar movement was "against" U.S. troops, or that hippies spat on returning veterans. Read Jerry Lembcke's book, The Spitting Image, for the truth on that one. There is no verified case of it ever happening. But myths are powerful. John Kerry's campaign for President in 2004 was thrown off track, probably fatally, by the so-called "Swift Boat veterans," who were consumed by the myth that Kerry was "against" the U.S. troops in Vietnam because he helped expose real atrocities committed by a minority of American soldiers there.
These rallies are really aimed at burnishing Clear Channel's bonafides with the right. By the way, for an entertaining read, go to this site and read Clear Channel's responses to every bad thing anyone has ever accused them of doing. Methinks they doth protest too much.