Numbers count

What was the level of Saturday’s anti-war protests? And yes I say anti-war vice anti-Iraq. Just who was protesting, and why?

Well, numbers do count. When I read 60 out of Bakersfield California’s population of 300,000 traveled to a bigger city to protest, this tells me legions. More, when I read about many of the characters, including their ages and Hollywood and some very liberal congressional associations, this also tells me legions. Does the term aging hippies ring a bell? When I see and perceive the main stream media coverage of these same people, this also tells me legions. And yes I use the term liberal in a derogatory way.

The times they are a changing, and have changed.

The protest numbers yesterday are a poor representation of what I think is really going on. Yes the war in Iraq was the catalyst, but every other cause got involved also, and diluted the effort. I even saw immigration and homosexual causes mixed in. But our country does have many citizens who were not out there, but think about Iraq in their own way. Many might agree with the Iraq part of the protesters, but all that was diluted by the various other causes and the media coverage.

Numbers do count, and in this it is fair to say that the effort was pitiful. There are better ways to advance one’s agenda. And the old days of protesting being a way to get laid are superseded by the age of the now much older gals…69 year old Jane Fonda reported 34 years in her case. And to include a 12 year old girl’s opinion in a public speaking role was child abuse, pure and simple. Shame on her parents and those who put her on.

There is one demographic number I still cannot find. It is the average age of the protesters. I wish I knew what it was, because that would also tell legions. But then patience is a virtue.

In all the numbers, there are many American voters who do more quietly protest the war in Iraq for all the reasons they harbor. I think these reasons include: 1) Being anti-Bush mostly; 2) Condemning the poor management and strategy to date of the President and his hired minions; 3) Being an anti-war statement; 4) Being an Iraq anti-war statement. Start the slippery slope to leaving soon; 5) Being some other combined intent of all the arm chair generals, secretaries of state, and librarians of congress that abound in our country and congress; 6) Helping promote someone’s Presidential aspirations; 7) Ignoring or denigrating the war on terrorism; 8) Just being an anti-American statement; 9) Advancing some national party agenda.

Whatever the reasons of the above group, their numbers count a lot more than the protesters numbers and causes. And along the way, I can and do vote with my pocket book by boycotting the movies and DVD’s by many of these Hollywood types I protest against. But who I cannot boycott is my fellow citizens who think another way than I do.

What I can do is engage and debate. This is the ideal. And then we can vote. In the end, numbers count.