More tales from Friday's town hall protests

by: Jamee Greer

Mon Aug 17, 2009 at 15:28:36 PM MST

It was obvious that one of their strategies was to distract the bullhorn holder by asking random questions and saying hateful things into our ears... or just plain out screaming "FREEEEEEDDDDOOOOOMMMMMM!!!!" But my favorite distraction technique was when the lady who eventually wound up on a horse, started following me around and shouting "Hey hey, ho ho! Your outfit has got to go! Your outfit is UGLY!!!" Couldn't think of anything better than to dis on me for my outfit.

Another gem was being asked no less than 5 times what "status quo" meant.

A couple of the scarier moments involved being surrounded by the tea-baggers, three large men flanking me on all sides, and looking around unable to find anyone on our side to pull me out from in between them. I was terrified and not sure what the men were going to do to me once they circled me completely. All of a sudden, a few of our people started shoving their signs in between me and the men, and pulling me into a "safety circle" while I continued to chant on the bullhorn. For a split second, I thought I was going to have to switch from chanting tfor healthcare to screaming for help, but my brothers and sisters out on the ground took it upon themselves to watch out for my safety. I saw moments like that happen over and over again, as it was clearly one of their strategies to target and intimidate the younger women who were leading the group.

And by far the best moment of the day was when the storm clouds really broke for the first time, and huge fat raindrops started falling down all over the ralliers and protestors. The tea-baggers quickly ran for cover, and for this amazing moment in time, we were the dominant force on the ground, dancing along to the beats in our our chants in the rain, holding up our signs as cover from the brief storm. We all had shit-eating grins on our faces and didn't care that we were soaking through.