I've taking the liberty to highlight the areas of accusation and false innuendos to which I specifically responded to in my rebuttal...

Andy

 

Anacortes American
July 2nd, 2008

PEACEFUL ASSEMBLY?

 

Antiwar corner vigil heats up once again

 

The Anacortes Peace Vigil is a core group of about 30 cit­izens standing for peace from noon to 1 p.m. every Sunday at 12th Street and Commer­cial Avenue.

 

Over the course of the last six years, we have had to turn the other cheek to the peri­odic assaults by the pro-Bush, pro-war folks - their loud bullhorn, angry insults, blar­ing music, foul language and physical assaults, one time coming to our corner and slapping a .75-year-old war veteran and knocking his sign to the ground. We all gave wit­ness statements at the police station but nothing was done.

 

The warmongers have posted a so-called "patriots" Web site slandering us in their "hall of shame" with pictures and false information.

 

I personally was assaulted while crossing their corner holding a sign that said "Peace is Healthy for Children and Other Living Things." They later copied the artwork of this sign and distorted the text with their message of war propaganda and pervert­ed patriotism.  When an Iraq War veteran came to educate us about- Bush's illegal- Stop' Loss" policy that abuses the U.S. military by repeatedly sending soldiers back to Iraq, he was harangued by the war supporters and interrogated by the Anacortes police.

 

Since it is the young peo­ple's future that the Bush administration has destroyed with their illegal, morally cor­rupt, unconstitutional, mur­derous and obscenely costly war, we are thrilled for the Anacortes youth to join us and have a voice. They play their favorite protest songs that are sanctioned by their parents. Some carry upside­-down American flags, a long ­established signal of distress, believing the U.S. is in serious trouble.

 

Two Sundays ago, an Ana­cortes policeman kept circling in his squad car and finally stopped and told the young people, "Turn it down or the next time it's gone." He glared at me when I came to observe the interaction.

 

The war promoters have never been told to turn down their blaring and offensive music. Many of us have wit­nessed the Anacortes police give them the thumbs up and waves while we are ignored. Why is our local police force using a divisive and double standard - and persecut­ing our young people whose future is on the line and who have the most to lose?

 

LYNN E. EMERSON-WALSH Anacortes