Wednesday - October 20, 2004

Where’s Vilmar?  Mission Revealed.  Mystery Solved.

Yesterday Allan left you with a teaser about my disappearance.  So where was I? 

Get closer boys and girls and I’ll tell you a little story that’ll warm the cockles of your hearts.

A couple of weeks ago I got into a discussion at this bookstore I volunteer in with this woman who was an undecided voter.  I lashed out at her by saying, “hey, at this late juncture if you do not know who to vote for, do us all a favor and stay at home November 2nd.”

A few days before that I had a similar conversation with another woman at another place I volunteer in.  She was a bit taken aback by my candid statement.  I placed before her the theoretical situation of having to hire someone for a job wherein one applicant has experience but made a few mistakes yet the other had nothing to show for the past 30 years but had lots of “plans” the substance of which he would not divulge to you.  I then asked her to choose one.

She chose the former and felt more convinced to vote for Bush.  I still advised her to stay home, though.  A friend asked me why I had not encouraged her to vote for the President.  I explained that if I were able to “swing” her so quickly, what’s to prevent someone from convincing her to “swing” the other way the day before the election?  As far a I am concerned, these people can’t be trusted.  They have no conviction. 

I firmly believe that people who sit on fences end up with fence poles up their ass.

But I digress.  Back to the bookstore lady.  As to which way she’d vote, it seems what she really wanted to know was when Bush was coming to Spring Hill.  I told her, “hey, there must be 70,000 one horse towns in the US. The President can’t come to them all.” I then wanted to know if his appearance was a factor in her decision; as if only by him being here would she vote for him.  I insisted this moron to stay at home, too.  The fickleness of these people makes me conclude they (and I repeat myself here) CAN NOT be trusted. 

By now I am fairly worked up about these morons and end up ranting with local friends and family about the patriotism of people who seem so dead-set on voting for Kerry.  I can’t figure it out and it grates on me.  I then become more vocal and fierce in my desire to not only expose The Poodle for the scumbag he is but to become a rabid and vocal advocate for our President.  Needless to say, there are some around here that are a bit uncomfortable near me at moments like those. 

At times like these I rightly deserve to be called “an angry young man.” My letters to the editor take a decided notch upwards in quantity and volume of rhetoric.  My blog posts are nastier.  I spend more time volunteering to put up signs, to driving people on neighborhood walks, and other little efforts.

Then, lo! and behold! rumors start flying about a possible appearance by the President to a location nearby.  Having experienced a false alarm about Kerry whom we had hoped would come so that we could harass the piss out of his supporters, I was skeptical. 

All this but a few days after these encounters with the jell-o brained. 

Imagine my surprise when I get a phone call asking me if I would like tickets to see President Bush who was coming to Pasco County (south of Hernando.)

“Hey, does a bear shit in the woods?” Of course I wanted tickets!

It was not much more than a day later that AlanS (a reader and commenter to this blog) calls me to work out some times to meet up and go put up some Bush/Cheney signs around the county.  He follows that up with asking me if I’d like some VIP tickets to the President’s visit.  “Damn, I think.  I oughta pinch myself to make sure this is really happening.” I told him “YES!!”

Next day we get together at the Republican HQs and he gives me my ticket.  I am ecstatic!!

A couple of days after that he calls me again and asks if I still had my “VIP” ticket.  I figured, “well, someone else must need these or has done more work than me for the party” and I told him I did and asked if he needed it back.  He said, “yes.”

You ever experience those moments when something happens in less than a second but you are capable of thinking several things through in that time frame?  Well, that is exactly what happened to me.

I no sooner began to start feeling a bit down in the mouth about having to go back to a general admission ticket when he adds, “we’re going to upgrade yours to “stage” passes!”

WOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  YEEEEEHAWWWWW!!!!

Boy howdy, was I psyched!!!!

So yesterday 5 of us got together at Alan’s house and headed out.  We’d heard traffic was already a bugger-bear and were expecting delays and horrid parking problems.  The closer we came the more we heard there was no handicapped parking nearby (as Alan is disabled.) We were then concerned we’d not be able to park remotely closely necessitating us dropping him off with one of us taking the truck, parking it and meeting up later in line.  He’d not brought a wheelchair figuring there’d be parking right close to the entrance. 

Even getting close was not possible as all roads were closed off.  Luckily he and his wife, Lynn, knew the owner of a gas station nearby and we were able to park there and he thought he could make it using his crutches as he normally gets around that way for shorter distances.  But we were faced with a good half mile!!!

So we got in this ENORMOUS line headed for the entrance.  Proving that God exists and mankind is capable of extraordinary feats of generosity, a lady from a church we passed by saw his dilemma (he’d never make it all the way) and loaned us a wheelchair solely on a promise by us to return it afterwards. So off he went with his wife to the head of the line while the rest of us stayed where we were and followed the crowd.  Nearby was a young lady with a message.

Standing on the left is one of our YRs.  We never got the other gal’s name.  Here is a close up of her message:

She never made it in, unfortunately as the rally did not allow anything against Kerry.  Guys with white t-shirts underneath their shirts were made to expose front and back just in case they tried to get “cute” by ripping off the outer shirt.  Hey, I can’t blame the crew doing this.  Had someone brought in an aniti-Kerry banner, shirt, etc. it would be the only things the scumbags in the media would focus on.

45 minutes later we navigated the security lines, went through the metal detectors, gave up all food and water bottles, gave up all pens and pencils, etc. and were allowed in.

By now it is HOT and the sun is merciless.  This IS Florida, right?  I am sweating like a pig.

We locate Alan and his wife and proceed around to the “special” area set aside for us.

There are those that say you make your own luck.  I tend to believe that a Higher Power opens the “luck” door for you. Afterwards you are on your own.  And that Higher Power smiled down upon us, let me tell you.  It turns out we were not ON the stage itself.  That was reserved for people like Congressmen and Senators and other religious and political big-wigs.  “Our” areas were bleachers set up to the right and left of the stage.  We almost went to the left but headed right, instead. I fetched chairs for Alan and Lynn while the rest of us climbed to the top to get good views.

A couple of musical acts warmed things up (not literally as our friend from 93,000,000 miles away was doing a good enough job of that.) The crowd was excited, waving banners, flags, pom-poms, etc. distributed by crews which were also doing a spectacular job of passing out water to the crowd.  The place was jumping.  The electricity was palpable.  People smiling, laughing, helping one another, courteous.  Eyes eagerly seeking to be the first to spot “The Man.” It was incredible.  The press says 7000 people showed up.  Hundreds more were left outside the gate, refused entrance because it was SRO.

Here’s a partial shot of the crowd.

Now, before we go any further, I’ll let you know I am an amateur photographer (with emphasis on amateur.) Being where I was did not give me warm fuzzies.

I was looking for “the shot.”

I was looking for “the chance.”

I was trying to make my own luck now. 

It was then that I fully comprehended how “Luck” smiled down on us.  I realized that had we been on the stage, my chances for good photos would be severely limited.  Had we gone to the bleachers on the “left side” of the stage, the sun would be in our eyes.  However, the “right side” bleachers did not have that problem and were divided from the general admission side by a walkway that police, secret service people, and volunteers were using.  The left side did not have that distinction.

BING!!!!!!!  The light goes off.  BAM!  It hits me.  I gotta move. NOW!!!

I tell my friends I am going back down and I made my way around to the walkway area I could not see from the top and realized this HAD to be the way the President was going to enter.  After all, it ended at a street.  I studied the other side--nothing.  No ropes, no walkways.  So I weaseled my way up next to the rail and waited.  And waited some more.

The President was due to arrive at 12.  Around eleven I saw a helicopter snooping around.  A roar erupted from the crowd.  They knew the time was fast approaching.  Then a bunch of busses show up-----the sleazehounds in the media.

Then the governor, Jeb Bush, shows up!!!!!!!! 

The crowd went nuts!!!!  My weaseling paid off.  I got a couple of photos.  The area was perfectly situated as a type of “runway” so I knew I’d be ready when The Big Guy came through.

Right afterwards, the man we all want to be our President for 4 more years shows up.

The place went CRAZY!!!!!! Bedlam in New Port Richey!!!!.  Chanting of “4 more years!” ERUPTS from the crowd.

I was like a kid in a candy store.  As he approached I stuck my hand out there and shook his!  Damn, was I surprised!  Sounds silly, right?  Getting all excited about shaking hands.  But this is the man who is the LEADER of the free world.  The PRESIDENT of the most powerful country on earth.  What is there NOT to get excited about?  The man does not dawdle. He made his way to the stage and it was a riot of sound and color from everywhere in that park. Awesome!!!

Here’s my “money” shot:

Then I set to shooting a bunch of pictures.  Found this one young lady with another great t-shirt.

I could not stand still.  The President was introduced and listening to him speak I realized, “You know, they’re right.  Hearing him in an environment like this and hearing him in a debate are two different things.” He was POWERFUL. He was ON TARGET. He SKEWEREDLurch several times. 

The President mentioned Kerry’s liberal record in the senate and no sooner did he say, “He (Kerry) can run...”..... than the crowd exploded with “BUT HE CAN’T HIDE!!!!” The President got this very transient look of surprise in his eyes at that response.  I guess he was not expecting the forcefulness of it.  Brother Jeb looked at brother Marvin and got this HUGE smile on HIS face.  The President HAMMERED HOME point after point on the economy, on terrorism, on healthcare, on social security, and foreign policy.

He barely looked down at notes.  Granted most of it was a stump speech but he tailors it for every audience and did so for us.  People hung on to his every word because we realized the perils this country will face if The Poodle gets elected.

And, OBTW, remember the long letter to the editor I posted the other day and sent to my paper?  It made it.  I found out about it when our congressman, who’d seen it, thanked me for having written it.  Sure made me feel good, let me tell ya!

Speaking of the press, here’s a picture of “The Enemy”

After what seemed like 10 minutes (but was actually close to an hour), the President made his departure.  First came brother Marvin (who one woman confused with Jeb (this IS Flori-DUH!), then came Jeb.  I shook his hand.  Damn!  Two in one day!

Then the President comes by one more time.  I could not help myself.  I stuck my arm out again, yelled out “Mr. President” and shook his hand one more time!  Remember when I posted this on the 17th---“If you had 5 seconds?”

It’s beginning to make sense now, eh?  You realize why I asked it.  I was setting you up on Monday for Tuesday.

Well, what I wanted to say was, “Mr. President, as a vet I want to thank you for YOUR service as President and as a Guard member.”

But the President does not dawdle when he works the crowd so all I got out was, “Thank you for your service, Mr. President.” Hey, better than nothing, right?

I stood there like a simpleton with a huge smile on my face as he made his way back to The Beast. This thing HAS to be the lap of luxury inside!!

You know, considering all that’s happened to me in 2004 I should check out my Chinese horoscope.  I have been blessed in 4 major ways so far.  (1) My son got married.  (2) I am now a grandfather.  (3) My father became a Republican.  (4) I shook hands with the President.

I don’t want to seem greedy but I would like one more: FOUR MORE YEARS!!!!

Please help us all accomplish that!!!  VOLUNTEER!! Take time to become part of the process.  Do it because your heart is in it not because you expect something for it. Do it because you feel good doing it.  Not just for yourself but your country.  People will notice.  Your efforts will be rewarded.  Deep thanks again to Alan and everyone else for looking out for me in this event.

I hope all my local friends see this and provide their “color commentary” on their impressions:  Alan, Lynn, Laurie, John, Jessica, Ana, Frank, Blake, Brooke, and Jim.  (if I missed anyone, sorry!!)

Posted by Ranting Right Wing Howler     on 10/20/2004 at 05:07 AM   
Filed Under: • Patriotism •  
• Comments (22) • Trackbacks(1)  Permalink •  

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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
3. Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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