I'm sorry, but I really must protest

The call went out Monday that there was going to be a pro health care reform demonstration the next day in my fair city. I saw it on my friend Rev. John Shuck's Facebook wall and since Shuck is one of the two ministers of the Christian faith who I have any respect for, the fictional Father Ted is the other, I knew I had to get out on the firing line to do my bit and help with the cause. So Monday evening, after arranging a ride to the demonstration, I went to the craft store and I bought a foam core poster board and a big ass marker, and Tuesday morning I made this sign to brandish at the unsuspecting citizens of east Tennessee:
My friend and partner in protesting, Snad, picked me up Tuesday afternoon and we hit our target area, one of the busiest intersections in town.
The weather was perfect and about 3o some other health care reform supporters showed up and we waved and held up our signs for all the folks to see for about two hours. Besides Snad, Shuck, and myself, there were a bunch of other great folks who stuck their necks out to show the area that there are indeed people who want health care reform and who support everything from Medicare for all to the public option to single payer national health insurance for all. Some of these fine folks got their picture on the website of the local conservative daily paper:
And this gal who works for this organization was there was well:
And these folks were with the local media or the Department of Homeland Security, or maybe both, were there:
Also in attendance was the blogger Southern Female Lawyer, who is not only a lawyer with liberal political leanings, she's also a damn fine cook and singer as well. It turns out Snad knows her and she pointed her out to me. After getting the courage up to go introduce myself to her I began to cross the busy street only to see her and her son walking towards their car. Curse my bad timing! However I did get a chance to shout at her as she sat in traffic, "I'm Dr. Monkey!" I'm pretty sure she flinched and threw a protective arm around her young son, but when she saw how human I looked she waved and said something that I couldn't make out. One day perhaps our paths will cross again and I'll be able to introduce myself properly, and to perhaps beg her to cook something for me.

Now, as far as reaction to our demonstration went, it went surprisingly well despite the fact that God hates protesters. (Fez tip to Tumble Dumble that link.) As I have found during these kinds of protests you get three reactions, those who are positive, those who are negative, and those who would rather chew their own arm off rather than acknowledge you and I'm proud to say that positive reaction beat out negative reaction by a margin of 70 % to 30 %. The number of people who told us we were number one in their hearts and minds by showing us their middle finger during this demonstration was two. The number who scowled at us or gave us the thumbs down was about fifteen. And the number of folks who gave the the thumbs up, honked, waved in support, or shouted nice things to us as they passed was way over one hundred. So not bad at all for a two hour demonstration in this politically conservative area of east Tennessee, which leads me to believe that despite what Fox News would have you believe, rank and file Republican party voters want health care reform.

It felt good to exercise my free speech rights today and to stand with my fellow citizens to show my support for this great cause.

Stick a fork in it, it's almost done

I went back for a second helping of answering the pledge drive phones at my local public radio station, WETS, yesterday evening. Why did I go back you ask? Because it's fun, there was free food, I wanted more free CD's, and I got to hang with my home girl and partner in crime Snad for a few hours.

Also along for the ride was a dude from Bristol, a guy in a leather tam o' shanter, and a cute young gal named Angela who was as smart and nice as she was pretty. The usual assortment of WETS staff were there as well.

The calls came pouring in during the 5 o'clock hour when they had an education challenge. Anyone remotely connected with the profession of education, be you a student, former student, teacher, retired teacher, school system employee, or even if you rolled "old school" style, you got $200 added to your pledge courtesy of a grant given to the station. I took calls from all over during that hour, I got calls from TN, VA, and NC. It was great. We really raked in the bucks during that hour and it made up for the slack times.

I must admit however I was not on my best behavior due to my being in an enclosed area with Snad. She enticed me to wise crack more than I normally would have and she also egged me on by laughing at my stupid one liners and tossing off a few zingers herself as well. At one point during my time there Sand sat down for a live interview with station manager Wayne Winkler. Being the trouble maker I am I passed her a note that said, "Shut the fuck up." She smiled sweetly and she wrote on the back of my note, "Fuck you, you fucking fuck" and she handed it back to me. Ahhh, good times, good times.

This pledge drive is going swimmingly and I can only attribute it to one thing, my participation. People not only want to keep Democracy Now! on the air, they also want to support me in my volunteer endeavors. It's very flattering to be so beloved, as I am sure some of you know. But unlike others I have not let the fact that I have legions of admirers go to my head. I may be beloved and worshipped as a demi god, but I still remain as humble as the day is long in Alaska in the summer time.

I'll be giving these CD's I picked up at the station a listen over the next few days:
Look for my reviews of them coming up in a few days as well.

Seriously, it's an honor for me to get to help my local public radio station out during pledge week. I've been listening to them for years and they've given me so much in terms of entertainment and unbiased news programs that answering phones for six hours over two days is the least I could do to help them keep the programs I love on the air.