----- Original Message -----
From: RED BYRD
To: Linda Rosenbaugh ; Barbara Costello
Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2008 9:04 PM
Subject: Fw: Alaska anti-Palin rally
Biggest Rally in AK history... anti-Palin
[The] Alaska Women Reject
Palin rally was to be held outside on the lawn in front of
the Loussac Library in midtown Anchorage. Home made
signs were encouraged, and the idea was to make a
statement that Sarah Palin does not speak for all Alaska
women, or men. I had no idea what to expect.
The rally was organized by
a small group of women, talking over coffee. It made
me wonder what other things have started with small groups
of women talking over coffee. It's probably an
impressive list. These women hatched the plan,
printed up flyers, posted them around town, and sent
notices to local media outlets. One of those media
outlets was KBYR radio, home of Eddie Burke, a long-time
uber-conservative Anchorage talk show host. Turns
out that Eddie Burke not only announced the rally, but
called the people who planned to attend the rally "a
bunch of socialist baby-killing maggots," and read
the home phone numbers of the organizers aloud over the
air, urging listeners to call and tell them what they
thought. The women, of course, received some nasty,
harassing and threatening messages.
I felt a bit apprehensive.
I'd been disappointed before by the turnout at other
rallies. Basically, in Anchorage, if you can get 25
people to show up at an event, it's a success. So, I
thought to myself, if we can actually get 100 people there
that aren't sent by Eddie Burke, we'll be doing good. A
real statement will have been made. I confess, I
still had a mental image of 15 demonstrators surrounded by
hundreds of menacing "socialist baby-killing
maggot" haters.
It's a good thing I wasn't
tailgating when I saw the crowd in front of the library or
I would have ended up in somebody's trunk. When I
got there, about 20 minutes early, the line of sign wavers
stretched the full length of the library grounds, along
the edge of the road, 6 or 7 people deep! I could
hardly find a place to park. I nabbed one of the
last spots in the library lot, and as I got out of the car
and started walking, people seemed to join in from every
direction, carrying signs.
Never, have I seen anything
like it in my 17 and a half years living in Anchorage.
The organizers had someone walk the rally with a
counter, and they clicked off well over 1400 people (not
including the 90 counter-demonstrators). This was
the biggest political rally ever, in the history of the
state. I was absolutely stunned. The second
most amazing thing is how many people honked and gave the
thumbs up as they drove by. And even those that
didn't honk looked wide-eyed and awe-struck at the huge
crowd that was growing by the minute. This just doesn't
happen here.
Then, the infamous Eddie
Burke showed up. He tried to talk to the media, and
was instantly surrounded by a group of 20 people who
started shouting O-BA-MA so loud he couldn't be heard.
Then passing cars started honking in a rhythmic pattern of
3, like the Obama chant, while the crowd cheered, hooted
and waved their signs high.
So, if you've been doing
the mathİ Yes. The Alaska Women Reject Palin
rally was significantly bigger than Palin's rally that got
all the national media coverage! So take heart, sit
back, and enjoy the photo gallery. Feel free to
spread the pictures around to anyone who needs to know
that Sarah Palin most definitely does not speak for all
Alaskans. The citizens of Alaska, who know her best, have
things to say.
A bunch of pictures
of that rally:
